PSAT · Question of the Day

PSAT Question of the Day

A fresh daily question to build accuracy, reinforce recall, and turn practice into a steady habit.

Thursday, September 17, 2026

A line has $y$ -intercept $8$ and passes through $(4, 2)$ . What is the slope of the line?

Keep practicing PSAT

Question of the Day

Answer today's PSAT question, reveal the full explanation, then keep the streak going with a new question every day.

A line has $y$ -intercept $8$ and passes through $(4, 2)$ . What is the slope of the line?

$-\tfrac{3}{2}$ (correct answer)
$\tfrac{3}{2}$
$-\tfrac{1}{2}$
$\tfrac{1}{2}$

Explanation: This problem gives us the y-intercept and one point to find the slope of a line. The y-intercept is 8, so the line passes through $(0, 8)$ and $(4, 2)$ . Using the slope formula: $m = (2 - 8)/(4 - 0) = -6/4 = -3/2$ . The negative slope indicates the line is decreasing. We can verify this makes sense: starting at $(0, 8)$ , if we move right 4 units to x = 4, we should move down 6 units to $y = 8 - 6 = 2$ ✓. When given the y-intercept and another point, you immediately have two points to calculate the slope. Always double-check that your slope calculation gives you the correct direction (positive or negative).