Mrs. Abbett's Class

The charts below show the results of our second mock PSAE.  Each student should have their individual results from their teaching coaches.  We will be testing again the last week of February.  Incentives will be in place for each student who raises their score from the first two exams.  The more support our students get, the better the results will be.  Please encourage them to visit websites, do practice problems and try their best on the test.  The ACT can determine where they can go to college and how much scholarship money is available to them.

All juniors will take the PSAE in April.  On the first day, they will take the ACT, which is divided into four separate tests.  The first test is English, followed by Math, then Reading, and finally Science.  The test takes over four hours and can be quite stressful for the students if they are not prepared.  We are working very hard this year to make sure the students are ready for the test.  We will be working on the ACT portion of the test both in advisory and in each core subject class.  Our preparation will involve practice questions, test taking strategies, learning how to read the questions, and time management strategies.  The second day of testing is the Workkeys assessment.  This test is much shorter, but just as important as the ACT.  Students will be prepared for the workkeys in all classes, including on-line preparation in their business classes.

We will have three Mock Tests throughout the school year.  There will be incentives for the students based on their scores and amount of improvement.  The juniors will be having a meeting with Mr. Miller and Ms. Missey to discuss the incentives for meeting or exceeding on the actual test.  We hope that the students will feel more relaxed and prepared on the actual test days.  One way I hope to help the students is to put new information, web sites, and practice questions on my web site each quarter.  Please encourage your students to practice for the PSAE at home as well as at school.

Here are a number of websites where ACT practice problems are available. They are as follows:

From ACT’s Website, Daily Question of The Day (It changes everyday all you have to do it click on the website)

http://www.actstudent.org/qotd/  

http://www.testprepreview.com/act_practice.htm

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/question_day.htm

http://www.analyzemath.com/practice_tests/act/act_sample_1.html

http://www.studyguidezone.com/act_math.htm

http://www.act-math-practice.com/

http://www.act.org/compass/sample/math.html

http://www.testprepreview.com/act_practice.htm

 Please encourage your student to visit and explore these websites!

STUDENTS:  THERE WILL BE 10 EXTRA CREDIT POINTS GIVEN TO EACH STUDENT THAT CAN BRING IN ANOTHER WEB SITE WHERE ACT PRACTICE MATH QUESTIONS CAN BE DONE!

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Work Keys Practice Problems

1.         In your job as a delivery driver, you delivered 17 boxes on Monday, 13 boxes on Wednesday, 4 boxes on Thursday, and 11 boxes on Friday.  You are required to track the number of deliveries you make during the week.  How many total deliveries did you make?

a.         34

b.         45

c.         49

d.         56

e.         180

2.         You have been hired to install a fence along one side of a baseball field.  The fence will be 150 feet long, with fence posts placed every 3 feet.  There will be a post at the beginning and at the end of the fence  How many fence posts will you need in all?

a.         50

b.         51

c.         147

d.         153

e.         450 

3.         You work for a music company that produces CDs.  A customer has placed an order for 312 CDs.  If you can pack 24 CDs in a case, how many cases will you need to ship this customers order?

a.         13 cases

b.         24 cases

c.         31 cases

d.         288 cases

e.         312 cases

4.         At the department store where you work, a customer purchased 3 small candles, 2 large candles, 5 hand towels, 3 bath towels, 6 placemats, and 1 tablecloth.  What is the total number of items that your customer purchased?

a.         6

b.         15

c.         20

d.         28

e.         120

5.         Your company sponsored a race for some children in the community.  A total of 47 children participated in the race, and each child received a ribbon.  You handed out 13 red ribbons and 9 white ribbons.  The rest of the ribbons that you handed out were blue.  How many blue ribbons did you hand out?

a.         4

b.         22

c.         25

d.         34

e.         38

6.         Last week you delivered 324 newspapers.  This week you delivered half as many newspapers as you delivered half as many newspapers as you delivered last week.  How many newspapers did you deliver over both weeks?

a.         162

b.         324

c.         342

d.         486

e.         648

7.         You work on a loading dock, and must make sure that all of the freight gets loaded onto trucks.  Seven crates, each weighing 350 pounds, can be loaded onto one truck.  How many trucks are needed to hold a total of 29,400 pounds?

a.         7 trucks

b.         12 trucks

c.         14 trucks

d.         29 trucks

e.         35 trucks

8.         You manage a video store.  After the store closes on Sunday, your inventory system shows 1,950 videos and 2,730 DVDs on hand.  On Monday, your store rents 253 of the videos and 416 of the DVDs.  There are no returns and no new deliveries.  At close of business on Monday, How many videos and DVDs does you store have on hand?

a.         669

b.         780

c.         1,697

d.         2,314

e.         4,011

9.         As a delivery person, you get paid $4.95 for every crate of produce that you deliver.  One day you were paid a total of $113.85.  The next day you were paid a total of $84.15.  How many crates of produce did you deliver over the 2 days?

a.         17

b.         23

c.         29.7

d.         40

e.         49.5

10.       As a general contractor, you will hire a carpenter to hang interior doors.  The carpenter can hang 1 interior door in 12 minutes.  How many total doors can the carpenter hang in 6 hours of work, not accounting for breaks?

a.         11

b.         12

c.         30

d.         60

e.         72

 ACT Practice Problems

A cube is equal in volume to a rectangular solid with edges that measure 4, 6, and 9.  What is the measure of an edge of the cube?

1. 216
2.    36
3.    108
4. 6

Cherie purchased 5 pencils and 2 pens for $5.10.  Dariel purchased 8 of the same type of pencil and 6 of the same type of pen, and spent $13.20.  What is the cost of 2 pencils and 1 pen?

1. $2.10
2.   $3.90
3.   $1.80
4. $2.40

A car averages 27 miles per gallon.  If gas costs $2.69 per gallon, how much would it cost to make a round trip to Atlanta of 1188 miles?

When x = 3 and y = 5, by how much does the value of 3x² – 2y exceed the value of 2x² – 5y?

A furniture store marks up all items 20% above cost.  On January 2, all items were marked down 10% from their regular prices for the after-holidays sale.  On February 1, all items still in stock were marked down an additional 10% from the after-holidays prices for the winder clearance sale.  If the store’s cost for a certain dining room set was $800, what price should be put on this set for the winter clearance sale?

Ivan manages sales for a real estate developer.  His company sells residential lots for new construction.  In one area, the land is priced at $125,000 per acre.  How much should Ivan charge a customer for a rectangular lot that is 80 ft wide and 145 ft deep.  There a 43,560 square feet in an acre.  Round to the nearest dollar.

If (a – b)² = 64 and ab = 3, find a² + b².

What is the value of f(x) = 4x³ + 8x² + 2x + 3 at x = –2?
A. –17
B. –1
C. 3
D. 7

Cherie is going to make a model cube out of toothpicks and marshmallows.  She will use one toothpick for each edge of the cube and one marshmallow for each vertex.  How many toothpicks and marshmallows will Cherie need?

1. 4 toothpicks, 4 marshmallows
2. 8 toothpicks, 6 marshmallows
3. 8 toothpicks, 8 marshmallows
4. 12 toothpicks, 8 marshmallows
5. 12 toothpicks, 10 marshmallows

Catrina loves to read and always has a stack of books from the library.  She reads 50 pages every night, and the books she reads have about 250 pages each.  At this rate, about how many weeks will it take Catrina to finish 100 books?

1. 36 weeks
2. 72 weeks
3. 100 weeks
4. 140 weeks
5. 200 weeks

PSAE Math Prep Timeline

• Set a purpose (Aug)
  • Discuss the importance of the test for their futures
  • Explain scoring. Remind the students that there is no advantage in leaving questions blank.  Fill in all answers before time is called.
  • 60 problems in 60 minutes
  • Correctly answering 31 of the 60 total questions equates to a math score of 20
    • Note that 31/60 would be an F on a traditional in-class assessment
      • The point?  Don’t give up!  It’s simple to gain ground quickly even if you answer a few in a row incorrectly!
• Explain layout (Sept)
  • 14 Pre-Algebra questions.
  • 10 Elementary Algebra questions
  • 9 Intermediate Algebra questions
  • 9 Coordinate Geometry questions
  • 14 Plane Geometry questions
  • 4 Trigonometry questions
  • With 60 minutes to complete the math test, you have one minute per question
• Practice Pre-Algebra questions (Sept/Oct)
  • Ordering numbers
  • GCF and LCM
  • Percents
  • Simple probability
  • Charts, tables and graphs
  • Mean, median, and mode
• Elementary Algebra (Oct/Nov)
  • Using variables to express relationships
  • Substituting the value of a variable in an expression
  • Performing basic operations on polynomials
  • Factoring polynomials
  • Solving simple linear and quadratic equations
  • Solving linear inequalities
  • Applying properties of integer exponents and square roots.
• Coordinate Geometry (Nov/Dec)
  • Number line graphs
  • Graphs of points, lines, polynomials, and circles.
  • Slope
  • Parallel and Perpendicular lines
  • Distance and Midpoint formulas
  • Transformations
  • Conics
• Plane Geometry (Jan)
  • Properties and relations of plane figures
  • Angles
  • Proof techniques
  • Three dimensional geometry
  • Perimeter, area, and volume
• Trigonometry (Feb)
  • Trigonometric ratios defined for right triangles
  • Values, Properties, and graphs of the trigonometric functions
  • Trigonometric identities
  • Trigonometric equations
  • Modeling with trigonometric functions
• Test taking strategies (Mar)
  • Translating the questions
  • Time management
  • Writing your work in the booklet
  • Calculator use
  • Guessing strategies
  • Promote incentives