have to try all four. Note that you can use this technique only for questions that ask for a specific amount.
Here’s an example:
9.Zoë won the raffle at a fair. She will receive the prize money in 5 monthly payments. If
each payment is half as much as the previous month’s payment and the total of the
payments is $496, what is the amount of the first payment?
A) $256
B) $96
C) $84
D) $16Here’s How to Crack It
ETS would like you to go through all of the effort of setting up this equation:
p + p + p + p + p = 496Then, of course, they want you to solve the equation. But, look at all those fractions! There are plenty of
opportunities to make a mistake and you can bet that ETS has figured most of them out so they can have a
trap answer waiting. So, let’s work with the answers instead.
Representation
Make sure you know what
the numbers in the answer
choices represent. Be sure
to label them!To work with the answer choices, first you need to know what they represent so that you can label them.
In this case, the question asks for the first payment, so write something like “first payment” over the
answers.
Now, it’s time to start working the steps of the problem. But first, notice that the answer choices are in
numerically descending order. ETS likes to keep their problems organized so they will always put the
answers in order. You can use that to your advantage by starting with one of the middle answer choices.
Let’s try (C).
Grab (C) and ask yourself, “If the first payment is $84, what’s the next thing I can figure out?” In this case,
you could figure out the second payment.
So, make a chart and write down 42 (half of 84) next to the 84. Keep doing that to find the values of the
third, fourth, and fifth payments. When you have worked all the steps, your problem should look like this:
9.Zoë won the raffle at a fair. She will receive the prize money in 5 monthly payments. If