ScoreReady SAT
Drill by score band: 400–500 500–600 600–700 700–800

Score band 600-700 · Passport to Advanced Math

Exponential Functions and Exponent Rules drills for 600-700

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Targeted practice for students currently scoring in the 600-700 range, drilling exclusively on exponential functions and exponent rules.

What a 600-700 scorer needs from this topic

The 600 to 700 band is the largest plateau on the SAT Math section. Students stuck here are usually accurate on every easy question and most medium questions, but they lose four to six points to harder algebra and to one or two arithmetic slips per section. Breaking out of this band requires both a deeper toolbox and a faster execution speed on the questions you already know how to do. Strengthening-band drills target the harder question patterns: quadratic systems, exponential and rational manipulation, function composition, conditional probability, and the geometry questions that require an extra construction line you must add to the figure yourself.

For Exponential Functions and Exponent Rules specifically, students in the 600-700 band need to focus on the question patterns the College Board uses at this difficulty level. Apply exponent rules and interpret exponential growth. The questions below are pulled from the ScoreReady question bank and filtered to the 600-700 band based on difficulty calibration that matches publicly released College Board practice materials.

Drill these untimed first. Once you can produce a clean worked solution on paper for every question without notes, switch to timed mode and aim for under 75 seconds per question. That pace is roughly the average time per question on the actual SAT Math section, and it leaves time for the harder questions you will see at the end of each module.

Practice set

  1. 600-700 medium Applying Exponent Rules

    A bacteria population starts at 260 cells and multiplies by a factor of 2 every hour. How many cells are present after 1 hours?

    1. A 521
    2. B 262
    3. C 260
    4. D 520
    Worked solution

    Answer: D — 520

    Exponential growth: P(t) = P_0 × r^t = 260 × 2^1 = 260 × 2 = 520 cells.

  2. 600-700 medium Exponential Growth and Decay Models

    A radioactive sample of mass 485 grams loses a factor of 3 every year. What is its mass after 1 years?

    1. A 161.67
    2. B 485.00
    3. C 162.67
    4. D 482.00
    Worked solution

    Answer: A — 161.67

    Exponential decay: m(t) = m_0 × (1/3)^t = 485 / 3^1 = 485 / 3 = 161.67 grams.

  3. 600-700 medium Fractional and Radical Exponents

    A bacteria population starts at 696 cells and multiplies by a factor of 5 every hour. How many cells are present after 3 hours?

    1. A 17400
    2. B 711
    3. C 10440
    4. D 87000
    Worked solution

    Answer: D — 87000

    Exponential growth: P(t) = P_0 × r^t = 696 × 5^3 = 696 × 125 = 87000 cells.

  4. 600-700 medium Comparing Exponential and Linear Models

    A radioactive sample of mass 331 grams loses a factor of 10 every year. What is its mass after 1 years?

    1. A 321.00
    2. B 331.00
    3. C 33.10
    4. D 34.1
    Worked solution

    Answer: C — 33.10

    Exponential decay: m(t) = m_0 × (1/10)^t = 331 / 10^1 = 331 / 10 = 33.10 grams.

  5. 600-700 medium Applying Exponent Rules

    A bacteria population starts at 792 cells and multiplies by a factor of 2 every hour. How many cells are present after 3 hours?

    1. A 4752
    2. B 798
    3. C 6336
    4. D 3168
    Worked solution

    Answer: C — 6336

    Exponential growth: P(t) = P_0 × r^t = 792 × 2^3 = 792 × 8 = 6336 cells.

  6. 600-700 medium Exponential Growth and Decay Models

    A radioactive sample of mass 874 grams loses a factor of 3 every year. What is its mass after 4 years?

    1. A 32.37
    2. B 10.79
    3. C 72.83
    4. D 862.00
    Worked solution

    Answer: B — 10.79

    Exponential decay: m(t) = m_0 × (1/3)^t = 874 / 3^4 = 874 / 81 = 10.79 grams.

  7. 600-700 hard Fractional and Radical Exponents

    A bacteria population starts at 239 cells and multiplies by a factor of 5 every hour. How many cells are present after 1 hours?

    1. A 1195
    2. B 239
    3. C 244
    4. D 1196
    Worked solution

    Answer: A — 1195

    Exponential growth: P(t) = P_0 × r^t = 239 × 5^1 = 239 × 5 = 1195 cells.

How to use these drills to climb a band

Climbing from one score band to the next requires a different study mix than climbing within a band. Within a band, you are mostly fixing careless errors and pattern-recognizing the question types you already understand. Climbing to the next band means adding new question types to your toolbox — patterns you currently recognize but cannot solve fluently. The 700–800 set in this drill is exactly that toolbox for students currently in the 600–700 range.

The single most reliable indicator that you are ready to move up a band is being able to explain a worked solution to someone else, in your own words, without referring to notes. Practice this with one classmate or one parent per week. The act of teaching exposes the gaps your timed solves did not.

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