Information and Ideas

SAT Command of Evidence: Quantitative Practice — Drill 6

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 return requests before and after redesigning its online size guide:

Month 1 (before change) 640 returns
Month 2 (before change) 615 returns
Month 3 (after change) 390 returns
Month 4 (after change) 355 returns

A customer service manager claims the redesigned size guide caused a decrease in returns.

Does the data support the manager's claim?

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

Question 2

Command of Evidence: Quantitative · Medium

A meal-kit company tracked the percentage of subscribers who renewed their monthly subscription, broken down by how many meal-kit deliveries they had used in their first three months:

1–3 deliveries 19% renewed
4–6 deliveries 47% renewed
7–9 deliveries 66% renewed
10+ deliveries 79% renewed

Which choice best describes the relationship shown in the table?

  1. A Renewal rate generally decreases as the number of deliveries used increases.
  2. B Renewal rate was identical across all delivery-count groups.
  3. C Subscribers who used fewest deliveries had the highest renewal rate.
  4. D Renewal rate generally increases as the number of deliveries used increases.

Question 3

Command of Evidence: Quantitative · Medium

A researcher recorded average monthly temperature and the number of reported pipe-burst repair calls in a city across four months:

November 42°F, 11 calls
December 28°F, 34 calls
January 19°F, 58 calls
February 24°F, 45 calls

A plumbing company claims that repair calls are strongly associated with temperature, with lower temperatures linked to more calls.

Does the data support the plumbing company's claim?

  1. A Yes, because months with lower temperatures generally also had more repair calls.
  2. B Yes, because all four months had identical numbers of calls.
  3. C No, because January had both the highest temperature and the most repair calls.
  4. D No, because temperature was identical across all four months.

Question 4

Command of Evidence: Quantitative · Medium

A researcher recorded average weekly rainfall and the number of reported storm drain clogs in a city across four weeks:

Week 1 0.4 in. rain, 8 clogs
Week 2 1.6 in. rain, 22 clogs
Week 3 2.9 in. rain, 41 clogs
Week 4 0.2 in. rain, 5 clogs

A public works official claims that storm drain clogs are strongly associated with rainfall, with more rainfall linked to more clogs.

Does the data support the official's claim?

  1. A No, because rainfall was identical across all four weeks.
  2. B No, because Week 4 had both the highest rainfall and the fewest clogs.
  3. C Yes, because all four weeks had identical numbers of clogs.
  4. D Yes, because weeks with more rainfall generally also had more clogs.

Question 5

Command of Evidence: Quantitative · Medium

A study tracked the percentage of survey respondents who reported regularly using a public library, broken down by distance from the nearest branch:

Under 0.5 mi 52%
0.5–1 mi 38%
1–2 mi 33%
Over 2 mi 41%

A columnist claims that the data show library use decreases steadily as distance from a branch increases.

Does the table support the columnist's claim?

  1. A Yes, because each distance group shows a lower percentage than the one before it.
  2. B No, because all four distance groups reported exactly the same percentage.
  3. C Yes, because the over-2-mile group has the lowest percentage of the four groups.
  4. D No, because the percentage does not decrease steadily; it drops through the first three groups but then rises for the farthest group.

Question 6

Command of Evidence: Quantitative · Medium

A city compared the number of potholes repaired per month before and after switching to a new road-maintenance scheduling system:

3 months before switch 52, 48, 55 repairs
3 months after switch 89, 94, 86 repairs

A city official claims that the new scheduling system roughly doubled the monthly repair rate.

Does the data support the official's claim?

  1. A No, because the number of repairs decreased after the switch.
  2. B Yes, because the number of repairs was identical before and after the switch.
  3. C Yes, because the average monthly repairs after the switch (about 90) is roughly double the average before the switch (about 52).
  4. D No, because there is not enough data to calculate an average.

Question 7

Command of Evidence: Quantitative · Medium

A field study measured the number of butterfly sightings per hour in three meadow plots with different levels of mowing frequency:

No mowing 38 sightings/hour
Occasional mowing 24 sightings/hour
Frequent mowing 9 sightings/hour

An ecologist claims that as mowing frequency increases, butterfly sightings decrease.

Does the table support the ecologist's claim?

  1. A Yes, because the frequent-mowing plot had more sightings than the no-mowing plot.
  2. B Yes, because sighting counts decrease consistently as mowing frequency increases from none to occasional to frequent.
  3. C No, because sighting counts increase consistently as mowing frequency increases.
  4. D No, because all three plots had the same number of sightings.

Question 8

Command of Evidence: Quantitative · Medium

A researcher tracked the number of craft vendors and average weekly vendor revenue across five market events:

Event A 10 vendors, $340 avg. revenue
Event B 18 vendors, $510 avg. revenue
Event C 25 vendors, $470 avg. revenue
Event D 33 vendors, $600 avg. revenue
Event E 14 vendors, $310 avg. revenue

Which choice best describes the relationship shown in the table?

  1. A Events with more vendors did not always have higher average vendor revenue than events with fewer vendors.
  2. B All five events had identical average vendor revenue.
  3. C The number of vendors was identical across all five events.
  4. D Events with more vendors always had higher average vendor revenue than events with fewer vendors.

Question 9

Command of Evidence: Quantitative · Medium

A researcher measured average productivity scores for employees who reported different amounts of natural light exposure in their workspace:

Minimal light 61 points
Some light 70 points
Ample light 84 points
Excessive light 75 points

A workplace consultant claims that productivity increases continuously the more natural light an employee receives.

Does the data support the consultant's claim?

  1. A No, because scores rise from minimal to ample light, but then fall for employees with excessive light.
  2. B Yes, because scores increased in a perfectly steady pattern across all four groups.
  3. C Yes, because the group with the most light scored higher than the group with the least light.
  4. D No, because all four groups scored exactly the same.

Question 10

Command of Evidence: Quantitative · Medium

A language-learning app tracked the percentage of users who reached conversational fluency, broken down by how many minutes per day they practiced:

Under 10 min/day 8% reached fluency
10–20 min/day 22% reached fluency
20–40 min/day 41% reached fluency
Over 40 min/day 53% reached fluency

Which choice best describes the relationship shown in the table?

  1. A Users who practiced least often had the highest fluency rate.
  2. B The fluency rate was identical across all practice-time groups.
  3. C The percentage reaching fluency generally decreases as daily practice time increases.
  4. D The percentage reaching fluency generally increases as daily practice time increases.

Command of Evidence: Quantitative Drill 6 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 6 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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