Information and Ideas

SAT Command of Evidence: Quantitative Practice — Drill 7

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 clinic compared average appointment wait times before and after adding a second receptionist:

Before addition (avg.) 27 minutes
After addition (avg.) 14 minutes
Average patient-reported friendliness rating before 4.0/5
Average patient-reported friendliness rating after 4.1/5

A clinic manager states that adding the receptionist substantially cut wait times and substantially raised friendliness ratings.

Do the figures support the manager's statement?

  1. A Yes, since friendliness rose substantially even though wait time increased.
  2. B No, since wait time increased after the receptionist was added.
  3. C No, since although wait time fell substantially, the friendliness rating rose only slightly.
  4. D Yes, since wait time fell substantially and friendliness rose by a similarly large margin.

Question 2

Command of Evidence: Quantitative · Medium

A researcher recorded the number of neighborhood cleanup events held and the tons of litter collected in a district over four quarters:

Q1 1 event, 0.8 tons
Q2 4 events, 3.1 tons
Q3 3 events, 2.6 tons
Q4 6 events, 4.9 tons

Which choice best describes the relationship shown in the table?

  1. A The amount of litter collected remained constant across all quarters.
  2. B As the number of cleanup events increased, the amount of litter collected generally decreased.
  3. C There is no discernible pattern between events and litter collected in the table.
  4. D As the number of cleanup events increased, the amount of litter collected generally also increased.

Question 3

Command of Evidence: Quantitative · Medium

A dog-training school tabulated the number of clients and average class-completion scores for four instructors:

Instructor A 40 clients, 82% score
Instructor B 25 clients, 91% score
Instructor C 60 clients, 74% score
Instructor D 33 clients, 88% score

Which statement best matches the pattern shown in the figures?

  1. A Instructors with more clients generally recorded higher completion scores.
  2. B Instructors with fewer clients generally recorded higher completion scores.
  3. C All four instructors recorded an identical completion score.
  4. D Client count showed no relationship to completion score for any instructor.

Question 4

Command of Evidence: Quantitative · Medium

A researcher measured the number of newly certified translators and the number of translated documents processed by an agency over four quarters:

Q1 2 translators, 140 documents
Q2 5 translators, 310 documents
Q3 4 translators, 350 documents
Q4 8 translators, 520 documents

Which statement best matches the pattern shown in the figures?

  1. A The number of documents processed stayed constant across all four quarters.
  2. B No pattern links translator counts and documents processed in the figures.
  3. C As the number of certified translators rose, the number of documents processed generally also rose.
  4. D As the number of certified translators rose, the number of documents processed generally fell.

Question 5

Command of Evidence: Quantitative · Medium

A researcher studying delivery times collected data on average delivery time by shipping method for a mid-sized retailer:

Standard 5.2 days
Expedited 2.8 days
Overnight 1.1 days
Economy 8.4 days

The researcher claims that, on average, overnight shipping is faster than any other method listed.

Does the table support the researcher's claim?

  1. A Yes, because overnight has the lowest average delivery time of the four methods listed.
  2. B No, because expedited has a lower average delivery time than overnight.
  3. C Yes, because overnight has the highest average delivery time of the four methods listed.
  4. D No, because economy has a lower average delivery time than overnight.

Question 6

Command of Evidence: Quantitative · Medium

A survey asked residents of four towns how many minutes, on average, they spend outdoors per week, and cross-referenced this with the number of public benches within a half mile of the town center:

Town A 3 benches, 95 min/week
Town B 9 benches, 140 min/week
Town C 16 benches, 205 min/week
Town D 22 benches, 260 min/week

Which choice best describes the relationship shown in the data?

  1. A As the number of public benches increases, average weekly outdoor time decreases.
  2. B Towns with fewer benches reported the highest outdoor time.
  3. C As the number of public benches increases, average weekly outdoor time also increases.
  4. D There is no relationship between bench availability and outdoor time.

Question 7

Command of Evidence: Quantitative · Medium

A study tracked the percentage of survey respondents who reported feeling confident managing their personal finances, broken down by whether they had taken a financial literacy course:

No course, under 25 22%
No course, 25–44 31%
Course, under 25 58%
Course, 25–44 61%

Which choice best describes the relationship shown in the table?

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

Question 8

Command of Evidence: Quantitative · Medium

A researcher studying processing speed collected data on average transaction processing time by payment method:

Check 3.2 days
Wire transfer 1.1 days
Credit card 0.1 days
ACH transfer 2.0 days

The researcher claims that, on average, credit card payments process faster than any other method listed.

Does the table support the researcher's claim?

  1. A No, because ACH transfer has a lower average processing time than credit card.
  2. B No, because wire transfer has a lower average processing time than credit card.
  3. C Yes, because credit card has the highest average processing time of the four methods listed.
  4. D Yes, because credit card has the lowest average processing time of the four methods listed.

Question 9

Command of Evidence: Quantitative · Medium

A city compared monthly reports of downed tree limbs before and after a proactive tree-trimming initiative:

3 months before initiative 71, 68, 75 reports
3 months after initiative 24, 20, 28 reports

A public works official states that the initiative roughly tripled the reduction, cutting reports to about a third of the earlier level.

Do the figures support the official's statement?

  1. A No, since there is not enough data to compute an average.
  2. B No, since reports rose after the initiative began.
  3. C Yes, since the post-initiative average (about 24) is roughly a third of the pre-initiative average (about 71).
  4. D Yes, since report counts were identical before and after the initiative.

Question 10

Command of Evidence: Quantitative · Medium

A town compared monthly reports of stray-animal sightings before and after launching a subsidized spay-and-neuter program:

3 months before program 63, 59, 68 reports
3 months after program 22, 19, 25 reports

An animal-control official states that the program cut the monthly sighting rate to roughly a third of its earlier level.

Do the figures support the official's statement?

  1. A No, since sightings rose after the program launched.
  2. B No, since there is not enough data to compute an average.
  3. C Yes, since the post-program average (about 22) is roughly a third of the pre-program average (about 63).
  4. D Yes, since sighting counts were unchanged before and after the program.

Command of Evidence: Quantitative Drill 7 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 7 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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