SSAT Practice Questions (2026) — Free Sample Questions with Answers

14 free SSAT questions from our 150-question bank, grouped by content domain. Each answer explains why the right option is right — and why every wrong option is wrong.

Verbal (6)Quantitative (4)Reading (4)

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Verbal

Question 1

granite is to rock as

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Answer: A

bronze is to alloy: Correct. Granite is a kind of rock; bronze is a kind of alloy (a mixture of metals, chiefly copper and tin).

ore is to metal: Metal is extracted from ore: a source and its product.

pebble is to boulder: A pebble and a boulder differ in size (degree), not in kind.

marble is to sculpture: Marble is a material used to make a sculpture.

mineral is to quartz: Quartz is a kind of mineral, so this pair is in reverse order (class before member).

Category: "___ is a type of ___." Two pairs from the stem's field (ore, marble) describe material uses instead.

Question 2

verse is to ballad as

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Answer: B

melody is to composer: A melody is produced by a composer: product and producer.

frame is to film: Correct. A verse is one of the units that make up a ballad; a frame is one of the still images that make up a film.

camera is to photograph: A camera produces a photograph: a tool and its product.

album is to song: Whole before part, the reverse of the stem order.

rhyme is to rhythm: Rhyme and rhythm are both features of verse, linked only by field.

Part–whole: "A ___ is one unit of a ___." The album pair is the reversed version.

Question 3

symphony is to composer as blueprint is to

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Answer: E

builder: A builder uses a blueprint (a user relationship) but does not produce it.

contractor: A contractor works from a blueprint; this is a user, not the producer.

homeowner: A homeowner may pay for the plans, but owning the house is not producing the blueprint.

surveyor: A surveyor works in the same building field but measures land; surveyors do not draw blueprints.

architect: Correct. A symphony is produced by a composer; a blueprint is produced by an architect.

Product–producer: "A ___ is created by a ___." Watch for users of the product (builders, contractors), who are tempting but are not producers.

Question 4

Select the word or phrase whose meaning is closest to the word in capital letters.

ANTEDILUVIAN:

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Answer: D

flooded: Diluvium means "flood," but the word describes something from before the Flood, not something under water.

opposing: Confuses ante- ("before") with anti- ("against").

diluted: A look-alike meaning watered down.

antiquated: Correct. Antediluvian literally means "before the Flood" (ante- + diluvium), so extremely old-fashioned: "His antediluvian phone had a pull-out antenna."

initial: Takes ante- ("before") as "coming first in a process"; the word means very old, not introductory.

Antediluvian = extremely old or outdated (before the Flood).

Question 5

Select the word or phrase whose meaning is closest to the word in capital letters.

TEMPER:

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Answer: A

moderate: Correct. As a verb, temper means to soften or moderate by adding something: "She tempered her criticism with genuine praise."

enrage: Draws on the noun temper ("a fit of anger"); the verb means nearly the opposite, to calm.

measure: Suggests temperature, but tempering is moderating, not measuring.

characterize: Suggests temperament (one's nature), a related noun with a different meaning.

hasten: Suggests tempo or speed; tempering slows or softens rather than speeds.

A common word in a rarer sense: to temper = to moderate or tone down.

Question 6

Select the word or phrase whose meaning is closest to the word in capital letters.

INCREDULOUS:

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Answer: B

gullible: This is the meaning of credulous, the opposite word: gullible people believe too easily.

skeptical: Correct. Incredulous means unwilling or unable to believe, skeptical: in- ("not") + cred- ("believe"). "The jury looked incredulous as the witness changed his story again."

astonishing: This is incredible, which describes the thing that is hard to believe, not the person doubting it.

unreliable: Means "not credible," a quality of a source; incredulous describes the listener's disbelief.

indebted: Shares the root of credit and creditor, but owing money has nothing to do with disbelief.

Incredulous describes the doubter; incredible describes what is doubted; credulous means believing too readily.

Quantitative

Question 7

What is the value of $50 + 18$ ?

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Answer: E

$50 = 252 = 52$ .
$18 = 92 = 32$ .
Like radicals add: $52 + 32 = 82$ .
Check: $50 \approx 7.07$ and $18 \approx 4.24$ , sum $\approx 11.31 \approx 8 \times 1.414$ . ✓

$22$ : Subtracts the simplified roots ( $52 - 32$ ) instead of adding them.

$42$ : Subtracts the numbers under the roots: $50 - 18 = 32$ .

$8$ : Adds the coefficients $5 + 3$ and drops the $2$ .

$217$ : Adds the numbers under the roots: $50 + 18 = 68$ , but $a + b \neq = a + b$ .

$82$ : Correct. $50 = 25 \cdot 2 = 52$ and $18 = 9 \cdot 2 = 32$ ; together they make $82$ .

Simplify each radical by pulling out perfect-square factors; only like radicals can be added.

Question 8

For any positive integer $n$ , let $[n]$ equal the sum of all positive divisors of $n$ , including 1 and $n$ . For example, $[6] = 1 + 2 + 3 + 6 = 12$ . What is the value of $[12] - [9]$ ?

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Answer: E

Divisors of 12: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 12; sum $= 28$ .
Divisors of 9: 1, 3, 9; sum $= 13$ .
$28 - 13 = 15$ .

3: Subtracts the numbers themselves ( $12 - 9$ ) instead of their divisor sums.

9: Leaves out the divisor 6 of 12, giving $22 - 13$ .

12: Leaves out each number itself as a divisor: $(1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 6) - (1 + 3) = 16 - 4$ .

13: Gives only $[9]$ , not the difference.

15: Correct. $[12] = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 6 + 12 = 28$ and $[9] = 1 + 3 + 9 = 13$ , so the difference is $28 - 13 = 15$ .

For a defined-operation item, apply the definition exactly as given; the worked example shows what to include.

Question 9

In the figure, lines $ℓ$ and $m$ are parallel, and the angles marked $(3 x + 10) °$ and $(5 x - 30) °$ are alternate interior angles formed by the transversal. What is the measure, in degrees, of the angle marked $(3 x + 10) °$ ?

Note: Figure not drawn to scale.

Figure not drawn to scale.

Show answer & explanation

Answer: B

The stem states that the marked angles are alternate interior angles, and lines ℓ and m are parallel, so the angles are equal.
$3 x + 10 = 5 x - 30$ , so $40 = 2 x$ and $x = 20$ .
Angle: $3 (20) + 10 = 70°$ .
Check: $5 (20) - 30 = 70°$ . ✓

20: This is the value of $x$ , not the angle measure.

70: Correct. Alternate interior angles formed by parallel lines are equal, so $3 x + 10 = 5 x - 30$ ; then $x = 20$ and $3 (20) + 10 = 70$ .

85: Treats the angles as supplementary (as same-side interior angles would be): $8 x - 20 = 180$ gives $x = 25$ and $3 (25) + 10 = 85$ .

95: Treats the angles as supplementary and then evaluates $5 x - 30$ instead.

110: This is the supplement of the correct angle.

Alternate interior angles formed by parallel lines are equal; same-side interior angles are supplementary.

Question 10

Amara, Bilal, Corinne, Dmitri, and Esme ran a race, and there were no ties. Corinne finished third. Esme finished immediately after Amara. Bilal finished ahead of Dmitri, and Dmitri finished ahead of Corinne. Who finished last?

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Answer: E

Dmitri is ahead of Corinne (3rd), so Dmitri is 1st or 2nd.
Bilal is ahead of Dmitri, so Bilal is 1st and Dmitri is 2nd.
Places 4 and 5 remain for Amara and Esme; Esme is immediately after Amara, so Amara is 4th and Esme is 5th.
Check: order Bilal, Dmitri, Corinne, Amara, Esme satisfies every condition.

Amara: Esme finished immediately after Amara, so Amara cannot be last.

Bilal: Bilal finished ahead of Dmitri, so at least one runner finished behind him.

Corinne: Corinne finished third, not fifth.

Dmitri: Dmitri finished ahead of Corinne, who was third, so Dmitri finished first or second.

Esme: Correct. Bilal and Dmitri must take places 1 and 2 (Bilal first), Corinne is third, so Amara and Esme fill places 4 and 5, with Esme right after Amara: Esme is last.

In ordering puzzles, start with the fixed position and the most restrictive chain of "ahead of" conditions.

Reading

Question 11

The primary purpose of the passage is to

Why the Sky Changes Color

¹Ask almost anyone why the sky is blue and you are likely to hear that it reflects the ocean. The explanation is tidy, popular and wrong. The sky is just as blue over the Sahara as over the Pacific, and it stays blue above the middle of continents thousands of miles from any sea.

²Sunlight looks white, but it is a mixture of every color, each with its own wavelength. When this light enters the atmosphere, it meets molecules of nitrogen and oxygen that are far smaller than any of those wavelengths. Particles that tiny scatter short wavelengths much more strongly than long ones. In 1871 the British physicist Lord Rayleigh worked out the rule: blue light is scattered several times more strongly than red.

³At midday, then, blue light is bounced from molecule to molecule across the whole sky and reaches our eyes from every direction, while most of the other colors travel straight on. Violet light is scattered even more than blue, so why isn't the sky violet? Partly because sunlight contains less violet than blue to begin with, and partly because our eyes are much less sensitive to it.

⁴At sunset the same process produces the opposite effect. When the sun is low, its light must pass through far more air to reach us. Along that long path, most of the blue is scattered out of the beam before it arrives, and what remains is weighted toward orange and red. Dust or smoke in the air can deepen the colors further.

⁵Clouds follow a different rule. Their water droplets are much larger than the wavelengths of visible light, and particles that size scatter all colors about equally. Mixed together, those colors look white, which is why a cloud glows pale at noon and turns pink at dusk only when the light reaching it has already lost its blue.

Show answer & explanation

Answer: A

explain how the scattering of sunlight produces the colors of the sky and clouds: Correct. Paragraphs 2–5 explain blue skies, red sunsets and white clouds by how particles of different sizes scatter light.

argue that Lord Rayleigh's work deserves more recognition: Rayleigh is mentioned once (paragraph 2) as the source of a rule, not as the subject of an argument.

trace the history of scientific research on the atmosphere: Too broad; only one historical fact appears.

correct the belief that the sky reflects the ocean: Too narrow: this is the opening hook in paragraph 1, not the purpose of the whole passage.

compare the colors of sunsets in different parts of the world: The passage contrasts noon and sunset, not regions.

Primary purpose = the job the whole passage does. An opening hook (paragraph 1) is usually too narrow.

Question 12

The passage is mainly about

The Tuner

¹Mr. Szabo arrived at nine with a canvas bag that clanked like a toolbox at the bottom of a lake, and Priya, who had been told to "make herself useful," held the front door open longer than necessary. He nodded at her, then at the piano, as though the two of them had already been introduced and found wanting.

²The piano had belonged to Priya's great-aunt, and for three years it had been out of tune in a way the family had stopped noticing. Middle C still sounded more or less like middle C. It was the chords that gave the piano away: they shimmered unpleasantly, like heat rising off a parking lot in August.

³"You have a tuning app," Mr. Szabo said. It was not a question. Priya held up her phone. The screen showed a needle trembling just left of center. "Good," he said. "Put it in your pocket."

⁴He struck two keys together, an octave apart, and told her to listen not to the notes but to what happened between them. At first she heard nothing but sound. Then, underneath it, she caught a faint throb — wah, wah, wah — like a ceiling fan with one bent blade. "That," he said, "is the piano arguing with itself."

⁵He fitted his lever over a tuning pin and turned it so slightly that Priya was not sure he had moved at all. The throb slowed. Wah . . . wah . . . He turned again. The throb stretched out until it was no longer a pulse but a long, drowsy swell, and then it was simply gone, and the two notes sat together like one wide note.

⁶Priya realized she had been holding her breath. Mr. Szabo was already moving to the next pin. "Now you," he said, and held out the lever, handle first.

Show answer & explanation

Answer: D

a family's decision to restore a piano that had belonged to a relative: True background (paragraph 2), but the family's decision is never shown; the passage focuses on the tuning lesson.

the advantages of tuning a piano by ear rather than with a phone app: Too broad and argumentative: the story never weighs advantages; Mr. Szabo simply sets the app aside.

a girl's growing annoyance at being asked to help a stranger: Plausible from "make herself useful," but Priya is absorbed, not annoyed, by the end (paragraph 6).

a girl's first experience of hearing what a piano tuner listens for: Correct. Paragraphs 3–6 follow Priya as she learns to hear the "throb" between notes and watches it disappear, ending as she is handed the lever.

the history of a piano that had been out of tune for three years: Too narrow: the piano's history fills only paragraph 2.

A main-idea answer must cover the whole passage: here, the lesson in listening that runs from paragraph 3 to the end.

Question 13

Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the author's argument?

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Answer: C

Several kinds of bats have learned to hunt for insects around streetlights at night.: Paragraph 1 already says this; it adds no new support.

Bright white LEDs use less electricity than older streetlights.: This supports keeping the LEDs, the opposite of the author's proposal.

Towns that switched to shielded amber lamps saw more moths at nearby flowers and no rise in accidents.: Correct. It supports both halves of the argument: the changes help insects (paragraphs 2–3) and do not reduce safety (paragraph 4).

Habitat loss, not artificial light, is the leading cause of insect decline in most regions.: The author already grants this; it does not show that changing lights helps.

Many residents prefer bright white streetlights because they look clean and modern.: This would make the proposal harder to adopt, weakening it.

A strengthener supplies new evidence for the author's central claim or answers the main objection; restating a concession does neither.

Question 14

Which of the following best states the main idea of the passage?

¹When Katsushika Hokusai began the print series that would make him famous around the world, he was about seventy years old, an age at which most artists of his time were content to repeat what had already made them successful. Hokusai was not. Over his long career he changed his artistic name dozens of times, as if each new name let him start over, and he moved house so often that friends could barely keep track of him.

²The series, Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, was published in the early 1830s as color woodblock prints. Such prints were not treated as precious objects in their day. Carved by craftsmen from the artist's drawings and printed in large numbers, they were sold cheaply to ordinary city dwellers, much as posters are today. A buyer might pin one up at home and replace it when a newer design caught the eye.

³What set Hokusai's series apart was not its subject, since Fuji had been pictured countless times, but its approach. In many of the views the mountain is almost an afterthought: a small cone glimpsed beyond barrel makers, travelers, and farmers at work. In the most famous image, The Great Wave off Kanagawa, an enormous wave curls over three fishing boats, while Fuji sits low in the distance, seemingly no larger than the spray. The viewer must look twice to find it.

⁴The prints also made bold use of Prussian blue, a synthetic pigment first made in Europe. It held its color far better than the plant-based blues that Japanese printers had relied on, which tended to fade, and its deep tones gave the water and sky a new intensity.

⁵Hokusai himself seemed unimpressed by what he had done. In his seventies he wrote that nothing he had produced before the age of seventy was worth noticing, and that if he lived past one hundred, every dot and line he drew might finally come alive. He died in his late eighties, still working.

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Answer: A

Hokusai's restless inventiveness, even in old age, let him show a familiar subject in a new way.: Correct. The passage moves from his restlessness at seventy (paragraph 1) to the new approach of the Fuji series (paragraphs 3–4) and his continued striving (paragraph 5).

Woodblock prints were sold so cheaply in Hokusai's time that few of them have survived to the present day.: Their low price is a detail of paragraph 2; their survival is never discussed.

Prussian blue allowed Japanese printers to make brighter landscapes.: Too narrow: the pigment is one detail of paragraph 4.

Mount Fuji was the most popular subject in all of Japanese art.: Overstates paragraph 3, which says only that Fuji had been pictured "countless times."

Hokusai was unhappy because he became famous only late in life.: He was dissatisfied with his skill, not his fame; the passage never links the two.

The main idea joins the passage's parts: the artist's character, his new approach, and his attitude.

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