Would you please show how you would solve PSAT test section 4, #16? Thank!s
Sure! First, figure out how likely it is that a 14 or 15 year old would not have a summer job. 69 out of 89 kids ages 14-15 do not have a summer job. 
is approximately 0.78.
Now figure out the likelihood of a 16 or 17 year old not having a summer job. 42 out of 81 kids ages 16-17 do not have a summer job. 
is approximately 0.52.
How many times more likely is a 14-15 year old than a 16-17 year old NOT to have a summer job? 
. That’s answer choice C.
(If you don’t round in the intermediate steps, the answer still rounds neatly to 1.50: 
, which rounds to 1.50.)
Comments (2)
Just one follow up question. When you say “How many times more likely is a 14-15 year old than a 16-17 year old NOT to have a summer job? {0.78}{0.52} = 1.50,” did you come up with .78/.52 by translating the statement “14-15 year olds are N times as likely as 1617 year olds to NOT have a job” into 0.78 = N x 0.52 (which is what I did) or was there some other cool way you knew to divide 0.78 by 0.52? In other words, I know how to get the answer, but I am trying to figure out the most efficient way to do it, and I was just trying to track your thought process. Thanks, Mike!
I suppose I did what you describe, although I think mentally I skip the 0.78 = N x 0.52 step. When I see “how many x is how many times y” i usually go straight to dividing x by y.