A couple of questions (writing and math)

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>Writing:</p>

<ol>
<li>For all their talk about ecology, major companies have so far spent very little to fight pollution.</li>
</ol>

<p>(A) For all their talk
(B) In spite of the fact of their having talked
(C) Besides their having talked
(D) In addition to their talking
(E) Although there is talk between one and the other</p>

<p>Why is it A and not B? I've never heard/seen A used like that before. Why is B incorrect?</p>

<ol>
<li>Mediators were standing by, prepared to intervene in the labor dispute even though both sides had refused earlier offers for assistance. No error</li>
</ol>

<p>Why is the answer D? I chose A because I thought it would be "to intervene WITH" rather than "to intervene IN". Why is this incorrect?</p>

<ol>
<li>According to some theorists, what any particular bird can eat could change with even the slightest variation in the shape of its beak. No error</li>
</ol>

<p>Why is the answer E? I chose A because I was unfamiliar with the structure of the sentence (the "what" being at the beginning). Why is this incorrect?</p>

<p>Math:</p>

<ol>
<li>A four-digit integer, WXYZ, in which W, X, Y, and Z each represent a different digit, is formed according to the following rules.

<ol>
<li>X = W + Y + Z</li>
<li>W = Y + 1</li>
<li>Z = W - 5
What is the four-digit integer?</li>
</ol></li>
</ol>

<p>I couldn't even come up with an answer to this one, so I omitted it. The correct answer is 5940. How does one arrive at that answer?</p>

<ol>
<li>(Picture of a circle with two colors is shown)
As shown above, a certain design is to be painted using 2 different colors. If 5 different colors are available for the design, how many differently painted designs are possible?</li>
</ol>

<p>(A) 10
(B) 20
(C) 25
(D) 60
(E) 120</p>

<p>I chose E because 5! = 120. The correct answer, however, is B, 20. Can someone explain how to arrive at the correct answer?</p>

<p>That's all for now. Thanks in advance!
-stef1a</p>

2

<p><a href=“B”>quote</a> In spite of the fact of their having talked

[/quote]
</p>

<p>“The fact” is almost always nonstandard. That clause could’ve been rewritten without “the fact,” as in “In spite of their having talked” or just “In spite of their talks…”</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Do not intervene with our matters! Never heard that before?
I’m pretty sure the correct preposition is “of” because it’s part of a prepositional phrase focusing what kind of offers.

</p>

<p>The way I read it, “what” is a relative pronoun standing in for, well, what the birds eat (e.g., worms, metal bars, etc.). Nothing wrong with that.</p>

<p>Don’t go by what you haven’t heard before because chances are, you haven’t heard a lot of expressions before. As long as there arn’t any blatantly unidiomatic expressions (like if the question had said “whom any bird…” how many man-eating birds do you know?) in the question, go with no error if everything else is used correctly.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Uhh I need a pen and paper for this. Let’s see. First, you know from Z= W - 5 that W has to be at least 5 to make Z a useable number (positive integer or 0). Then, I found it helpful to get everything in terms of W since the other 3 letters seem to be based on W.</p>

<p>I got</p>

<p>X= 3W-6
Y=W-1
Z=W-5</p>

<p>Using X=3W-6, W can’t be anything 6 or over because if it were, X would have to be a double-digit number, which is impossible. So W is 5.</p>

<p>From there, just plug in W. W=5, X=9, Y=4, Z=0.
Not the most efficient way but it got the job done.
Actually I don’t know how else I would do it.
This sounds like one of those blasted Princeton Review problems. I can’t imagine something like this being on the test.

</p>

<p>You have 5 choices for the first circle and the 4 (cus you can’t repeat) for the second one. 5X4= 20.</p>

<p>If you need any more just send them over! I miss doing these.</p>

3

<p>Okay, I’ve got another one. I arrived at the correct answer, but it took me way to long, and I was pretty much just guessing and checking my answers.</p>

<ol>
<li>On a square gameboard that is divided into n rows of n squares each, k of these squares lie along the boundary of the gameboard. Which of the following is a possible value for k?</li>
</ol>

<p>(A) 10
(B) 25
(C) 34
(D) 42
(E) 52</p>

<p>The correct answer is E. Here’s how I got there: I made a 4x4 grid to start with, and noticed that there were 4 non-k squares (squares that were not on the boundary of the board). I noticed that in a 3x3 board there was only 1 non-k square. I then realized that starting at 3, the number of non-k squares in each grid would be j^2 - j being 1 for a 3x3 grid, 2 for a 4x4, 3 for a 5x5, etc… So, to find the number of k squares for each grid, I would just do n^2 - j^2… This took several minutes, but I finally got up to 196-144 = 52, which is E, the correct answer. I now realize that I could have just added 4 to the total number of k squares as I incremented n for each grid… Basically, all I had to do was see which of the answers was divisible by 4 (the only one listed being 52). Wow, I feel dumb. Haha. :)</p>

4

<p>^</p>

<p>Well I don’t know how to explain a faster way than what you realized at the end of the post, but all I did was draw 2 squares (4by4 and 5by5) and realized that the answer has the be divisible by 4.</p>

5

<p>Writing:</p>

<ol>
<li>For all their talk about ecology, major companies have so far spent very little to fight pollution.</li>
</ol>

<p>(A) For all their talk
(B) In spite of the fact of their having talked
(C) Besides their having talked
(D) In addition to their talking
(E) Although there is talk between one and the other</p>

<p>Why is it A and not B? I’ve never heard/seen A used like that before. Why is B incorrect?</p>

<hr>

<p>In spite of the fact of their having talked</p>

<p>“their having talked” is obviously awkward</p>

<hr>

<ol>
<li>Mediators were standing by, prepared to intervene in the labor dispute even though both sides had refused earlier offers for assistance. No error</li>
</ol>

<p>Why is the answer D? I chose A because I thought it would be “to intervene WITH” rather than “to intervene IN”. Why is this incorrect?</p>

<hr>

<p>it’s “earlier offers of assistance”
plus, it can’t be “with” because “intervene” means “to interfere” or more practically “to be placed or located between two things.” you can’t put something with something and have it be between them, you have to put it IN.</p>

<hr>

<ol>
<li>According to some theorists, what any particular bird can eat could change with even the slightest variation in the shape of its beak. No error</li>
</ol>

<p>Why is the answer E? I chose A because I was unfamiliar with the structure of the sentence (the “what” being at the beginning). Why is this incorrect?</p>

<hr>

<p>It’s not A because it’s the subject. “What” obviously refers to “foods” so replace that and say it to yourself: “the foods any particular bird can eat…” so it is right. Also, you can rearrange it into a question.</p>

<hr>

<p>Math:</p>

<ol>
<li>A four-digit integer, WXYZ, in which W, X, Y, and Z each represent a different digit, is formed according to the following rules.</li>
<li>X = W + Y + Z</li>
<li>W = Y + 1</li>
<li>Z = W - 5
What is the four-digit integer?</li>
</ol>

<p>I couldn’t even come up with an answer to this one, so I omitted it. The correct answer is 5940. How does one arrive at that answer?</p>

<hr>

<p>I’m too lazy to solve this right now and i want to eat ice cream…will come up with the answer later</p>

<hr>

<ol>
<li>(Picture of a circle with two colors is shown)
As shown above, a certain design is to be painted using 2 different colors. If 5 different colors are available for the design, how many differently painted designs are possible?</li>
</ol>

<p>(A) 10
(B) 20
(C) 25
(D) 60
(E) 120</p>

<p>I chose E because 5! = 120. The correct answer, however, is B, 20. Can someone explain how to arrive at the correct answer?</p>

<hr>

<p>5x4=20
Because the first color can be any of the 5 and the second one will have one less of a choice and will be any of the remaining 4</p>

6

<p>lol number 14 is so easy.</p>

<p>5 x 4 = 20</p>

<p>rofl if you got this wrong.</p>

7

<p>Yeah, for the writing one- the shortest answer is usually the better choice.</p>