Success step english 9 docx

L Stands for Live

Living the problem means pretending you’re actually

in the situation described in the word problem. To do

this effectively, make up details concerning the events

and the people in the problem as if you were part of

the picture. This process can be done as you are read￾ing the problem and should take only a few seconds.

V Stands for View

View the problem with different numbers while keep￾ing the relationships between the numbers the same.

Use the simplest numbers you can think of. If a prob￾lem asked how long it would take a rocket to go

1,300,000 miles at 650 MPH, change the numbers to

300 miles at 30 MPH. Solve the simple problem, and

then solve the problem with the larger numbers the

same way.

E Stands for Eliminate

Eliminate answers you know are wrong. You may also

spend a short time checking your answer if there is

time.

Sample Question

Solve this problem using the SOLVE steps described

above.

1. There are 651 children in a school. The ratio of

boys to girls is 4:3. How many boys are there in

the school?

a. 40

b. 325

c. 372

d. 400

e. 468

Answer

1. Subject Experience: You know that 4 and 3 are

only one apart and 4 is more. You can conclude

from this that boys are a little over half the school

population. Following up on that, you can cut 651

in half and eliminate any answers that are under

half. Furthermore, since there are three numbers

in the problem and two are paired in a ratio, you

can conclude that this is a ratio problem. Then

you can think about what methods you used for

ratio problems in the past.

2. Organize: The clue word total means to add. In

the context in which it is used, it must mean girls

plus boys equals 651. Also, since boys is written

before girls, the ratio should be written Boys:Girls.

3. Live: Picture a group of three girls and four boys.

Now picture more of these groups, so many that

the total would equal 651.

4. View: If there were only 4 boys and 3 girls in the

school, there would still be a ratio of 4 to 3. Think

of other numbers that have a ratio of 4:3, like 40

and 30. If there were 40 boys and 30 girls, there

would be 70 students in total, so the answer has to

be more than 40 boys. Move on to 400 boys and

300 girls—700 total students. Since the total in the

problem is 651, 700 is too large, but it is close, so

HOT TIP

Don’t try to keep a formula in your head as you solve the

problem. Although writing does take time and effort, jot￾ting down a formula is well worth it for three reasons: 1) A

formula on paper will clear your head to work with the

numbers; 2) You will have a visual image of the formula

you can refer to and plug numbers into; 3) The formula will

help you see exactly what operations you will need to per￾form to solve the problem.

–CBEST MINI-COURSE–

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