Frustrating Math Problem, Please Help

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>Can anyone help me with math problem #15, page 551 in the CB Blue Book? I would post it here but it has a graph in it. I haven't been able to find anyone who can explain this. Thanks.</p>

2

<p>Remember that the question asks to identify a function. </p>

<p>Look at the values of p and plug them in to get the values for t(1), t(2), t(3), t(4), t(5): what you obtain is always between 40 and 50. You can deduct that all values average about 44 seconds. </p>

<p>This means that t(p) is roughly 44.</p>

3

<p>This problem is a bit unusual for the SAT, but becoming more and more common. This doesn't test any real math skills, but more your ability to "think on the fly."</p>

<p>Right away you can eliminate B, C and D because they are obviously wrong - either they give you numbers in the hundreds, or numbers less than 10. You know you need numbers in the 40's. Now, how do you choose between A and E?</p>

<p>Try E with one of the p-values; for example, 3: the formula p+44 gives you 47. However, if you look at the graph, the highest value at p=3 is 45. Hence, p+44 OVERESTIMATES some of the response times. Keeping this in mind, now test A: notice that p=44 is never an overestimate; each of the p's have time values corresponding to 45 or greater; hence p = 44 is a better "compromise" between the high values and low values, because it doesn't give you numbers that simply aren't there (like 47 at p =3)</p>

<p>Hope that helps.</p>

4

<p>thanks, that really helped.</p>

5

<p>Paradoxically, math questions based on middle and even elementary school curriculum throw off many SAT takers.
On January SAT II Math 2 stem-and-leaf question (Grade 7 level) proved hard to a lot of people.</p>

<p>Page 551, #15: best fit line (Algebra</a> 1, Grade 8).
It's really no rocket science - even [url=<a href="http://quest.nasa.gov/space/frontiers/activities/aeronautics/m.html%5DNASA%5B/url"&gt;http://quest.nasa.gov/space/frontiers/activities/aeronautics/m.html]NASA[/url&lt;/a&gt;] says that. :)
[url=<a href="http://regentsprep.org/Regents/Math/data/bibshelps.JPG%5DCats%5B/url"&gt;http://regentsprep.org/Regents/Math/data/bibshelps.JPG]Cats[/url&lt;/a&gt;] know that too. :D</p>

6

<p>what a weird quiz~90%of my class got puzzled</p>