Remainders

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5/3 Remainders

Read the following SAT test question and then select your answer. 

First, always remember to read the question carefully and identify the bottom line. If you don't know what the question is asking, you cannot answer it correctly! Next, assess your options. Based on what you need to find and on what the problem gives you, what COULD you do? What SHOULD you do? Select the most efficient method and attack the problem. Solve it as quickly as you can without making mistakes, then loop back up to the bottom line to check you answer against the question. Finally, once you have found the correct answer, select it from among the answer choices.

If it is now 4:00 p.m. Saturday, in 253 hours from now, what time and day will it be? (Assume no daylight saving time changes in the period.)

First, read carefully. The fact that daylight saving time (commonly mispronounced "daylight savings time") doesn't come or go is helpful to know; that will make the problem simpler. We start at 4 p.m. on Saturday and move forward 253 hours. 253 is a large number, and not one that is easy to work with, so trying to count the days and hours would be a huge waste of time. Instead, divide 253 by 24 to get the number of days that passed during that time.





Since 253 doesn't divide evenly by 24, what should you do with the left-overs? Keep them in the form of a remainder.



10 days and a remainder of 13 hours passed. If this time started at 4p.m. on Saturday, what day and time did it end? Exactly ten days from 4 p.m. on Saturday would be 4 p.m. on Tuesday. The remaining 13 hours move you forward into Wednesday, landing at 5 a.m. Now look at the answer choices.

A) 5:00 a.m. Saturday

B) 1:00 a.m. Sunday

C) 5:00 p.m. Tuesday

D) 1:00 a.m. Wednesday

E) 5:00 a.m. Wednesday

The answer is E.


On sat.collegeboard.org, 50% of responses were correct.


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