This breakdown is meant to help you analyze and categorize your mistakes after you’ve taken Practice Test 3 in the Blue Book. The whole idea is that the best thing you can do to improve your score is to understand your weaknesses, and then drill the hell out of them to make them strengths. Click to see similar breakdowns for Blue Book Tests 1 and 2.

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Techniques and concepts
Diff.
2
514
1
I suppose you could backsolve if you wanted to.
1
2
514
2
1
2
515
3
Spatial reasoning is fun!
1
2
515
4
25% is a quarter. A quarter of a circle is a right angle. Which angles are acute?
2
2
515
5
2
2
516
6
2
2
516
7
2
2
516
8
If you’re not immediately sure what (–0.5)2 is, just put it in your calculator..
2
2
516
9
3
2
517
10
3
2
517
11
3
2
517
12
Read the Venn diagram carefully. It might help you to darken the boundaries of A and B.
3
2
517
13
Percents, Backsolve 
3
2
518
14
3
2
518
15
Percents
3
2
518
16
4
2
518
17
4
2
519
18
Draw them and count.
4
2
519
19
4
2
519
20
5
5
525
1
1
5
525
2
1
5
526
3
1
5
526
4
Read the question carefully.
1
5
526
5
4
5
527
6
3
5
527
7
Draw it carefully.
4
5
527
8
FOIL it. Corresponding coefficients will be equal, so (–8 – k) = –5k and m = 8k
5
5
528
9
1
5
528
10
2
5
529
11
2
5
529
12
3
5
529
13
This is a tricky graph. Read it carefully.
2
5
529
14
Write the equation: 5n = n + 5. Solve for n.
3
5
530
15
4
5
530
16
4
5
530
17
For every 4 inches of strip, there are 5 inches of edge. Use ratios.
4
5
530
18
Square’s side = 8, so R is (4, 8). Plug into the equation to solve for a. Parabolas.
4
8
543
1
Do the algebra: (3/4)n = 18.
1
8
543
2
2
8
544
3
Read the graph carefully.
1
8
544
4
Read the question carefully
2
8
544
5
2
8
545
6
2
8
545
7
2
8
545
8
2
8
545
9
3
8
546
10
3
8
546
11
Do the algebra.
3
8
547
12
Reasoning: Can they all be negative? No. All but one? Yes, if the one is big enough.
3
8
547
13
List the combinations methodically.
4
8
547
14
Graph amplification 
3
8
548
15
Follow the pattern remembering that all negative values are less than 100
4
8
548
16
5

Comments (3)

PWN!!!

Did you see yesterday’s QOTD from the College Board??

“Being” was used correctly. It is, i think, the third time I have seen this on a QOTD in the past nine months.  Also, I have seen multiple occurrences of passive voice used in correct answer choices on the QOTD over the same period.

Is this an intentional maneuver in response to tutors advising students to use such cues to ferret out incorrect answer choices?
I have had this suspicion for a while now that the College Board is using the QOTD with such intentions in mind. Seems like a conspiracy theory but yesterday was the final straw for me. I’m a believer now.

JD

This is a little anti-climatic, but the previous correct use of “being” in a Fixing Sentences QOTD was the same sentence. They just recycled the old question. I did find an Error ID QOTD that had “being” underlying and it was not the answer. It was July 29 of last year.

In scrolling through the old questions it did seem as though “being” appeared infrequently (rarely actually) in the wrong answer choices of Fixing Sentence QOTDs. In actual released exams, it seems like “being” shows up at least once among the wrong answers on nearly every other question.

Thanks for pointing that out, JD. I’ve occasionally wondered whether the QOTD was used in that way, but I’ve always put the thought out of my head for reasons similar to yours. While it’s possible that 1) the correct use of “being” is a red herring to foil the prep industry or 2) the test is changing and this is an early indicator of the shift, I don’t think it’s either. Of course, I don’t work at the CB and have no insight into the way they run things, but I have to imagine that the team who puts together the QOTD is a lot smaller and less finely tuned than the team who eventually approves tests for deployment.

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