Question ID 752cef17

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

PSAT 8/9 Math Geometry and Area and volume Hard

Trigonometry

ID: 752cef17

A circle has a radius of meters. What is the area, in square meters, of the circle?

A.

B.

C.

D.

ID: 752cef17 Answer

Correct Answer: D

Rationale

Choice D is correct. The area, , of a circle is given by the formula , where is the radius of the circle. It’s given
that the circle has a radius of meters. Substituting for in the formula yields , or
. Therefore, the area, in square meters, of the circle is .

Choice A is incorrect. This is the area, in square meters, of a circle with a radius of meters.

Choice B is incorrect. This is the area, in square meters, of a circle with a radius of meters.

Choice C is incorrect. This is the circumference, in meters, of the circle.

Question Difficulty: Hard

Question ID 4c46a790
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

PSAT 8/9 Math Geometry and Lines, angles, and Hard

Trigonometry triangles

ID: 4c46a790

In right triangle , angle is the right angle and . Point on side is connected by a
line segment with point on side such that line segment is parallel to side and
. What is the length of line segment ?

ID: 4c46a790 Answer

Correct Answer: 54

Rationale

The correct answer is . It’s given that in triangle , point on side is connected by a line segment with point
on side such that line segment is parallel to side . It follows that parallel segments and are
intersected by sides and . If two parallel segments are intersected by a third segment, corresponding angles are
congruent. Thus, corresponding angles and are congruent and corresponding angles and are
congruent. Since triangle has two angles that are each congruent to an angle in triangle , triangle is
similar to triangle by the angle-angle similarity postulate, where side corresponds to side , and side
corresponds to side . Since the lengths of corresponding sides in similar triangles are proportional, it follows that
. Since point lies on side , . It's given that . Substituting for
in the equation yields , or . It’s given that . Substituting
for and for in the equation yields , or . Multiplying both sides of
this equation by yields . Thus, the length of line segment is .

Question Difficulty: Hard

Question ID 0e245a77
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

PSAT 8/9 Math Geometry and Lines, angles, and Medium

Trigonometry triangles

ID: 0e245a77

In the figure, two lines intersect at a point. If , what is the value of ?

A.

B.

C.

D.

ID: 0e245a77 Answer

Correct Answer: D

Rationale

Choice D is correct. In the figure shown, the angles with measures and are vertical angles. Since vertical angles
are congruent, . Therefore, if , the value of is .

Choice A is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

Choice B is incorrect. This is the measure, in degrees, of an angle that's supplementary, not congruent, to the angle with
measure .

Choice C is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

Question Difficulty: Medium

Question ID 5def1eea
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

PSAT 8/9 Math Geometry and Right triangles and Medium

Trigonometry trigonometry

ID: 5def1eea

A right triangle has legs with lengths of centimeters and centimeters. What is the length of this
triangle's hypotenuse, in centimeters?

A.

B.

C.

D.

ID: 5def1eea Answer

Correct Answer: B

Rationale

Choice B is correct. The Pythagorean theorem states that for a right triangle, , where represents the
length of the hypotenuse and and represent the lengths of the legs. It’s given that a right triangle has legs with
lengths of centimeters and centimeters. Substituting for and for in the formula yields
, which is equivalent to , or . Taking the square root of each side of this equation
yields . Since represents a length, must be positive. Therefore, the length of the triangle’s hypotenuse, in
centimeters, is .

Choice A is incorrect. This is the result of solving the equation , not .

Choice C is incorrect. This is the result of solving the equation , not .

Choice D is incorrect. This is the result of solving the equation , not .

Question Difficulty: Medium

Question ID bd731427
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

PSAT 8/9 Math Geometry and Area and volume Hard

Trigonometry

ID: bd731427

A right circular cylinder has a volume of cubic centimeters. The area of the base of the cylinder is
square centimeters. What is the height, in centimeters, of the cylinder?

A.

B.

C.

D.

ID: bd731427 Answer

Correct Answer: A

Rationale

Choice A is correct. The volume, , of a right circular cylinder is given by the formula , where is the area
of the base of the cylinder and is the height. It’s given that a right circular cylinder has a volume of cubic
centimeters and the area of the base is square centimeters. Substituting for and for in the formula
yields . Dividing both sides of this equation by yields . Therefore, the height of the
cylinder, in centimeters, is .

Choice B is incorrect. This is the area of the base, in square centimeters, not the height, in centimeters, of the cylinder.

Choice C is incorrect. This is the height, in centimeters, of a cylinder if its volume is cubic centimeters and the area
of its base is , not , cubic centimeters.

Choice D is incorrect. This is the height, in centimeters, of a cylinder if its volume is cubic centimeters and the area
of its base is , not , cubic centimeters.

Question Difficulty: Hard

Question ID ebcbcf82
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

PSAT 8/9 Math Geometry and Area and volume Hard

Trigonometry

ID: ebcbcf82

Circle has a radius of and circle has a radius of , where is a positive constant. The area of
circle is how many times the area of circle ?
A.

B.

C.

D.

ID: ebcbcf82 Answer

Correct Answer: D

Rationale

Choice D is correct. The area of a circle can be found by using the formula , where is the area and is the
radius of the circle. It’s given that the radius of circle A is . Substituting this value for into the formula gives
, or . It’s also given that the radius of circle B is . Substituting this value for into the formula
gives , or . Dividing the area of circle B by the area of circle A gives , which
simplifies to . Therefore, the area of circle B is times the area of circle A.

Choice A is incorrect. This is how many times greater the radius of circle B is than the radius of circle A.

Choice B is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

Choice C is incorrect. This is the coefficient on the term that describes the radius of circle B.

Question Difficulty: Hard

Question ID 630ce120
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

PSAT 8/9 Math Geometry and Right triangles and Hard

Trigonometry trigonometry

ID: 630ce120

The length of a rectangle’s diagonal is , and the length of the rectangle’s shorter side is . What is
the length of the rectangle’s longer side?

ID: 630ce120 Answer

Correct Answer: 12

Rationale

The correct answer is . The diagonal of a rectangle forms a right triangle, where the shorter side and the longer side of
the rectangle are the legs of the triangle and the diagonal of the rectangle is the hypotenuse of the triangle. It's given that
the length of the rectangle's diagonal is and the length of the rectangle's shorter side is . Thus, the length of the
hypotenuse of the right triangle formed by the diagonal is and the length of one of the legs is . By the
Pythagorean theorem, if a right triangle has a hypotenuse with length and legs with lengths and , then

. Substituting for and for in this equation yields , or . Subtracting

from both sides of this equation yields . Taking the square root of both sides of this equation yields
, or . Since represents a length, which must be positive, the value of is . Thus, the length of
the rectangle's longer side is .

Question Difficulty: Hard

Question ID cf63d338
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

PSAT 8/9 Math Geometry and Area and volume Hard

Trigonometry

ID: cf63d338

A rectangular poster has an area of square inches. A copy of the poster is made in which the length
and width of the original poster are each increased by . What is the area of the copy, in square
inches?

ID: cf63d338 Answer

Correct Answer: 2592/5, 518.4

Rationale

The correct answer is . It's given that the area of the original poster is square inches. Let 𝓁 represent the
length, in inches, of the original poster, and let represent the width, in inches, of the original poster. Since the area of a
rectangle is equal to its length times its width, it follows that 𝓁 . It's also given that a copy of the poster is made
in which the length and width of the original poster are each increased by . It follows that the length of the copy is
the length of the original poster plus of the length of the original poster, which is equivalent to 𝓁 𝓁 inches.
This length can be rewritten as 𝓁 𝓁 inches, or 𝓁 inches. Similarly, the width of the copy is the width of the original
poster plus of the width of the original poster, which is equivalent to inches. This width can be rewritten
as inches, or inches. Since the area of a rectangle is equal to its length times its width, it follows that the
area, in square inches, of the copy is equal to 𝓁 , which can be rewritten as 𝓁 . Since 𝓁
, the area, in square inches, of the copy can be found by substituting for 𝓁 in the expression 𝓁 , which
yields , or . Therefore, the area of the copy, in square inches, is .

Question Difficulty: Hard

Question ID 377c4069
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

PSAT 8/9 Math Geometry and Right triangles and Medium

Trigonometry trigonometry

ID: 377c4069

The lengths of the legs of a right triangle are shown. Which of the following is closest to the length of the
triangle's hypotenuse?
A.

B.

C.

D.

ID: 377c4069 Answer

Correct Answer: C

Rationale

Choice C is correct. The Pythagorean theorem states that for a right triangle, , where and represent the
lengths of the legs of the triangle and represents the length of its hypotenuse. In the triangle shown, the legs have
lengths of and . Substituting for and for in the equation yields , which is
equivalent to , or . Taking the positive square root of both sides of this equation yields .
Thus, the value of is approximately . Therefore, of the given choices, is the closest to the length of the triangle's
hypotenuse.

Choice A is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

Choice B is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

Choice D is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

Question Difficulty: Medium

Question ID beae147d
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

PSAT 8/9 Math Geometry and Area and volume Hard

Trigonometry

ID: beae147d

The line segment shown in the xy-plane represents one of the legs of a right triangle. The area of this
triangle is square units. What is the length, in units, of the other leg of this triangle?
A.

B.

C.

D.

ID: beae147d Answer

Correct Answer: B

Rationale

Choice B is correct. The length of a segment in the xy-plane can be found using the distance formula,

, where and are the endpoints of the segment. The segment shown has
endpoints at and . Substituting and for and , respectively, in the

distance formula yields , or , which is equivalent to , or . Let

represent the length, in units, of the other leg of this triangle. The area, , of a right triangle can be calculated using the
formula , where and are the lengths of the legs of the triangle. It's given that the area of the triangle is
square units. Substituting for , for , and for in the formula yields
. Multiplying both sides of this equation by yields . Dividing both sides of
this equation by yields . Multiplying the numerator and denominator on the left-hand side of this

equation by yields , or , which is equivalent to , or . Therefore, the

length, in units, of the other leg of this triangle is .

Choice A is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

Choice C is incorrect. is equivalent to , which is the length, in units, of the line segment shown in the xy-
plane, not the length, in units, of the other leg of the triangle.

Choice D is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

Question Difficulty: Hard

Question ID f52bcdc0
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

PSAT 8/9 Math Geometry and Lines, angles, and Hard

Trigonometry triangles

ID: f52bcdc0

In the figure, , the measure of angle is , and the measure of angle is . What
is the value of ?

ID: f52bcdc0 Answer

Correct Answer: 156

Rationale

The correct answer is . In the figure shown, the sum of the measures of angle and angle is . It’s
given that the measure of angle is . Therefore, the measure of angle is , or . The sum
of the measures of the interior angles of a triangle is . In triangle , the measure of angle is and it's
given that the measure of angle is . Thus, the measure of angle is , or . It’s given
that . Therefore, triangle is an isosceles triangle and the measure of is equal to the measure of
angle . In triangle , the measure of angle is and the measure of angle is . Thus, the
measure of angle is , or . The figure shows that the measure of angle is , so the
value of is .

Question Difficulty: Hard

Question ID 8cbc6dc5
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

PSAT 8/9 Math Geometry and Right triangles and Medium

Trigonometry trigonometry

ID: 8cbc6dc5

For the right triangle shown, and . Which expression represents the value of ?
A.

B.

C.

D.

ID: 8cbc6dc5 Answer

Correct Answer: D

Rationale

Choice D is correct. By the Pythagorean theorem, if a right triangle has a hypotenuse with length and legs with lengths
and , then . In the right triangle shown, the hypotenuse has length and the legs have lengths and .
It's given that and . Substituting for and for in the Pythagorean theorem yields . Taking
the square root of both sides of this equation yields . Since the length of a side of a triangle must be
positive, the value of is .

Choice A is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

Choice B is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

Choice C is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

Question Difficulty: Medium

Question ID b23cbeba
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

PSAT 8/9 Math Geometry and Area and volume Hard

Trigonometry

ID: b23cbeba

A right circular cylinder has a base diameter of centimeters and a height of centimeters. What is the
volume, in cubic centimeters, of the cylinder?

A.

B.

C.

D.

ID: b23cbeba Answer

Correct Answer: C

Rationale

Choice C is correct. The volume, , of a right circular cylinder is given by the formula , where is the radius of
the base of the cylinder and is the height of the cylinder. It's given that a right circular cylinder has a height of
centimeters. Therefore, . It's also given that the cylinder has a base diameter of centimeters. The radius of a
circle is half the diameter of the circle. Since the base of a right circular cylinder is a circle, it follows that the radius of the
base of the right circular cylinder is , or , centimeters. Therefore, . Substituting for and for in the
formula yields , which is equivalent to , or . Therefore, the
volume, in cubic centimeters, of the cylinder is .

Choice A is incorrect. This is the volume of a right circular cylinder that has a base diameter of , not ,
centimeters and a height of centimeters.

Choice B is incorrect. This is the volume of a right circular cylinder that has a base diameter of , not ,
centimeters and a height of centimeters.

Choice D is incorrect. This is the volume of a right circular cylinder that has a base diameter of , not , centimeters
and a height of centimeters.

Question Difficulty: Hard

Question ID ee0f7ad7
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

PSAT 8/9 Math Geometry and Area and volume Hard

Trigonometry

ID: ee0f7ad7

A cylinder has a diameter of inches and a height of inches. What is the volume, in cubic inches, of
the cylinder?

A.

B.

C.

D.

ID: ee0f7ad7 Answer

Correct Answer: C

Rationale

Choice C is correct. The base of a cylinder is a circle with a diameter equal to the diameter of the cylinder. The volume, ,
of a cylinder can be found by multiplying the area of the circular base, , by the height of the cylinder, , or . The
area of a circle can be found using the formula , where is the radius of the circle. It’s given that the diameter of
the cylinder is inches. Thus, the radius of this circle is inches. Therefore, the area of the circular base of the cylinder is
, or square inches. It’s given that the height of the cylinder is inches. Substituting for and
for in the formula gives , or cubic inches.

Choice A is incorrect. This is the area of the circular base of the cylinder.

Choice B is incorrect and may result from using , instead of , as the value of in the formula for the area of a circle.

Choice D is incorrect and may result from using , instead of , for the radius of the circular base.

Question Difficulty: Hard

Question ID 738229cb
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

PSAT 8/9 Math Geometry and Lines, angles, and Hard

Trigonometry triangles

ID: 738229cb

In the figure shown, and intersect at point . , , , and

. What is the length of ?

ID: 738229cb Answer

Correct Answer: 54

Rationale

The correct answer is . The figure shown includes two triangles, triangle and triangle , such that angle
and angle are vertical angles. It follows that angle is congruent to angle . It’s also given in
the figure that the measures of angle and angle are . Therefore angle is congruent to angle . Since triangle
and triangle have two pairs of congruent angles, triangle is similar to triangle by the angle-
angle similarity postulate, where corresponds to , and corresponds to . Since the lengths of
corresponding sides in similar triangles are proportional, it follows that . It’s given that ,
, and . Substituting for , for , and for in the equation yields
. Multiplying each side of this equation by yields , or . Therefore, the length of
is .

Question Difficulty: Hard

Question ID f9addc5d
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

PSAT 8/9 Math Geometry and Lines, angles, and Medium

Trigonometry triangles

ID: f9addc5d

In the right triangle shown, what is the value of ?

A.

B.

C.

D.

ID: f9addc5d Answer

Correct Answer: B

Rationale

Choice B is correct. The triangle shown is a right triangle, where the interior angle shown with a right angle symbol has a
measure of . It's shown that the other two interior angles measure and . The sum of the measures of the
interior angles of a triangle is ; therefore, . Combining like terms on the left-hand side of this
equation yields . Subtracting from both sides of this equation yields .

Choice A is incorrect. This is the measure, in degrees, of the other acute interior angle of the right triangle, not the value
of .

Choice C is incorrect. This is the measure, in degrees, of the right angle of the right triangle, not the value of .

Choice D is incorrect. This is the sum of the measures, in degrees, of the other two interior angles of the right triangle, not
the value of .

Question Difficulty: Medium

Question ID 4ce3d4ed
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

PSAT 8/9 Math Geometry and Right triangles and Hard

Trigonometry trigonometry

ID: 4ce3d4ed

A rectangle is inscribed in a circle, such that each vertex of the rectangle lies on the circumference of the
circle. The diagonal of the rectangle is twice the length of the shortest side of the rectangle. The area of
the rectangle is square units. What is the length, in units, of the diameter of the circle?

ID: 4ce3d4ed Answer

Correct Answer: 66

Rationale

The correct answer is . It's given that each vertex of the rectangle lies on the circumference of the circle. Therefore, the
length of the diameter of the circle is equal to the length of the diagonal of the rectangle. The diagonal of a rectangle
forms a right triangle with the shortest and longest sides of the rectangle, where the shortest side and the longest side of
the rectangle are the legs of the triangle and the diagonal of the rectangle is the hypotenuse of the triangle. Let
represent the length, in units, of the shortest side of the rectangle. Since it's given that the diagonal is twice the length of
the shortest side, represents the length, in units, of the diagonal of the rectangle. By the Pythagorean theorem, if a
right triangle has a hypotenuse with length and legs with lengths and , then . Substituting for and
for in this equation yields , or . Subtracting from both sides of this equation
yields . Taking the positive square root of both sides of this equation yields . Therefore, the length, in
units, of the rectangle’s longest side is . The area of a rectangle is the product of the length of the shortest side and
the length of the longest side. The lengths, in units, of the shortest and longest sides of the rectangle are represented by
and , and it’s given that the area of the rectangle is square units. It follows that ,
or . Dividing both sides of this equation by yields . Taking the positive square root of
both sides of this equation yields . Since the length, in units, of the diagonal is represented by , it follows that
the length, in units, of the diagonal is , or . Since the length of the diameter of the circle is equal to the length of
the diagonal of the rectangle, the length, in units, of the diameter of the circle is .

Question Difficulty: Hard

Question ID 9b9a8aef
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

PSAT 8/9 Math Geometry and Area and volume Hard

Trigonometry

ID: 9b9a8aef

What is the area, in square units, of the triangle formed by connecting the three points shown?

ID: 9b9a8aef Answer

Correct Answer: 24.5, 49/2

Rationale

The correct answer is . It's given that a triangle is formed by connecting the three points shown, which are ,
, and . Let this triangle be triangle A. The area of triangle A can be found by calculating the area of the
rectangle that circumscribes it and subtracting the areas of the three triangles that are inside the rectangle but outside
triangle A. The rectangle formed by the points , , , and circumscribes triangle A. The
width, in units, of this rectangle can be found by calculating the distance between the points and . This
distance is , or . The length, in units, of this rectangle can be found by calculating the distance between the
points and . This distance is , or . It follows that the area, in square units, of the rectangle is
, or . One of the triangles that lies inside the rectangle but outside triangle A is formed by the points ,
, and . The length, in units, of a base of this triangle can be found by calculating the distance between the
points and . This distance is , or . The corresponding height, in units, of this triangle can be found by
calculating the distance between the points and . This distance is , or . It follows that the area,
in square units, of this triangle is , or . A second triangle that lies inside the rectangle but outside triangle A is
formed by the points , , and . The length, in units, of a base of this triangle can be found by
calculating the distance between the points and . This distance is , or . The corresponding
height, in units, of this triangle can be found by calculating the distance between the points and . This
distance is , or . It follows that the area, in square units, of this triangle is , or . The third triangle that lies
inside the rectangle but outside triangle A is formed by the points , , and . The length, in units,
of a base of this triangle can be found by calculating the distance between the points and . This
distance is , or . The corresponding height, in units, of this triangle can be found by calculating the distance
between the points and . This distance is , or . It follows that the area, in square units, of
this triangle is , or . Thus, the area, in square units, of the triangle formed by connecting the three points
shown is , or . Note that 24.5 and 49/2 are examples of ways to enter a correct answer.

Question Difficulty: Hard

Question ID 44a14b05
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

PSAT 8/9 Math Geometry and Lines, angles, and Hard

Trigonometry triangles

ID: 44a14b05

In the figure, intersects at point , and is parallel to . The lengths of , , and

are , , and , respectively. What is the length of ?
A.

B.

C.

D.

ID: 44a14b05 Answer

Correct Answer: D

Rationale

Choice D is correct. The figure shows that angle and angle are vertical angles. Since vertical angles are
congruent, angle and angle are congruent. It’s given that is parallel to . The figure also shows that
intersects and . If two parallel segments are intersected by a third segment, alternate interior angles are
congruent. Thus, alternate interior angles and are congruent. Since triangles and have two
pairs of congruent angles, the triangles are similar. Sides and in triangle correspond to sides and
, respectively, in triangle . Since the lengths of corresponding sides in similar triangles are proportional, it
follows that . It's given that the lengths of , , and are , , and , respectively. Substituting for
, for , and for in the equation yields . Multiplying each side of this equation by
yields , or . It's given that intersects at point , so . Substituting
for and for in this equation yields , or . Therefore, the length of is .

Choice A is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

Choice B is incorrect. This is the length of , not .

Choice C is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

Question Difficulty: Hard

Question ID 33ddd1e0
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

PSAT 8/9 Math Geometry and Area and volume Hard

Trigonometry

ID: 33ddd1e0

The length of each edge of a box is inches. Each side of the box is in the shape of a square. The box
does not have a lid. What is the exterior surface area, in square inches, of this box without a lid?

ID: 33ddd1e0 Answer

Correct Answer: 4205

Rationale

The correct answer is . The exterior surface area of a figure is the sum of the areas of all its faces. It's given that
the box does not have a lid and that each side of the box is in the shape of a square. Therefore, the box consists of
congruent square faces. It's also given that the length of each edge is inches. Let represent the length of an edge of
a square. It follows that the area of a square is equal to . Therefore, the area of each of the square faces is equal to
, or , square inches. Since the box consists of congruent square faces, it follows that the sum of the areas of all
its faces, or the exterior surface area of this box without a lid, is , or , square inches.

Question Difficulty: Hard