Since this order is not strict, however, it is much more important to pay attention to your own strengths
and weaknesses. Remember to focus on the questions you know how to answer first. Don’t spend time on
questions that you have no idea how to work.
Keep in mind, of course, that many of the math techniques that you’ve learned are still very effective on
Grid-In questions. Plugging In worked very well on the previous question. If you’re able to plug in or take
an educated guess, go ahead and grid in that answer. Again, there is no penalty for getting it wrong.
Here’s another difficult Grid-In question that you can answer effectively by using a technique you’ve
learned before:
36.Grow-Up potting soil is made from only peat moss and compost in a ratio of 3 pounds of
peat moss to 5 pounds of compost. If a bag of Grow-Up potting soil contains 12 pounds
of potting soil, how many pounds of peat moss does it contain?Here’s How to Crack It
To solve this problem, set up a Ratio Box.
What do you multiply by 8 to get 12? If you don’t know, divide 12 by 8 on your calculator. The answer is
1.5. Write 1.5 in each of the boxes on the multiply by row of your Ratio Box.
The problem asks you how many pounds of peat moss are in a bag. To find out, multiply the numbers in
the Peat Moss column. That is, multiply 3 × 1.5, and you get 4.5. ETS’s answer is 4.5.