Last Updated on November 23, 2024
PSAT Writing and Language Practice Test 2024 (New PSAT/NMSQT and PSAT 10). This will help your Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Writing and Language exam Prep. You can also download a free printable PDF. This is a sample question answer multiple-choice type test.
| Test Name | New PSAT/NMSQT and PSAT 10 |
| Actual Reading Test Questions | 35 |
| Actual Reading Test Duration | 44 Minutes |
| Our Test Type | Writing and Language Practice Test 1 |
| No. of Questions | 15 |
| Total Passages | One |
| PDF Available | YES (printable) |
| Answers and Explanation | Yes Both |
PSAT Writing and Language Practice Test
Read each passage through once before you begin to answer any questions. You will see that certain words or phrases in the following five passages have been underlined and numbered. Following each passage, you will see alternatives for those underlined words or phrases. Choose the one that best expresses the idea of the passage, is the best use of standard English, or is most consistent with the tone and style of the passage. If you find the underlined part to be correct, choose “NO CHANGE.” Note that to answer many of the questions you will probably need to read several sentences beyond the question. You may also find questions about a section of the passage or the passage as a whole, rather than about an underlined part.
Passage I—The Weekly Visit
The requisite visit happened most typically1 on sunny Saturdays, when my child spirits were at their highest and could be most diminished by the cramped interior of her house. My mother, accustomed to the bright spacious farmhouse2 that was once Grandma’s, seemed no less sus- ceptible to the gloom. She would set her jaw as Grandma described the many ailments attendant on age and would check her watch—an hour is3 the minimum she expected herself to withstand. Her barely contained impatience, and4 my grandmother’s crippling age radiated out around me. We were the women of the Carlson clan, each throbbing with agitation, like eccentric,5 blinking circles on a radar screen.
(1) I would sit at the white, red, metal table6 with the pull-out leaves and built-in silverware drawer, cracking (2) I would be lifting7 the lid carefully and try to set it down
on the metal table quietly, and then attempt to crack the nuts without scattering the shell crumbs. (3) This was the one good thing at Grandma’s house, the almonds, which she kept in a green Depression glass bowl. (4) It was not good to draw attention to myself at Grandma Carlson’s house.8 Sounding angry, she would call to me in her croupy drawl. When I failed to understand her, she would reach out to me with her palsied, slick, wrinkled hand and shout, “Here”!9 She would be offering some of her horehound candy, which tasted like a cross between butterscotch and bitter sticks.
There was this lamentable air in the dim house with its itchy mohair furniture and its dark colors, an awareness—Grandma’s— underlaying10 the mentholatum, that her age scared her grandkids. I would during the duti- ful visit yearn11 to get outside into the yard, where Grandma had transplanted a few flowers when she moved from the farm. But even the yard, with its overgrown hedges and rusted metal lawn chairs,12 seemed dreary. When I came back inside, light and air would burst in with me. Grandma, her hair up in a gray bun, would rock a little and smile.13 I would lean then against my mother’s chair, Grandmas’ fond eyes14 peering at me, and whisper out of the corner of my mouth, “Mom, can we go?”
1. A. NO CHANGE
B. most usually
C. typically
D. most typical
2. A. NO CHANGE
B. bright-spacious farmhouse
C. bright, and spacious farmhouse
D. bright, spacious farmhouse
3. A. NO CHANGE
B. would be
C. being
D. were
4. A. NO CHANGE
B. impatience. And
C. impatience; and
D. impatience and
5. A. NO CHANGE
B. concentric,
C. egocentric,
D. centric,
6. A. NO CHANGE
B. white, red and metal
C. white and red metal
D. white, and red, metal
7. A. NO CHANGE
B. was lifting
C. lifted
D. would lift
8. A. NO CHANGE
B. Grandma Carlsons house.
C. Grandma Carlson house.
D. Grandma’s Carlson house
9. A. NO CHANGE
B. “Here.”
C. “here”!
D. “Here!”
10. A. NO CHANGE
B. laying under
C. underlying
D. lying under
11. A. NO CHANGE
B. During the dutiful visit, I would yearn
C. I during the dutiful visit would yearn
D. I would, during the dutiful visit yearn
12. The writer is considering deleting the underlined portion. Should this be kept or deleted?
- A. It should be kept, because the sentence would not be grammatically correct without it.
- B. It should be kept, because the images enhance the description of the yard.
- C. It should be deleted, because the description is off the topic of family.
- D. It should be deleted, because the grammar is incorrect.
13. Which of the following alternatives to the underlined portion would NOT be acceptable?
- A. Grandma would, her hair up in a gray bun, rock a little and smile.
- B. With her gray hair up in a bun, grandma would rock a little and smile.
- C. Grandma, her hair up in a gray bun, would smile and rock a little.
- D. Grandma—her hair up in a gray bun—would rock a little and smile.
14. A. NO CHANGE
B. Grandmas’s fond eyes
C. Grandma’s fond eyes
D. Grandmas fond eyes
15. The most appropriate order for the first four sentences of the second paragraph would be
- A. 1, 2, 3, 4
- B. 2, 1, 3, 4
- C. 1, 2, 4, 3
- D. 1, 3, 2, 4
PSAT Writing and Language Practice Test (Free Printable PDF)
| Document Type | Download Link |
| Free Editable Doc File |  |
| Free Printable PDF File |  |
See also:
- FREE PSAT Practice Test 2025 (NMSQT/PSAT 10) Official Study Guide [PDF]
- FREE PSAT 8/9 Practice Test 2025 Official Study Guide [PDF]
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- PSAT Writing and Language Test 4
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