PSAT Math Multiple-Choice Practice Test 33: Data Analysis: Ratios, Proportions, and Percents

1. A bag of marbles contains 60 marbles that are either red, blue, or yellow. If there are 12 blue marbles, what percent of the bag is made of red and yellow marbles?

2. A used car dealership initially prices a car at $12,000. When the car fails to sell, the dealership reduces the price to $10,500. During a holiday sale, the dealership drops the price of the car an additional 5 percent below the reduced price. To the nearest tenth of a percent, what is the total percent discount from the car's initial price to the holiday sale price?

3. Last year, a sand and gravel company sold 280 tons of gravel and 220 tons of sand. This year, the company sold 20 percent more gravel by weight and 25 percent more sand by weight than it sold last year. By approximately what percent did the total weight of sand and gravel sold increase this year over last year?

4. Over the past decade, the population of a certain town increased by 20 percent. If the population of the town increases 15 percent over the next decade, by what percent will the population have increased over the entire two-decade period?

5. Malik purchased a mutual fund to help save for his daughter's college costs. During the first year, the price of the fund increased by 15 percent. The following year, the price increased by an additional 12 percent. To the nearest percent, what is the percent increase in the price of the stock for the two years?

6. A certain city has 2,625 businesses and has a ratio of 5:2 of businesses that do not require safety inspections to those that do require safety inspections. Of the businesses that were required to have inspections, 12 percent had safety violations. How many businesses that required inspections did NOT have any safety violations?

7. An average consumer car can travel 120 miles per hour under controlled conditions. An average race car can travel 210 miles per hour. How many more miles can the race car travel in 30 seconds than the consumer car?

A.

C.

8. Engine oil often contains zinc, which reduces engine wear. Company A's oil contains 4 percent zinc and company B's oil contains 9 percent. Suppose a car uses 8 pints of company B's oil and a truck uses 6 quarts of company A's oil. How many times more zinc is in the car's oil than in the truck's? (1 quart = 2 pints)

9. When a consignment store gets a used piece of furniture to sell, it researches the original price and then reduces that price by 40 percent to determine the price of the used piece. Every 30 days after that, the price of the used piece is marked down an additional 20 percent until it is sold. The store gets a piece of used furniture on July 15. If the original price of the furniture was $1,050 and it is sold on September 5, what is the final selling price?

10. An amusement park is building a scale model of an airplane for a three-dimensional ride. The real airplane measures 220 feet from nose to tail. The amusement park plans to make the model airplane 36 feet long. If the wingspan of the real plane is 174 feet, approximately how many feet long should the wingspan on the ride's model airplane be?

11. Luca is from a country that uses the metric system and is visiting his cousin Drew in the United States, which uses the standard, or English, system. He gives Drew a family recipe for bread. The recipe is for one loaf and calls for 180 milliliters of milk. Drew wants to make five loaves. If 1 U.S. cup equals 236.588 milliliters,
approximately how many cups of milk will Drew need?

A.

B.

C.

D.

12. A professional speedway for Motorsport events wishes to build two new racetracks with the same proportions but different sizes, one for adult races and one for teen races. The racetracks will each have two straightaways, one shorter and one longer

If the adult track has straightaways that are 100 -meters long and 150 meters long, then what is the length of the longer teen track straightaway if the shorter teen track straightaway is 50 -meters long?

13. Last year, a farmer had 350 acres planted in corn and 160 acres planted in soybeans. This year, the farmer reduced the acreage planted in corn by 20 percent and reduced the acreage planted in soybeans by 15 percent. By approximately what percent did the farmer reduce the total acreage planted in corn and soybeans?

14. A store starts a sale to attract more customers. Mandy notices in the newspaper that the store has comforters on sale for 40 percent less than the original price. If Mandy pays $89.10 after the discount and a 10 percent sales tax on the discounted price, what is the original price of the comforter?