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Good stuff coming Sunday

No column by me this week. (Pause for wild cheering.)

We do have some wonderful stories. Try this one by staff writers Margaret Moffett Banks and Matt Williams: "The city of Greensboro holds second mortgages on 24 privately owned low-income apartment complexes, many of which have never earned money and likely will be unable to repay the city when the loans come due."

And even though the outstanding loans are in the millions of dollars: "City leaders ... say that providing affordable housing to poor people outweighs the financial risk of lending for apartment managers who have little ability to repay the loans."

Also: Staff writer Tom Steadman reports that North Carolina's restricted driver's licensing program for new drivers has dramatically cut fatalies among 16-year olds. But teenagers are still four times as likely as older drivers to become involved in deadly accidents.

And for every parent who has a 15-, 16- or 17-year-old thinking about college -- I'm one -- staff writer Bruce Buchanan tells you what you need to know about the "new" SAT.

Oh, and a certain basketball tournament at the Coliseum might make its way into the paper.

Comments (1)

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I enjoyed the article about the new SAT in Sunday's News & Record page A11. How would a SAT preparation class answer the math sample questions?

Question one requires a knowledge of ratios of a strategy called plug in. The rule for ratios is, a ratio is the sum of it parts what ever is done to one part of the ratio must be done to all parts of the ratio.

  • The ratio is 3 : 2 sum 5.
  • I need 20 students so I multiply the sum by 4.
  • 4 x 5 = 20
  • 4 x 3 = 12 the students borrowed 3 books
  • 4 x 2 = 8 the students borrowed 2 books
  • 12 : 8 = 20 the number of students
  • OR plug in Answers are in order choose middle one C
  • 10 x 3 = 30 books for 10 students
  • 52 - 30 = 22 books left
  • 22 divided by 2 = 11 students
  • 10 + 11 = 21 not 20 students Answer is too small, I would then choose E which would be too big
  • So D is the correct answer
  • Answer D 12 x 3 = 36 books for 12 students
  • 52 - 36 = 16 books left
  • 16 divided by 2 = 8 students
  • 12 + 8 = 20 students

 

Question 2 requires that the student understands absolute notation. Student could use Plug in to find correct answer. In this case answer C is correct.

  • x - 3 = (-2) - 3 = 5
  • once you have performed the math there are no negative numbers in absolute notation
  • Answer A is for the student who likes algebra
  • (-8) - 3 = -5 not a positive 5 which is not correct

Question 3 requires knowledge or right triangles. Student could use POE (process of elimination) or just do it (JDI) strategy to solve.

  • A face of the cube is composed of two triangles, each having a 90, 45, and 45 degree angle.
  • The diagonal would be 32 = 4 raised to the power of 2 + 4 raised to the power of 2
  • The square root of 32 would be 5.656 the diagonal.
  • AB length would be one side, 4 would be a second side, and 5.656 would be the third side.
  • 32 + 16 = 48
  • and the square root of 48 = 6.928 or 6.93 Answer E is correct.
  • POE would discard answers A & B as too small
  • AB would be between 5 and 6.

 

While knowledge is the best weapon on the test strategies can aid a student in finding the correct answer. Which is what the SAT measures --- the number of correct answers!

If you want free SAT preparation for your child check out Ron's SAT Blog at

Weblog: http://danewton.bravejournal.com

RSS:  http://danewton.bravejournal.com/feed.rss

Details of where free instruction can be obtained is given.

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