Simple, a friend of mine, has used the following strategies to pass his math test. He says it helped him answer questions correctly he would not have!
Strategy:
Substitution is where you use your own number for a variable like the example below.
1. a + b = c What is the mean of a and b in terms of a, b, and c?
Correct answer is C. If you couldn’t see that then substitution might be handy. I made a = 7, b = 1 and 7 + 1 = 8 or c. Use the same numbers in the answers! The mean is 4, (7 + 1) ÷ 2.
I could have used any number for a and b.
The next problem uses a strategy that is simple but require work, POE or process of elimination is to find out what is false and get rid of it. What remains is true or the correct answer(s).
2. From set of odd numbers between 6 and 16. How many pairs or distinct numbers have a sum of 23 or more?
3. What are the odd numbers? 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15. How many unique numbers add up to 23 or more in pairs?
15 + 13 = 28 One, 15 + 11 = 25 Two, 15 + 9 = 24 Three, 15 + 7 = 22 Nope, 13 + 11 = 24 Four, 7 9 11 or 13 aren’t going to give me pairs of 23 or more.
The answer is D or four pairs. JDI would have also solved this problem. A problem may need more than one strategy to solve it!
Number facts are helpful as can be seen below.
4. What is 5% of x?
When you multiply a number by 5 the units digit position will be 5 or zero. 5(1) = 5, 5(2) = 10. The zero in ten is the units digits position and we have a 0. The only answer with with 5 or zero in the units digit is A.
Plug-in means to take an answer and use it in the question. If it works it’s the right answer. If not it’s wrong!
5. A 10 gallon bucket is losing 2 gallons of water every 10 minutes. How many minutes will the bucket be completely empty?
The answer is D. A plug-in problem is easy when the answers are in a sorted order like ascending (a b c d) of descending (dcba). We can start with answer C. Yes, I know we could have said 10 ÷ 2 = 5(10) for 50 minutes. Let’s pretend we can’t see that logic. 40 ÷ 10 = 4(2) or 8 gallons. Answer C is too small to work. Which means answers A, B, and C are to small and are wrong. When answer C is wrong we will choose A or E as the next choice to try. In this case we try answer E. 100 ÷ 10 = 10(2) or 20 gallons. This answer is too big so D is correct. You would only have to try a maximum of twice in order to find the right answer. Of course Logic will work in this question also.
The difficulty of the question doesn’t select the strategy. You use a strategy to eliminate a wrong answer. Hopefully, four wrong answers might be eliminated by a single strategy. If not use a different strategy until four answers are eliminated.
Simple says it’s OK to count on your fingers and toes. On the GED math test only right answers count! Simple’s job is to find them.
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