Does This Teacher Know What She's Talking About?

<p>Tonight was the first night of D's SAT prep class for math. She is pretty sure her teacher is confused and doesn't know what she is doing. Can anyone tell me the answers to the following 2 questions? </p>

<p>1) For a positive integer n, the product n(n-1) must be</p>

<p>a) odd b) even c) a multiple of 6 d) positive e) prime</p>

<p>2) After Jenny deposited s dollars into her savings account, she had d dollars in the account. If she then withdrew (s-70) dollars from this account, how many dollars did she have left in the account?</p>

<p>a) d-s-70 b)d-s+70 c)d+s-70 d)d-s e)d-70</p>

<p>D thought the answer to 1) was b) even. The teacher said it was d) positive.</p>

<p>D thought the answer to 2) was b) d-s +70. The teacher said it was d) d-s. </p>

<p>Please Help!</p>

<ol>
<li>even</li>
<li>d- (s-70) = d - s +70</li>
</ol>

<p>Thanks satsux. I agreed with D also, but I haven't had to do SAT math in a really long time, so I was just looking for someone else to affirm that she was right before I lodge a complaint against the teacher. The teacher's answers made no sense and neither did her explanations.</p>

<p>Well one counter example for n(n-1) is positive is n=1 because 1(0) is 0 and 0 is neither positive nor negative</p>

<p>Yeah, that teacher has no clue what she's talking about.. The answers given by satsux are correct.
Plus, on the SAT that I took, the math wasn't even THAT complicated.. I got an 800 on the math. lol.</p>

<p>Satsux is completely correct for both. One of two consecutive whole numbers is even, guaranteed (because every other number is even...). Thus the product is two.</p>

<p>The second one is not that bad either.</p>

<p>If she made a mistake on one of them, I would be willing to write it off as a simple error. But both is kind of pushing it, especially when there is clearly a right answer... Is it a private or public course? I would suggest switching immediately.</p>

<p>no, the answer to the first one is not even because 12(11) would give you 121, so the answer is d. I also got b for the second one. i know how you can get d-s but it wouldnt answer the problem thats asked so maybe you just wrote the problem down wrong?</p>

<p>wow smart teacher lol... gosh i dont know what i'm gona do if that were my teacher -.-</p>

<p>im gona argue the hell out of him/her lol...</p>

<p>braves09 , i dont see how d-s makes sense.
it clearly stated s-70 is the amount of $ withdrawn, regardless of the question, where did the 70 go?</p>

<p>Thanks for your responses. D and I both were pretty sure of the answers - but before I lodged a complaint against the teacher, I just wanted a few people to back us up - even if I can't bring this as evidence........lol.</p>

<p>Ren - D did argue with her - but the teacher just thought that D didn't understand. D gave her PKW's explanation for the 1st one, and the teacher just disregarded her answer. </p>

<p>For the second one, the teacher kept insisting that s and d were equal since "Jenny" deposited s dollars in the bank she had d dollars in her account. I don't know where the teacher thought the $70 went.</p>

<p>Braves09 - thanks for trying, but I'm pretty sure you're doing the problem incorrectly for #1, and no, I didn't write the problem incorrectly for #2.</p>

<p>also,
"no, the answer to the first one is not even because 12(11) would give you 121, so the answer is d. I also got b for the second one. i know how you can get d-s but it wouldnt answer the problem thats asked so maybe you just wrote the problem down wrong?"<br>
- braves09</p>

<p>12 X 11= 132
11 X 11= 121 i think
so it is even. Over.</p>

<p>i recommend dropping the class lol...
seriously, i think the 2nd problem is like 2nd grader's lvl....
it's like having 5 apples, then give away 2 apples, how many apples left? -.-</p>

<p>Well, the course is being given through our school district. The district hired a test prep service, so I'll contact the person from our district who's in charge, to (a) let her know what's going on with that math class because there are some clueless students in that classroom who don't even realize they're being taught incorrectly, and (b) to see if the prep service can either change teachers or have the school refund my money.</p>

<p>Just an update - the teacher will no longer be teaching this course. The school is looking for a qualified, experienced replacement, and if they don't find one by Tuesday, they will refund our money - but that won't help with test prep. Oh, well.</p>

<p>If your daughter has what it takes to understand the SAT questions and how to answer them on her own and will make the same time committment to use the blue book or on-line course on her own, she will get far more out of doing the course on her own - maybe you could give her 1/2 of what the course costs.</p>

<p>There is some positive and fun with the time committment being in a classroom, but having a poor teacher is worse than not doing the course at all - the student thinks s/he understands the answer and loses confidence as opposed to gaining it.</p>

<p>I have seen people who make no time committment do okay by just taking the test several times until they understand how to take the test and what it entails.</p>

<p>If she does it on her own, do not have her work through all of the tests. Have her take a sample, then take more samples of the sections on which it appears she needs work.</p>

<p>Granny thanks for the advice. Well, the "poor teacher" is now history, so I won't know until Tuesday if they've found a replacement for her. I signed D up for the course mainly so she would do the practice tests. She has so much other work to do this summer (Summer job, community service, AP homework, books to read for English, etc.), that it's too easy for her to put the SAT practices on the backburner - and I'm afraid she would never get around to doing them. </p>

<p>She's at the English prep class now, and I'm hoping that works out a lot better.</p>

<p>ha, how did i mess up 12(11)?? sorry, i guess the teacher is just stupid...</p>

<p>lol good to hear that.</p>

<p>the first couldn't must be positive, because when n=1, then n(n-1)=0 which is NOT positive..but is EVEN..</p>

<p>dude, this teacher should be fired.</p>