RE: [math-fun] California Math Exit Exam
=Cordwell, William R so a student with knowledge at only the 40% level (whatever that means)
Speaking as a product of the California public school system myself: If it's indeed true, as I've heard, that the math portion only involves curriculum material at or below the 8th grade level, and the English at or below 10th grade level, then that means, let's see, 3rd or 4th grade level, right? Do I pass?
At 05:07 PM 5/15/2006, Marc LeBrun wrote:
Cordwell, William R so a student with knowledge at only the 40% level (whatever that means)
Speaking as a product of the California public school system myself:
If it's indeed true, as I've heard, that the math portion only involves curriculum material at or below the 8th grade level, and the English at or below 10th grade level, then that means, let's see, 3rd or 4th grade level, right?
Do I pass?
--- It took me a while to work through the Spanish instructions, but I found some of the test questions. Can you solve these test questions? (Examples from training book. I left out the ones with diagrams.) Tina is filling a 45 gallon tub at a rate of 1.5 gallons of water per minute. At this rate, how long will it take to fill the tub? A 30.0 minutes B 43.5 minutes C 46.5 minutes D 67.5 minutes [What's a "tub" ? Is that like a bathtub? ] [right triangle with legs of 5, 12, x as hypotenuse] What is the value of x in the triangle shown above? A 11 B 13 C 17 D 169 The radius of the earth's orbit is 150,000,000,000 meters. What is this number in scientific notation? A 1.5x10^-11 B 1.5x10^11 C 15x10^10 D 150x10^9 [The last time I looked, the Earth's orbit was ~ elliptical, so it has a semimajor & semiminor axis...] 11/12-(1/3+1/4) A 1/2 B 3/4 C 5/6 D 9/5 The price of a calculator has decreased from $12.00 to $9.00. What is the percent of decrease? A 3% B 25% C 33% D 75% [If calculators are that cheap, why do I have to know this junk ?] 10^-2 / 10^-4 = A 10^-6 B 10^-2 C 10^2 D 10^8 Which of the following is the prime factored form of the lowest common denominator of 7/10 + 8/15 ? A 5x1 B 2x3x5 C 2x5x3x5 D 10x15 (3^8)^2 = A 3^4 B 3^6 C 3^10 D 3^16 The square root of 150 is between A 10 and 11 B 11 and 12 C 12 and 13 D 13 and 14 If |x|=3, what is the value of x? A -3 or 0 B -3 or 3 C 0 or 3 D -9 or 9 [Smart ass: what's the matter with 3i or -3i ?] 2. The five members of a band are getting new outfits. Shirts cost $12 each, pants cost $29 each, and boots cost $49 a pair. What is the total cost of the new outfits for all of the members? A $90 B $95 C $450 D $500 3. If Freya makes 4 of her 5 free throws in a basketball game, what is her free throw shooting percentage? A 20% B 40% C 80% D 90% [Outa sight! Where do we sign up Freya?] 4. The cost of an afternoon movie ticket last year was $4.00. This year an afternoon movie ticket costs $5.00. What is the percent increase of the ticket from last year to this year? A 10% B 20% C 25% D 40% [What year was this question devised in?] 5. Sally puts $200.00 in a bank account. Each year the account earns 8% simple interest. How much interest will be earned in three years? A $16.00 B $24.00 C $48.00 D $160.00 [What U.S. bank has offered 8% interest in the last 20 years?] Vocabulary ---------- The words below have appeared previously on the CAHSEE. If any of these words are unfamiliar to you, look them up in the CAHSEE Math Vocabulary list in the appendix at the back of this study guide, or check with your math teacher. bar graph scatterplot probability pie chart correlation random mean independent events median dependent events Heather flipped a coin five times, and each time it came up heads. If Heather flips the coin one more time, what is the theoretical probability that it will come up tails? A 1/6 B 1/2 C 3/5 D 5/6 1. Three-fourths of the 36 members of a club attended a meeting. Ten of those attending the meeting were female. Which one of the following questions can be answered with the information given? A How many males are in the club? B How many females are in the club? C How many male members of the club attended the meeting? D How many female members of the club did not attend the meeting? 2. Mr. Gulati is holding five cards numbered 1 through 5. He has asked five students to each randomly pick a card to see who goes first in a game. Whoever picks the card numbered 5 goes first. Juanita picks first, gets the card numbered 4, and keeps the card. What is the probability that Yoko will get the card numbered 5 if she picks second? A 1/2 B 1/3 C 1/4 D 1/5 Bonni has two similar rectangular boxes. The dimensions of box 1 are twice those of box 2. How many times greater is the volume of box 1 than the volume of box 2? A 3 B 6 C 8 D 9 The points (1, 1), (2, 3), (4, 3), and (5, 1) are the vertices of a polygon. What type of polygon is formed by these points? A Triangle B Trapezoid C Parallelogram D Pentagon 1. A boy is two meters tall. About how tall is the boy in feet (ft) and inches (in)? (1 meter ~= 39 inches.) A 5 ft 0 in B 5 ft 6 in C 6 ft 0 in D 6 ft 6 in 3. Beverly ran six miles at the speed of four miles per hour. How long did it take her to run that distance? A 2/3 hr B 1 1/2 hrs C 4 hrs D 6 hrs [4mph is a fast walk or a very slow jog, not a "run".] Which of the following inequalities represents the statement, "A number x, decreased by 13 is less than or equal to 39Â" ? A 13-x >= 39 B 13-x <= 39 C x-13 <= 39 D x-13 < 39 Solve for x. 2x-3=7 A -5 B -2 C 2 D 5 Stephanie is reading a 456-page book. During the past 7 days she has read 168 pages. If she continues reading at the same rate, how many more days will it take her to complete the book? A 12 B 14 C 19 D 24 [What's a book?] 3. Simplify the expression shown below. (5x^2z^2)(8xz^3) A 40x^2z^6 B 40x^3z^5 C 40x^3z^6 D 40x^5z^5 A flower shop delivery van traveled these distances during one week: 104.4, 117.8, 92.3, 168.7, and 225.6 miles. How many gallons of gas were used by the delivery van during this week? What other information is needed in order to solve this problem? A The average speed traveled in miles per hour B The cost of gasoline per gallon C The average number of miles per gallon for the van D The number of different deliveries the van made If n is any odd number, which of the following is true about n+1? A It is an odd number. B It is an even number. C It is a prime number. D It is the same number as n-1. 1. Chris drove 100 kilometers from San Francisco to Santa Cruz in 2 hours and 30 minutes. What computation will give Chris's average speed, in kilometers per hour? A Divide 100 by 2.5. B Divide 100 by 2.3. C Multiply 100 by 2.5. D Multiply 100 by 2.3. [Chris must have been caught in rush-hour traffic; this drive should take less than 2 hours.] 4. The winning number in a contest was less than 50. It was a multiple of 3, 5, and 6. What was the number? A 14 B 15 C 30 D It cannot be determined. [It cannot be determined. _All_ of the negative numbers are "less than 50", including an infinity of negative numbers that are multiples of 3, 5, and 6. Of course, what "contest" would be perverse enough to have a negative winning number ! ] If x is an integer, what is the solution to |x-3| < 1? A {-3} B {-3,-2,-1,0,1} C {3} D {-1,0,1,2,3} Which of the following points lies on the line 4x + 5y = 20? A (0, 4) B (0, 5) C (4, 5) D (5, 4) 4. Solve for x. 5(2x-3)-6x<9 A x < -1.5 B x < 1.5 C x < 3 D x < 6 8. Mr. Jacobs can correct 150 quizzes in 50 minutes. His student aide can correct 150 quizzes in 75 minutes. Working together, how many minutes will it take them to correct 150 quizzes? A 30 B 60 C 63 D 125 [It could take them a lot longer, or a lot shorter. What does "working together" mean? ] 0. Do you want fries with that?
Quoting Henry Baker <hbaker1@pipeline.com>:
The radius of the earth's orbit is 150,000,000,000 meters. What is this number in scientific notation? ..... [The last time I looked, the Earth's orbit was ~ elliptical, so it has a semimajor & semiminor axis...]
You looked at an illustration in a California Text Book, where they have to exhibit a plausible "ellipse." If it were drawn to scale, only an astronomer or a draftsman could tell the difference.
Heather flipped a coin five times, and each time it came up heads. If Heather flips the coin one more time, what is the theoretical probability that it will come up tails?
A 1/6 B 1/2 C 3/5 D 5/6
E 0 (= none of the above) By Bayes' theorem, she has a faulty coin. What kind of random number generator do they use to come up with nice politically correct children's names? - hvm ------------------------------------------------- www.correo.unam.mx UNAMonos Comunicándonos
One of the standard tricks in multiple choice tests is, when the answers are numbers, choose one of the middle values instead of one of the outside values. A quick perusal showed 21 of these questions had numbers for answers; of those, 14 had one of the middle values as the correct answer. So you can get almost 1/3 right (some questions weren't numeric) using just this one rule, without knowing anything about the subject matter. Franklin T. Adams-Watters ___________________________________________________ Try the New Netscape Mail Today! Virtually Spam-Free | More Storage | Import Your Contact List http://mail.netscape.com
Good point. It would be fun to go through one of these exams for real & see how little one could know & still pass it. I suspect that one could know very little. But the folks in the exam-prep business (Kaplan, etc.) have much more time on their hands to work on this problem. At 08:33 AM 5/16/2006, franktaw@netscape.net wrote:
One of the standard tricks in multiple choice tests is, when the answers are numbers, choose one of the middle values instead of one of the outside values. A quick perusal showed 21 of these questions had numbers for answers; of those, 14 had one of the middle values as the correct answer. So you can get almost 1/3 right (some questions weren't numeric) using just this one rule, without knowing anything about the subject matter.
Franklin T. Adams-Watters
--- Henry Baker <hbaker1@pipeline.com> wrote:
The radius of the earth's orbit is 150,000,000,000 meters. What is this number in scientific notation? A 1.5x10^-11 B 1.5x10^11 C 15x10^10 D 150x10^9
[The last time I looked, the Earth's orbit was ~ elliptical, so it has a semimajor & semiminor axis...]
B, C, and D are all correct. Is scientific notation supposed to be normalized, making B the only correct answer?
11/12-(1/3+1/4)
A 1/2 B 3/4 C 5/6 D 9/5
Is this a typo? The answer is 1/3. Gene __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
At 08:41 AM 5/16/2006, Eugene Salamin wrote:
--- Henry Baker <hbaker1@pipeline.com> wrote:
The radius of the earth's orbit is 150,000,000,000 meters. What is this number in scientific notation? A 1.5x10^-11 B 1.5x10^11 C 15x10^10 D 150x10^9
[The last time I looked, the Earth's orbit was ~ elliptical, so it has a semimajor & semiminor axis...]
B, C, and D are all correct. Is scientific notation supposed to be normalized, making B the only correct answer?
According to the answer guide, yes, the non-exponent part (mantissa?) is supposed to be normalized. Of course, inside computers (IEEE arithmetic), the normalization is done differently, but I guess that doesn't count. Prof. Kahan wouldn't be pleased, because this exam doesn't allow for his non-normalized "gradual underflow" numbers.
11/12-(1/3+1/4)
A 1/2 B 3/4 C 5/6 D 9/5
Is this a typo? The answer is 1/3.
Yes, A should have been 1/3 -- my typo.
participants (5)
-
Eugene Salamin -
franktaw＠netscape.net -
Henry Baker -
Marc LeBrun -
mcintosh＠servidor.unam.mx