Alberta Education Grade 9 released materials for the math PAT. Teaching notes are included explaining how to use this file with students. In the original Notebook file, the screen shade is used to progressively offer more information for the questions. As well the answer to each question is on the orange tab that can be pulled from the right-hand side of the slide.

1. Grade 9 PAT
2010 Assessment Highlights
(Preparation for 2011 and beyond!)
Good math is not how many answers
you know.
It's how you behave when you don't
know!

2. Link to Alberta Learning
PAT resources
What is this resource?
"Teachers should not have to halt instruction to prepare students for the BIG
TEST." Alberta Education, General Information Bulletin
Practicing for PATs is important, but should be embedded in daily
math instruction. We've created this file to give you and your students
one more way to prepare.
The questions we have included here come from Alberta Education's
released PAT materials, and you may already be familiar with them.
What's important is not the questions themselves, but how you use
them with your students.

3. Time Frame:
We recommend using just one or two problems each day.
Some days, you may want to use it as a quick opener or filler. On
those days, choose a simpler problem - one that doesn't seem to
lend itself to deep exploration.
Some problems are richer, and you and your students could
easily spend a much longer time creating questions, sharing
strategies, and justifying solutions.

4. Benefits:
· increased student engagement
· ability to reach students at many levels when presented with the
same problems
· integration of many of the process skills through a single problem:
problem solving, communication, reasoning, visualization,
connections, mental math and estimation
· opportunity for students to collaborate and build skills and
knowledge as a community of learners
· opportunity for students to ponder a situation and ask their own
questions

5. How to use the problems:
· Use the screen shade to reveal only as much of the information as
you need to begin.
· You may choose to reveal only the context of the problem, the
background information, the picture or graphic, or the question
without all the information needed to answer it. You're going to
approach different problems in different ways.
· Involve your students in wondering about the situation, sharing things
they notice about the problem, clarifying vocabulary,and building/
sharing background knowledge.
· Consider using "partner talk" as much as possible to increase student
engagement.

6. Key Questions at this point:
· "What do you think this might be about?"
· "What do you notice?"
· "What do we already know?"
· "What information can you pull from this?"
· "Can you explain this situation to your partner in your own
words?"
· "What questions could you ask about this (graph/picture/
situation)?"

7. Next steps:
· Once you've allowed your students to talk through the problem
context and pull out as much math as they can, reveal the
question itself.
· If applicable, ask them for an estimate - What will the answer
be close to? What do you know about the answer?
· Give students time to come up with an answer, either
independently or with their partner.
· When you think they're ready, reveal multiple choice answers.
· At this point, give them a couple more minutes to prepare
before you facilitate sharing.

8. Key Questions at this point:
· "Did you notice any answers that you knew were
unreasonable?"
· "Why do you think your answer is the best option?"
· "What strategy did you use to find your answer?"
· "Who got a different answer or thought of it in a different way?"
· "If you see your answer as one of the choices, do you know
it's right?"
· "Was anyone's answer not on the list? What did you do next?"
Pull
You'll find the answers
for each question on
these pull tabs.

9. Extensions:
· Using the screen shade, present from the bottom up instead
of the top down. Look at the answers first, and come up with
possible questions to match.
· Have students create and share problems for a particular
graphic or context, before considering the actual question.
For example, have them use index cards, write the question
on the front and the answer on the back, and then trade with
other students.
· Add your own problems to this file. Scan the problem or open
a digital file, and then use the screen capture (camera) tool to
capture the different elements. You can then arrange them
any way you wish, depending on the order in which you want
to present those elements to your students.

10. Channi saves 15% of her weekly $625 paycheque.
What is the fewest number of paycheques that it
will take Channi to save a minumum of $320?
A. 5
Pull
B. 4
C. 3
D. 2

11. Frank rented an amusement park for a party. He
was charged an initial $250 fee and $0.75 for each
guest.
If the total charge was $342.25, then how many
guests attended Frank's party?
Pull
A. 123
B. 345
C. 456
D. 789

12. Kayla has an average of 83% on 15 quizzes.
If her teacher eliminates Kayla's lowest grade, a
56%, then which of the following equations can be
used to find Kayla's new quiz average?
Pull
A.
B.
C.
D.

13. Mira is going on a vacation with Jessie and Sam.
Each person will pay an equal share for the cost of
the rental car (r), hotel (h), and food (f).
Which of the following equations can Mira use to
calculate the amount each person must pay, P?
Pull
A.
B.
C.
D.

14. Norm and Rick both have cube shaped fish tanks as shown below.
If each side of Norm's fish tank is half the length of each side of Rick's
fish tank, then how much more water will Rick's fish tank hold?
Pull
A. 2 times as much
B. 4 times as much
C. 6 times as much
D. 8 times as much

15. Which of the following containers has the greatest volume?
Pull

16. A teacher has four bags that contain both red and green marbles.
The number of red and green marbles in each bag is shown in
the table below. The teacher asks one of her students to reach
into one of the bags and select a marble without looking.
Pull
In order to have the greatest probability of selecting a green
marble, the student should select a marble from bag
A. 1 C. 3
B. 2 D. 4

17. A student must describe the
weather by using only 1 of the
4 sky condition symbols given
below and only 1 of the 3 wind
condition symbols shown here.
On any given day, what is the probability that the student will describe
Pull
the sky condition as "sunny" and the wind condition as "no wind"?
A. C.
B. D.

18. The approximate value of 15 is represented by the letter:
A. J
Pull
B. K
C. L
D. M

19. The following diagram represents a balanced mobile.
The sum of all parts of the mobile is:
Pull
A. C.
B. D.

20. Sandy has a budget of $100 to spend on back-to-school
clothes. The shirts she wants to buy are $12 each, and the
pants she wants to buy are $25 each. All prices include tax.
Which of the following inequalities could be used to
determine the maximum number of shirts, n, Sandy can
buy if she also buys 2 pairs of pants?
Pull
A.
B.
C.
D.

21. Pull
If O is the centre of the circle,
the measure of x is _____°.

22. A truck heads north at a constant speed of 80 km/h. A car
leaves 20 minutes later heading north along the same road
and travelling at a constant speed of 90 km/h.
Which of the following equations could be used to determine how
much time in hours, t, the car travels until it catches up to the truck?
A.
Pull
B.
C.
D.

23. The diagram below shows the front elevation of a building on a blueprint.
Based on the dimensions shown on the blueprint, the actual
Pull
dimensions of the window, to the nearest tenth of a metre, will be:
A. 0.5 m x 0.3 m
B. 1.0 m x 0.6 m
C. 1.8 m x 1.1 m
D. 1.8 m x 3.0 m

24. Sam draws two polygons that are similar. The first
polygon has a perimeter of 16 cm and the second
polygon has a perimeter of 10 cm.
If the shortest side of the first polygon has as length
of 4 cm, then the corresponding side of the second
Pull
polygon has a length of _____ cm.

25. Darren joins the rectangular prisms shown below to create a new
rectangular prism that has the greatest possible surface area. He then
paints all visible surfaces. After the paint dries, Darren separates the
two prisms.
The total area of both prisms that has
Pull
not been painted is _____cm2.