Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) Practice Test Questions

1. The narrator of the attached story experiences a variety of feelings about his brother’s appointment to serve as Secretary of Nevada Territory. Among the emotions he describes are these three.

2. Which literary device does the narrator use in this paragraph?

3. The writer wants to create a more formal tone in this paragraph.

Which collection of words from the paragraph has the most informal language and should definitely be replaced to make the tone more formal?

The school board met to talk about funding for after-school programs next year for kids in the district. They determined that, with the current budget, only some of the stuff could be funded. While trying to figure out what to cut, they asked for the students’ input. The students didn’t want to see any of their programs cut, so it’s gonna be a tough fight.

4. Which of these sentences is written following the standard rules of grammar and punctuation?

5. The author needs help writing a thesis statement to come at the end of this introduction paragraph.

Which of these would make the best thesis statement for this essay?

Starting college can be a difficult transition for high school graduates. Life in high school was relatively simple. Parents reminded their kids to get up on time and get to school. Teachers reminded students to turn in their homework and maybe gave extensions if it was forgotten. There was a daily routine that helped everything stay in balance. But in college, much of that disappears and students must find their new normal. Faced with a new level of independence, it can be difficult to juggle classes, studying, work, and a social life without parental supervision or house rules.

6. Which one of these sentences uses correct punctuation?

7. What is a better way to write this sentence? “Me and Alex went to the movies last weekend and saw a great film by our favorite director Steven Spielberg.”

8. Which sentence contains a misplaced modifier?

9. A student is writing a biography about a person she considers to be the most influential person of the twentieth century. She would like to conduct more research to find resources to include in her essay.

Which two sites are the least likely to offer her reliable, factual information she can use in her biographical essay?

Site 1: The Smithsonian Institution website: www.si.edu

Site 2: The blog post of a Hollywood insider: www.insidehw.com

Site 3: The Public Broadcasting Service website: www.pbs.org

Site 4: The archives of the National Library: www.nlb.gov

Site 5: The top 10 most influential people list: www.people.com

10. A student is writing a persuasive essay to the school board about school lunch options. This is a paragraph from that essay. Read the attached paragraph and complete this task:

Which two sentences would be the best pieces of evidence to add to this paragraph?

1. Reports indicate that up to $5 million dollars a day in uneaten food is wasted in American schools.
2. Including more cafeteria staff will help increase the ease with which students can move through the lunch lines and get their food.
3. According to some sources, rates of childhood obesity have tripled in the last thirty years.
4. Students with food allergies face daily challenges when navigating school lunch options.
5. Offering vegetarian and vegan options are expensive suggestions.

11. These six sentences could form a paragraph.

What is the best order to put them in to create an organized, cohesive paragraph?

1. Western culture has only recently “accepted” tattoos.
2. Before the 1970s, tattoos were generally reserved for soldiers or sailors, but their popularity has grown over the past few years.
3. Tattoos are a form of body modification and self-expressive “art.”
4. Now it is common to see tattoos of all shapes and sizes on people from all walks of life.
5. Many cultures have used tattoos as a rite of passage or to indicate social rank or status for hundreds of years.
6. Each has its own significance and meaning to the individual person.

12. A student is writing an editorial for the school newspaper about participating in after-school activities.

Read the attached excerpt from a draft of the editorial and complete this task:

Choose the transition sentence that would best improve the links between the second and third paragraph.

13. Which of these sentences does not use standard capitalization?

14. Which of these sentences uses incorrect parallel structure?

15. Which of these sentences uses the passive voice?

16. Which of these expressions is equivalent to 3×2 – 4xy + y2?

17. You rent a car for the day from a rental company. The rental company charges $35 plus $0.15 per mile driven. Your budget is $80.

Which of the following represents the greatest number of miles, m you can drive the rental car for the day?

18. What is the greatest common factor for 3x²y + 6x⁴y³ – 12xy?

19. If f(x) = (x + 1)2 and g(x) = 3x – 5, what is the value for f(g(4))?

20. Which of these is equivalent to y = x² + 8x – 3?