Multi-step reasoning practice
45 sets, 175 linked questions. The practice bank asks one question at a time, which is right for drilling a skill and wrong for the thing the test actually rewards: carrying a reading or a setup through several dependent steps without rebuilding it each time.
Each set below is one passage, data set or scenario with three or four questions on it. Where a question depends on an earlier answer, the dependency is stated rather than left for you to notice — because noticing it is the skill, and it is easier to learn when it is named.
Math
23 setsTwo ways to cross
Building a linear model from a description, then using it to answer three questions the description does not answer directly.
4 linked questionsYield across four rows
Deciding which measure answers which question, when the obvious one is wrong twice.
3 linked questionsA quadratic that has to be read twice
Reading one quadratic three ways: for its roots, for its maximum, and for what those mean in the situation.
4 linked questionsReading one table two ways
Keeping track of which group forms the denominator, when the question changes it three times.
3 linked questionsScaling a water tank
Applying the length, area and volume scaling rules to one object, where each step uses a different power.
3 linked questionsPaying back a roof
Carrying one annual figure through four questions, where using the wrong base at step two spoils steps three and four.
4 linked questionsOne triangle, three tools
Choosing between the Pythagorean theorem, a trigonometric ratio and an area formula on the same figure.
4 linked questionsA sample, and what it can carry
Moving between a sample proportion and a population estimate, and knowing when the move is not allowed.
4 linked questionsFencing a rectangle
One constraint expressed three ways: as a perimeter, as a function, and as a maximum.
4 linked questionsA claim about fuel
Testing somebody else's conclusion against the figures it was drawn from.
4 linked questionsTiling a floor
Carrying one area through unit conversion, wastage and cost, where each step can absorb the previous error unnoticed.
4 linked questionsThe shape of an arch
One quadratic, read four ways: as zeros, as a vertex, as a constraint, and as an equivalent expression.
4 linked questionsA bill in two parts
Recovering a two-part linear model from two bills, then using it to explain a comparison.
4 linked questionsA drug that halves
Building an exponential model from a half-life and then reading a threshold and a second dose off it.
4 linked questionsA path around a lawn
One border width, applied twice per dimension, carried through to a count of bags.
4 linked questionsWhere two plans cross
Comparing two linear models when neither is cheaper everywhere.
4 linked questionsTwo taps and a tank
Holding a rate as a rate, rather than averaging the times that produced it.
4 linked questionsOne cylinder, four changes
Deriving which dimension squares and which does not, instead of recalling a rule.
4 linked questionsThe price that maximises nothing
Solving a quadratic model correctly and then noticing what it does not license.
4 linked questionsTwo halves of one journey
Seeing why an average of rates is not the average rate, on one journey, four times.
4 linked questionsThe point where a stall starts earning
Two linear functions of one variable, and the difference between where they cross and what crossing means.
4 linked questionsThe solution that is not one
Producing an extraneous root on purpose, then working out where it came from.
4 linked questionsThe same ratio in three costumes
Recognising one similar-triangle ratio behind a shadow, a mast and a scale drawing.
4 linked questionsReading & Writing
22 setsThe tide-gauge notebooks
Holding one distinction — what was measured versus what was inferred — across four questions.
4 linked questionsTwo views of a mural programme
Tracking exactly where two writers agree, where they diverge, and what each would concede.
4 linked questionsThe seed library
Separating what a study measured from what its author concluded, and holding that line for four questions.
4 linked questionsOne paragraph, four decisions
Applying four different conventions rules inside a single paragraph, where each fix has to survive the next.
4 linked questionsNotes on a shift change
Choosing what to say from a fixed set of facts, four times, for four different stated goals.
3 linked questionsThe canal that was never finished
Deciding what a writer is doing, four times, when the content is the same throughout.
4 linked questionsWhat a trial did and did not show
Keeping a result and its interpretation apart when both texts blur them.
3 linked questionsCounting what is easy to count
Holding the difference between a measurement and the thing it stands in for, across two texts that both blur it.
4 linked questionsThe same notes, four goals
Writing four different correct sentences from one fixed set of facts, where each is wrong for the other three goals.
4 linked questionsOne sentence, five drafts
Holding on to the subject of a sentence while everything around it grows.
4 linked questionsTwo readings of a lighting change
Separating a figure that is agreed on from a conclusion that is not.
4 linked questionsA paragraph, one sentence at a time
Choosing each connection from where the paragraph has actually got to, not from the sentence alone.
4 linked questionsAn editor's pass
Two rules, each applied twice in opposite directions, inside one paragraph.
4 linked questionsWhat survived the festival
Locating a disagreement that is about a word rather than about the facts.
4 linked questionsThe same finding, a different reader
Making four revision decisions that all follow from one change of audience.
4 linked questionsFour rules, one question
Answering four different conventions questions by asking the same thing each time: what is this sentence about?
4 linked questionsWhat the survey can carry
Keeping track of which group a percentage is a percentage of, four times running.
4 linked questionsOne list, four jobs
Watching a list change form as what it lists changes.
4 linked questionsThe sentence that goes furthest
Ranking four true-sounding sentences by how much of each the text actually supports.
4 linked questionsPraise that is not praise
Reading tone against content, where the warmest sentence carries the sharpest judgement.
4 linked questionsOne paragraph, four jobs
Watching the best revision change four times while the available sentences stay the same.
4 linked questionsOne clause, four roles
Repunctuating the same words four times as their job in the sentence changes.
4 linked questionsWhere this fits
Work the skill guides first, then the single-question banks until a method is automatic, then these. A set is much harder to fake than a standalone question: if the first reading is wrong, the later answers go with it, which is exactly the feedback a wrong single answer cannot give you.