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- TIPS FOR ARITHMETIC
- ~ Read the entire problem carefully; underline
- important information in your test booklet.
-
- ~ Calculate your answers next to the problem.
-
- ~ You can lose time doing unnecessary calculating;
- look for a shortcut or a generalization.
-
- ~ Watch out for the words "must" or "always." Look
- for a counterexample to disprove the example.
-
- ~ Estimate answers to eliminate choices, then
- work backwards from remaining answer choices.
-
- ~ Consider making an educated guess when you have
- eliminated one or more choices.
- [1. p170 #29
- 0 0
- If it is now 4:00 p.m. Saturday, in 253 hours from
- now, what time and day will it be? (Assume no
- daylight-saving time changes in the period.)
-
- &(A) 5:00 a.m. Saturday&
- &(B) 1:00 a.m. Sunday&
- &(C) 5:00 p.m. Tuesday&
- &(D) 1:00 a.m. Wednesday&
- &(E) 5:00 a.m. Wednesday&
- #0 A
- This is only 6 days and 13 hours later.
- (6 * 24) + 13 = 157
- #0 B
- This is only 7 days and 9 hours later.
- (7 * 24) + 9 = 177
- #0 C
- This is only 10 days and 1 hour later.
- (10 * 24) + 1 = 241
- #0 D
- This is 10 days and 9 hours later. (10 * 24) + 9 = 249
- #1 E
- You divided 253 by 24 to get 10 days and 13 hours.
- Counting 10 days from Saturday at 4 p.m., you arrived at
- Tuesday at 4 p.m. Adding 13 more hours made it 5:00 the
- next morning (Wednesday).
- `HINT FOR PROBLEM 1
- There are 24 hours in one day. How many full days are
- there in 253 hours? How many hours are left over?
- [2. p188 #22
- 0 0
- On a certain test, a class with 10 students had an
- average (arithmetic mean) score of 60 and a class
- with 15 students had an average score of 80.
- What was the average score on that test for the
- 25 students?
-
- &(A) 70& &(B) 71& &(C) 72& &(D) 75&
- &(E) It cannot be determined from the information
- given.&
- #0 A
- Adding 60 and 80 and dividing the total by 2 would give
- the average if only 1 student had a score of 60 and 1
- student had a score of 80. Be sure to take into account
- the number of students in each class.
- #0 B
- You may have tried to estimate the answer or perhaps
- you made a calculation error. Find the total of the
- scores of all 25 students, then divide by 25.
- #1 C
- Ten students scoring 60 plus 15 students scoring 80
- gives a total for all the scores of 1800. Dividing 1800
- by the total number of students (25) gave you the
- correct average of 72.
- #0 D
- You may have tried to estimate the answer or perhaps you
- made a calculation error. Add up the scores of all 25
- students, then divide by 25.
- #0 E
- Since 10 students had an average score of 60, the total
- points they earned was 600. Similarly, the 15 students
- in the other class earned a total of 15 * 80, or 1200
- points. You can find the average of all the students'
- scores by dividing the total number of points by the
- total number of students.
- `HINT FOR PROBLEM 2
- If the class of 10 students had an average score of 60,
- the total of the ten students' scores had to be 600. How
- about the other class? You need to find the average
- score for all 25 students.
- [3. p107 #18
- 0 0
- <x> is defined as 1 less than the number of digits in
- the integer x. For example, <100> = 3 - 1 = 2.
-
- If x is a positive integer less than 1,000,001, then
- <x> is at most
-
- &(A) 5& &(B) 6& &(C) 7&
- &(D) 999,999& &(E) 1,000,000&
- #0 A
- You may have used 999,999 as the positive integer,
- counted the digits and subtracted 1 to get this
- answer. But "at most" the x could be 1,000,000
- which has one digit more than 999,999 does.
- #1 B
- The largest number x could be is 1,000,000 and the
- total number of digits in the integer 1,000,000 is 7.
- 7 - 1 = 6.
- #0 C
- You counted the digits correctly, but you may have
- forgotten to subtract 1. Reread the definition of <x>.
- #0 D
- To get this answer you may have subtracted 1 from
- 1,000,000 instead of counting the digits first and
- then subtracting 1.
- #0 E
- The greatest value of x could be 1,000,000, but the
- value of <x> is found by counting the number of digits
- in x and subtracting 1.
- `HINT FOR PROBLEM 3
- Notice the difference between the value of x and the
- value of <x>.
- [4. p82 #22
- 0 0
- For which of the following pairs of numbers is the
- square of one of the numbers the reciprocal of the
- other number?
- I. 0.25, 2
- II. 1, 1
- III. 0.5, 4
-
- &(A) I only& &(B) II only& &(C) III only&
- &(D) I and II only& &(E) I, II, and III&
- #0 A
- Be sure to find the square and reciprocal for each
- of the numbers in II and III, in addition to I, since
- more than one choice may be correct.
- #0 B
- Be sure to find the square and reciprocal for each
- of the numbers in I and III, since more than one choice
- may be correct.
- #0 C
- Did you square and find the reciprocal for each of
- the numbers in I and II? In II, the square of 1 is 1
- and the reciprocal of 1 is /1/1/.
- #0 D
- What about III? The square of .5 is .25 and the
- reciprocal of 4 is /1/4/. Even though one is written
- as a decimal and the other as a common fraction, they
- are equal in value.
- #1 E
- You realized that sometimes the square of the first
- number equaled the reciprocal of the second and some-
- times the square of the second number equaled the
- reciprocal of the first.
- `HINT FOR PROBLEM 4
- Be sure to work out the square and the reciprocal of
- each number before you decide on your answer.
- [5. p222 #33
- 0 0
- A carpenter used /1/3/ of his lumber for one project
- and /3/5/ of what was left for another project. If he
- had 30 units of lumber to start with, how many units
- did he have left after the two projects?
-
- &(A) 8&
- &(B) 6&
- &(C) 4&
- &(D) 3&
- &(E) 2&
- #1 A
- The carpenter used /1/3/ of 30 units on one project.
- Of the 20 units left, he then used /3/5/, or 12, on a
- second project, which left 8 units of lumber unused.
- #0 B
- You found that /1/3/ of 30 = 10 units of lumber, then
- took /3/5/ of 10 to get 6. There were 10 units used; that
- left 20 available for the second project. Find /3/5/ of 20
- to see how many units were used for the second project.
- Subtract that number from 20 to find the number left.
- #0 C
- The problem states that /1/3/ of 30, or 10 units of lumber,
- were used on the first project. How many units were left
- for the second project? (20) Now, find /2/5/ of this amount
- (if /3/5/ was used, /2/5/ was left).
- #0 D
- You may have found that /3/5/ of 30 = 18, then found that
- /1/3/ of 18 = 6 and then divided 18 by 6 to get 3. Read the
- problem carefully. Decide which quantity to find /1/3/
- of and which quantity you need to take /3/5/ of.
- #0 E
- If you found /1/3/ of 30 (10) and /3/5/ of 30 (18) and
- thought he had used 28 units of lumber, you missed the
- key words "/3/5/ of what was left."
- `HINT FOR PROBLEM 5
- This problem has more than one step. Be sure to notice
- key words, such as "/3/5/ of what was left."
- [6. p118 #30
- 0 0
- A machine can insert letters in envelopes at the
- rate of 120 per !minute!. Another machine can stamp
- the envelopes at the rate of 3 per !second!. How
- many such stamping machines are needed to keep up
- with 18 inserting machines of this kind?
-
- &(A) 9&
- &(B) 12&
- &(C) 15&
- &(D) 24&
- &(E) 27&
- #0 A
- Nine stamping machines (each at a rate of 3 per second)
- could process 27 per second. Eighteen inserting machines
- (each at a rate of 120 per minute) could process 36 per
- second. Their outputs are not equal.
- #1 B
- Changing 120 per minute to 2 per second, and then com-
- paring the rates of the machines, you found that one
- machine works only /2/3/ as fast as the other; you need
- only /2/3/ as many of the stamping machines to keep up
- with the 18 inserting machines.
- #0 C
- Fifteen stamping machines (each at a rate of 3 per
- second) could process 45 per second. Eighteen inserting
- machines (each at a rate of 2 per second) could process
- 36 per second. Their outputs are not equal.
- #0 D
- If you express the rate of the inserting machine as
- 2 per second instead of 120 per minute, it's easy to see
- that this machine works more slowly. It would therefore
- take fewer than 18 of the faster-working stamping
- machines to produce the same output.
- #0 E
- If you express the rate of the inserting machine as
- 2 per second instead of 120 per minute, it's easy to see
- that this machine works more slowly. It would therefore
- take fewer than 18 of the faster-working stamping
- machines to produce the same output.
- `HINT FOR PROBLEM 6
- Start by expressing the rate of the inserting machine
- in seconds. Which machine works faster? Which answer
- choices could you eliminate immediately?
- [7. p81 #19
- 0 8
- The chart above shows distances in kilometers between
- four towns that are located along a straight road.
- Which of the following could be a correct order
- relationship for these towns along the road?
-
- &(A) Carson, Polo, Rand, Greco&
- &(B) Carson, Rand, Greco, Polo&
- &(C) Greco, Carson, Rand, Polo&
- &(D) Polo, Carson, Rand, Greco&
- &(E) Rand, Carson, Polo, Greco&
- #0 A
- If you start from Carson, Polo, which is 5 miles away,
- could not come next if Rand is only 1 mile away from
- Carson.
- #0 B
- This choice doesn't work because Greco and Polo are both
- 5 miles from the starting town of Carson. The two cities
- can't be in the same place; one of the two must be on
- the other side of Carson.
- #0 C
- If you start from Greco, you would reach Rand before
- Carson, because Rand is 4 miles from Greco and Carson
- is 5 miles from Greco.
- #1 D
- This is the only choice which positions the towns in
- the correct order according to their distance from the
- first town on the list.
- #0 E
- Starting from Rand, Carson (1 mile away) is the next
- town. Polo cannot be third because it is 6 miles from
- Rand, while Greco is only 4 miles away from Rand.
- `HINT FOR PROBLEM 7
- Draw the road as a straight line. Try positioning the
- towns along the road in the order given in each answer
- choice. Eliminate impossible choices.
- [8. p91 #24
- 1 14
- /2/3/ 1
- /3/2/
- #0 A
- To find the value of a complex fraction, rewrite the
- complex fraction as a division problem (top fraction
- divided by bottom fraction). Remember to invert and
- multiply. Also remember that in any fraction, if the
- numerator is smaller than the denominator, the value of
- the fraction is less than 1.
- #1 B
- /2/3/ divided by /3/2/ = /2/3/ * /2/3/ = /4/9/ This is less than 1.
- #0 C
- If you inverted the bottom fraction and then divided
- /2/3/ by /2/3/, you would get 1, and conclude that the
- values in the two columns were equal. Once the bottom
- fraction is inverted, it should be multiplied with the
- top fraction, not divided into it.
- #0 D
- It is possible to do this problem by simplifying the
- complex fraction.
- `HINT FOR PROBLEM 8
- Notice which part of the complex fraction is larger. You
- can rewrite the complex fraction as a division problem
- and solve to find its value.
- [9. P117 #24
- 1 9
- The percent that 100%
- y is of x
- #1 A
- Once you realize that x is only /1/10/ of y, it stands
- to reason that y is 10 times greater or 1000% of x.
- #0 B
- Since you know that x is 10% (/1/10/) of y, then y must
- be much greater (10 times greater) than x. This means
- that the percent that y is of x is more than 100%.
- #0 C
- The values in Columns A and B can be equal only if y is
- 100% of x. This would mean that x = y. You already know
- that x is only 10% of y, so this choice is not possible.
- #0 D
- You have all the information necessary to answer this
- problem.
- `HINT FOR PROBLEM 9
- Translate the words into an equation using fractions
- (x = /10/100/y) or by writing the percent as a decimal
- (x =.1y). Then, solve for y.
- [10. P221 #26
- 1 10
- The least number of 8
- marbles that must
- change hands if each
- is to have an equal
- number of marbles
- #0 A
- One approach is to assume Pete has no marbles to start
- with. That means Joe has 4, Nancy 7, and Anne 13. Adding
- the marbles and dividing by 4 shows that each person
- should end up with 6 marbles. Move 7 from Anne (give 6
- to Pete and 1 to Joe) and 1 from Nancy (to Joe) to
- accomplish this.
- #0 B
- One approach is to assume Pete has no marbles to start
- with. That means Joe has 4, Nancy 7, and Anne 13. Adding
- the marbles and dividing by 4 shows that each person
- should end up with 6 marbles. Move 7 from Anne (give 6
- to Pete and 1 to Joe) and 1 from Nancy (to Joe) to
- accomplish this.
- #1 C
- There are 24 marbles in excess of what Pete has which
- need to be divided evenly among 4 people. At least 8 must
- be moved (7 from Anne, 1 from Nancy) to accomplish this.
- #0 D
- There is sufficient information to determine a definite
- answer.
- `HINT FOR PROBLEM 10
- Determine the total number of marbles that are in excess
- of what Pete has. Add each person's share of these extra
- marbles to the marbles each one already has.
-