Most MissedOmitted Items on the Fall 2004 PSAT

1
Most Missed/Omitted Items on the Fall 2004 PSAT

• Office of Research and Evaluation

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PSAT Areas Tested

• Critical Reading
• Multiple choice format
• Sentence Completion questions measure knowledge
  of the meanings of words and ability to
  understand how the different parts of a sentence
  logically fit together
• Passage-Based Reading questions measure ability
  to read and think carefully about a single
  reading passage or a pair of related passages

3
PSAT Areas Tested

• Math
• Four Contents Areas
• Numbers and Operation
• Algebra and Functions
• Geometry and Measurement
• Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability
• Multiple Choice questions decide which is the
  best of the five choices given
• Student-produced response (or grid-ins)
  questions solve a problem and enter answer

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PSAT Areas Tested

• Writing
• Multiple choice format
• Identifying Sentence Errors questions test
  knowledge of grammar, usage, word choice, and
  idiom by finding errors in sentences or
  indicating that there is no error
• Improving Sentences questions choose the best,
  most effective form of an underlined portion of a
  given sentence
• Improving Paragraphs questions make choices
  about improving the logic, coherence, or
  organization in a flawed passage

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PSAT Analysis

• Item analysis by grade (7-11) for 5,912 students
• Students included only in areas where student
  received score
• Mean correct responses by grade
• Individual school item analysis by grade
• 10th grade information basis for PowerPoint
  presentation

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Mean Correct Responses

• Critical Reading All sections
• 16.6 correct of 48 items (35)
• Mathematics All sections
• 12.4 correct of 38 items (33)
• Writing All sections
• 13.9 correct of 39 items (36)

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Critical Reading SectionsMean Correct Responses

• Section 1
• Sentence completion (3.8/8 48)
• Passage-based reading (4.5/16 28)
• Section 3
• Sentence completion (2.6/5 52)
• Passage-based reading (5.6/19 29)

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Math SectionsMean Correct Responses

• Section 2
• Multiple choice (7.7/20 39)
• Section 4
• Multiple choice (2.7/8 34)
• Student-produced responses (2.0/10 20)

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Math ContentMean Correct Responses

• Numbers and Operation
• 2.8 correct of 9 items (31)
• Algebra and Functions
• 4.7 correct of 14 items (34)
• Geometry and Measurement
• 2.6 correct of 10 items (26)
• Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability
• 2.3 correct of 5 items (46)

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Writing SectionMean Correct Responses

• Section 5
• Improving sentences
• (8.3/20 42)
• Identifying sentence errors
• (4.5/14 32)
• Improving paragraphs
• (1.2/5 24)

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Fall 2004 PSAT Administration
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Critical Reading Items

• The following slides show selected items that
  were not answered correctly most often (missed or
  omitted by at least 80 of 10th grade students).
• For each item and based on 10th grade
  performance, percent and number responding to
  each answer choice are included in parentheses.
• Although only grade 10 performance is fully
  reported here, note that these items were
  difficult for students in the other grades as
  well.
• Correct answers are bold, red and underlined.

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Critical ReadingCorrect Response Rates
Item with least percent correct
14
The dinner partys host was truly _______ he
impressed his guests with his elegant manners,
discriminating taste, and broad
education.(A) sardonic (142,
9)(B) innovative (532, 35)(C) diminutive
(153, 10)(D) urbane (202, 13)(E) surreal
(305, 20)OMITTED (185, 12)
15
8. Though friends, Jaelyn and Sean are
temperamental opposites while Jaelyn is
outgoing and _______, Sean is usually reserved
and _______. (A) gregarious . . ingratiating
(451, 30)(B) reclusive . . imperious (195,
13)(C) affable . . aloof (201, 13)(D) demure
. . introverted (186, 12)(E) jovial . .
congenial (317, 21)OMITTED (169, 11)
16
The passages below have been adapted from
discussions of parapsychology (the science that
investigates psychic phenomena -- or psi). The
author of Passage 1 has written many books on
science and philosophy. The author of Passage 2
is a parapsychologist.
17
Passage 1. . . But there is a problem with
Koestlers rhetoric the extraordinary
claims of modern science rest on extraordinary
evidence, and the extraordinary claims of
parapsychology are not backed up by extraordinary
evidence. For reasons that spiritualists have
never been able to explain, the great mediums of
the nineteenth century could perform their
greatest miracles only in darkness. The
equivalent of that darkness today is the darkness
of the statistics used to verify psi, and why psi
phenomena flourish best in such darkness is
equally hard to comprehend. If a mind can alter
the statistical outcome of many tosses of heavy
dice, why is it powerless to rotate a tiny arrow
under strictly controlled laboratory conditions?
The failure of such direct, unequivocal tests is,
in my opinion, one of the greatest scandals of
parapsychology.. . .
18
Passage 2. . . As a scientist I do not take
leaps of faith with my subject matter. I study
the evidence. Occasionally, you will hear some
scientific pundit proclaim there is no evidence
for parapsychological phenomena, therefore
parapsychology is a pseudoscience with no subject
matter to study. . . . Two millennia of human
experience is a subject matter. . . . Obviously,
the very first step in dealing with experiences
of this kind is to examine how far normal or
conventional mechanisms and knowledge can go in
explaining them. Investigators must consider
such factors as malobservation, faulty memory,
and deceit. If it proves that all normal
explanations fail to explain the experience
adequately, then what do we have? Actually, all
we have at that point is an anomaly, something
that science at its present stage is unable to
explain.. . .
19
The author of Passage 2 would most likely
respond to the statement in Passage 1 about
the great mediums (line 27) by arguing
that(A) the popularity of certain performers
reflects the culture that fosters them (141,
9)(B) the standards of nineteenth-century
science seem primitive to the modern researcher
(285, 19)(C) clairvoyance cannot be proved or
disproved because it is a matter of faith (161,
11)(D) mediums require darkness just as
scientists need equipment (205, 13)(E) deceit
cannot fully account for all reports of psychic
events (130, 9)OMITTED (597, 39)
20
29. Unfortunately, Stella was typically so
_______ that she was often excluded from events
where _______ was of paramount
importance. (A) diligent . . etiquette (340,
22) (B) obstreperous . . propriety (211,
14) (C) duplicitous . . indiscretion (159,
10) (D) modest . . decorum (404,
27) (E) odious . . flagrancy (139,
9) OMITTED (266, 18)
21
In this 1991 passage, a college professor
reflects on how her experiences as an African
American woman help shape her work as a
professional historian. The authors
mother, born in 1916, lived and
attended college in Louisville, Kentucky.. .
.Students and scholars sometimes question how
much value we should give to African American
womens personal accounts of their lives. (lines
14-16). . .I learned the history of
institutions -- schools, churches, families --
and of neighborhoods. (lines 41-42). . .
22
. . .When I entered graduate school and began to
read the historical books on the Black
community, the picture
presented there did not merely contradict
the lives of the people I know personally, but
(what I realize now was the biggest problem for
me, which has sent me on my continuing search for
new methodologies and theoretical perspectives)
contradicted the historical documents my mother
had daily laid before me her record of peoples
speeches, ideas, and actions.(lines 48-56). .
.She preserved in her mind and in her
conversations with me a history and a way of
historical understanding that I now attempt to
preserve in my writing and in my classroom.
(lines 63-66). . .
23

• The theoretical perspectives mentioned in
  lines 53-54 would be LEAST likely to make
  use of the(A) personal accounts mentioned in
  line 16 (251, 17)(B) history of
  institutions mentioned in line 41 (168,
  11)(C) historical books mentioned in line 49
  (183, 12)(D) historical documents
  mentioned in line 54 (172, 11)(E) historical
  understanding mentioned in line 65 (145,
  10) OMITTED (600, 39)

24
Math Items

• The following slides show selected multiple
  choice items that were not answered correctly
  most often (missed or omitted by at least 80 of
  10th grade students).
• For each item and based on 10th grade
  performance, percent and number responding to
  each answer choice are included in parentheses.
• Although only grade 10 performance is fully
  reported here, note that these items were
  difficult for students in the other grades as
  well.
• Correct answers are bold, red and underlined.

25
MathCorrect Response Rates
Item with least percent correct
26
16. The set S has the property that if a
is in S, then a² a is also in S. Which
of the following sets could be S? (Numbers
and Operation) (A) -2, -1, 0 (150,
10) (B) -1, 0 (214, 14) (C) -1, 0, 1
(273, 18) (D) 0, 1 (184, 12) (E) 0, 1, 2
(219, 15) OMITTED (470, 31)

27
If x, y, and z are positive and xy³z² gt
x²y²z², which of the following must be true?
(Algebra and Functions) I. x lt y II. x lt z
III. y lt z (A) I only (217, 14) (B) II
only (164, 11) (C) III only (179,
12) (D) II and III only (303, 20) (E) I, II,
and III (218, 14) OMITTED (429, 28)
28
In the rectangle, the sum of the areas of
the shaded regions is 1. What is the area of
the unshaded region? (Geometry and
Measurement) (A) 2 (235, 16) (B) 3 (359,
24) (C) 4 (260, 17) (D) 2 (129, 9) (E) 2
2 (97, 6) OMITTED (430, 28)
3x
x
3x
x
2x
29
If a and b are numbers such that (a 8)(b
- 8) 0, what is the smallest possible value of
a² b² ? (Algebra and Functions) (A) 0
(387, 26) (B) 8 (262, 17) (C) 16 (176,
12) (D) 64 (205, 14) (E) 128 (127,
8) OMITTED (353, 23)
30
20. In ?ABC above, which of the following
inequalities involving lengths x and y is true?
(Geometry and Measurement) (A) 0 (x y)² lt
10 (197, 13) (B) 10 (x y)² lt 20 (263,
17) (C) 20 (x y)² lt 50 (203, 13) (D) 50
(x y)² lt 100 (186, 12) (E) 100 lt (x y)²
(148, 10) OMITTED (513, 34)
B
10
x
Note Figure not drawn to scale.
A
C
y
31
27. If x and y are positive, which of the
following represents x percent of y? (Algebra
and Functions) (A) 0.01xy (277,
18) (B) 0.1xy (288, 19) (C) xy (334,
22) (D) 10xy (194, 13) (E) 100xy (88,
6) OMITTED (329, 22)
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Writing Items

• The following slides show selected items that
  were not answered correctly most often (missed or
  omitted by at least 80 of 10th grade students).
• For each item and based on 10th grade
  performance, percent and number responding to
  each answer choice are included in parentheses.
• Although only grade 10 performance is fully
  reported here, note that these items were
  difficult for students in the other grades as
  well.
• Correct answers are bold, red and underlined.

33
WritingCorrect Response Rates
Item with least percent correct
34
33. He was somewhat uncertain about
A how to use the new machine and asked for
B
C more specific instructions be
sent. D No error
E (A) (241, 16) (B) (87, 6) (C) (213,
14) (D) (152, 10) (E) (548, 37) OMITTED
(236, 16)
35
Aerial photography is thought to be
Athe most
efficient technique to gather B
Caccurate
information about the use of the
Dland. No error E
(A) (104, 7)(B) (142, 10)(C) (204,
14)(D) (79, 5)(E) (700, 47)OMITTED (248,
17)
36
Of the following, which is the best version of
the underlined portion of sentence 5
(reproduced below)?While there was no cure
before, many illnesses can now be treated.
(A) (As it is now) (305, 21)(B) Unlike the
past, many historically incurable illnesses
(214, 14)(C) Prior to now they could not cure
many illnesses, but these (164,
11)(D) Previously incurable, there are many
illnesses which (210, 14)(E) Many illnesses
that used to be incurable (262, 18)OMITTED
(322, 22)
37
(1) The last century was a time of great
technological progress. (2) Life is more
convenient, comfortable, and efficient today
than ever before. (3) Yet this progress has
created new concerns. (4) In todays world,
medicine is much more advanced than it was a
hundred years ago. (5) Many illnesses that used
to be incurable can now be treated. (6)/(7)
Once, few people lived past middle age now most
can expect to live considerably longer. (8) We
now have to consider how best to plan our years
beyond retirement and how to best ensure our
quality of life. (9) Another example is in the
home. (10) In the past, people had to do manual
labor to carry out even everyday household tasks.
. . .
38
In context, which is the best way to phrase
sentence 9 (reproduced below)?Another example
is in the home.(A) (As it is now) (196,
13)(B) More examples of this would be found in
the home. (300, 20)(C) Technological progress
also affects life in our homes. (281,
19)(D) Home life is another way this modern
trend would be manifested. (152, 10)(E) In
addition, home life is an example of this
technological problem. (152, 10)OMITTED
(396, 27)