Information and Ideas

SAT Command of Evidence: Quantitative Practice — Drill 4

10 original Command of Evidence: Quantitative questions, easiest first. Read a table or graph and pick the choice the data actually supports. Answer them all, then submit once to see every answer explained.

Question 1

Command of Evidence: Quantitative · Medium

A retailer tracked customer complaints before and after redesigning its return policy webpage:

Month 1 (before change) 310 complaints
Month 2 (before change) 298 complaints
Month 3 (after change) 145 complaints
Month 4 (after change) 132 complaints

A customer service manager claims the redesigned webpage caused a decrease in complaints.

Does the data support the manager's claim?

  1. A Yes, because complaints stayed exactly the same after the change.
  2. B Yes, because complaints were notably lower in the two months after the change than in the two months before it.
  3. C No, because complaints were higher after the change than before it.
  4. D No, because the data only covers a single month.

Question 2

Command of Evidence: Quantitative · Medium

A survey measured how many minutes per day respondents spent reading print newspapers, grouped by age:

18–29 3 min
30–49 9 min
50–64 21 min
65+ 14 min

A columnist claims that time spent reading print newspapers rises without exception as age increases.

Do the figures support the columnist's claim?

  1. A Yes, since the 65+ group reads the longest of any group.
  2. B No, since every age group reported the same reading time.
  3. C No, since the figure drops from the 50–64 group to the 65+ group, breaking the upward pattern.
  4. D Yes, since each age group reads longer than the one before it.

Question 3

Command of Evidence: Quantitative · Medium

A researcher recorded the number of active volunteer groups and the total acres of parkland restored in a city over four years:

Year 1 14 groups, 22 acres
Year 2 21 groups, 30 acres
Year 3 19 groups, 41 acres
Year 4 27 groups, 35 acres

A parks official claims that years with more volunteer groups always resulted in more acres restored.

Does the data support the parks official's claim?

  1. A No, because the number of groups was identical across all four years.
  2. B No, because Year 3 had fewer groups than Year 2 but more acres restored, contradicting a simple always-increasing relationship.
  3. C Yes, because every year with more groups also had more acres restored than the previous year.
  4. D Yes, because Year 4 had both the most groups and the most acres restored.

Question 4

Command of Evidence: Quantitative · Medium

A researcher measured average test scores for students who reported different amounts of nightly sleep during exam week:

Under 5 hrs 68 points
5–6 hrs 74 points
7–8 hrs 85 points
Over 9 hrs 79 points

A tutor claims that test scores increase continuously the more a student sleeps.

Does the data support the tutor's claim?

  1. A No, because all four groups scored exactly the same.
  2. B No, because scores rise from under 5 hours up to 7–8 hours, but then fall for students who slept over 9 hours.
  3. C Yes, because the group that slept the most scored higher than the group that slept the least.
  4. D Yes, because scores increased in a perfectly steady pattern across all four groups.

Question 5

Command of Evidence: Quantitative · Medium

A survey asked residents of four towns how many minutes, on average, they spend walking for errands per week, and cross-referenced this with the number of sidewalk-connected businesses within a half mile of the town center:

Town A 4 connected businesses, 32 min/week
Town B 11 connected businesses, 58 min/week
Town C 19 connected businesses, 95 min/week
Town D 27 connected businesses, 140 min/week

Which choice best describes the relationship shown in the data?

  1. A As the number of sidewalk-connected businesses increases, average weekly walking time also increases.
  2. B Towns with fewer connected businesses reported the highest walking times.
  3. C As the number of sidewalk-connected businesses increases, average weekly walking time decreases.
  4. D There is no relationship between sidewalk connectivity and walking time.

Question 6

Command of Evidence: Quantitative · Medium

A study tracked the percentage of survey respondents who reported feeling confident using new software, broken down by whether they had received hands-on training:

No training, under 40 24%
No training, 40+ 19%
Training, under 40 61%
Training, 40+ 58%

Which choice best describes the relationship shown in the table?

  1. A Age group had a larger effect on confidence than training did.
  2. B Confidence levels were identical regardless of training completion.
  3. C Respondents who received hands-on training reported lower confidence than those who had not.
  4. D Respondents who received hands-on training reported substantially higher confidence than those who had not, regardless of age group.

Question 7

Command of Evidence: Quantitative · Medium

A city compared the number of graffiti removal requests per month before and after installing additional street lighting:

3 months before installation 64, 58, 71 requests
3 months after installation 21, 18, 24 requests

A city official claims that additional street lighting roughly quartered the monthly graffiti request rate.

Does the data support the official's claim?

  1. A No, because the number of requests increased after installation.
  2. B No, because there is not enough data to calculate an average.
  3. C Yes, because the number of requests was identical before and after installation.
  4. D Yes, because the average monthly requests after installation (about 21) is roughly a quarter of the average before installation (about 64).

Question 8

Command of Evidence: Quantitative · Medium

A researcher recorded the number of wildfires and the total acres burned in a region over four years:

Year 1 120 fires, 45,000 acres
Year 2 95 fires, 61,000 acres
Year 3 140 fires, 52,000 acres
Year 4 88 fires, 78,000 acres

A journalist claims that years with more wildfires always resulted in more acres burned.

Does the data support the journalist's claim?

  1. A No, because Year 4 had the fewest fires but the most acres burned, contradicting the claim.
  2. B Yes, because every year with more fires also had more acres burned than the previous year.
  3. C Yes, because Year 3 had both the most fires and the most acres burned.
  4. D No, because the number of fires was identical across all four years.

Question 9

Command of Evidence: Quantitative · Medium

A researcher measured average concentration-test scores for office workers who reported different levels of background noise at their desks:

Silent 65 points
Low noise 74 points
Moderate noise 81 points
High noise 58 points

A workplace consultant claims that concentration scores increase continuously the more background noise a worker has.

Does the data support the consultant's claim?

  1. A Yes, because scores increased in a perfectly steady pattern across all four groups.
  2. B Yes, because the group with the most noise scored higher than the group with silence.
  3. C No, because scores rise from silent to moderate noise, but then fall sharply for workers with high noise.
  4. D No, because all four groups scored exactly the same.

Question 10

Command of Evidence: Quantitative · Medium

A researcher recorded the number of community workshops held and the number of new small business registrations in a district over four quarters:

Q1 2 workshops, 14 registrations
Q2 5 workshops, 26 registrations
Q3 4 workshops, 21 registrations
Q4 8 workshops, 39 registrations

Which choice best describes the relationship shown in the table?

  1. A As the number of workshops held increased, the number of new business registrations generally also increased.
  2. B There is no discernible pattern between workshops and registrations in the table.
  3. C As the number of workshops held increased, the number of new business registrations generally decreased.
  4. D The number of new business registrations remained constant across all quarters.

Command of Evidence: Quantitative Drill 4 FAQ

Are these real, previously administered SAT questions?

No. Every question here is original, written to the College Board's published Digital SAT Reading & Writing specification for the Command of Evidence: Quantitative skill. No retired or copyrighted College Board material appears anywhere on this site.

What does the Command of Evidence: Quantitative question type actually test?

Command of Evidence (Quantitative) pairs a short passage with a table or graph and asks which choice most effectively uses that data to complete or support a stated claim. No arithmetic beyond comparison is required — it is a reading question about a data display, not a maths question.

How should I approach Command of Evidence: Quantitative questions?

Read the title, the axis labels, the units and the column headers before you read a single answer choice; most wrong answers survive only because the reader assumed what the numbers measured. Then find the specific comparison the claim needs, locate exactly those cells or points, and check each choice against them.

Is Command of Evidence: Quantitative Drill 4 the same length as a real SAT module?

No, and deliberately so. This drill is 10 Command of Evidence: Quantitative questions back to back; a real Reading & Writing module is 27 questions in 32 minutes drawn from all eleven skills. Use a drill to fix one weakness, then take a full module to practice the real thing.

Does guessing hurt my SAT score?

No. The SAT has no penalty for a wrong answer — a blank and a wrong guess both score zero — so answer every question, including the ones you have to guess.

This drill
10 questions
Command of Evidence: Quantitative · Information and Ideas
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