How to Solve Quadratic Word Problems Part

1
by Civil Service Reviewer · January 3, 2016

In the previous posts, we have learned how to solve quadratic equations by getting the
extracting the square root, by factoring, and by quadratic formula. We continue this series
by learning how to solve math word problems using quadratic equations. Most of the time, we
need to rewrite the equation to the general form which is .

Problem 1

The product of two consecutive positive even numbers is 48. What are the numbers?

Solution and Explanation

This problem can be solved mentally and by simple guess and check; however, we will solve it
algebraically in order to illustrate the method of using quadratic equations.

Let
= smaller number
= larger number

From the given above, we can form the following equation.

Smaller number times larger number = 48

By the distributive property, this results to

Now, we need to make this equation in general form so we can factor easily.
To do this, we subtract 48 from both sides resulting to

By factoring, we need two numbers whose sum is 2 and product is -48 where the absolute value
of the larger number is greater than that of the smaller. With this restriction in mind, we have the
following pairs of factors whose product is -48.

{48, -1}, {24, -2}, {12, -4}, {8,-6}

From these pairs, 8 and -6 has a sum of 2. Therefore, the factors are

Equating to 0, we have

,
,

Since we are looking for positive integers, we will take and .

Therefore, the two consecutive numbers are 6 and 8.

How to Solve Quadratic Problems Part 2
by Civil Service Reviewer · January 10, 2016

In the previous post, we have used quadratic equations to solve a word problem involving
consecutive numbers. In this post, we discuss more quadratic problems. This is the second
problem in the series.

Problem 2

Miel is 12 years older than Nina. The product of their ages is 540.

Solution

Let x = age of Nina

x + 12 = age of Miel

The product of their ages is 540, so we can multiply the expressions above and equate the
product to 540. That is,

x(x + 12) = 540.

Multiplying the expressions, we have

Subtracting 540 from both sides, we obtain

We want to find two numbers whose product is -540 and whose sum is 12. Those numbers are -
18 and 30.

This means that the factors are

(x – 18)(x + 30) = 0.

Equating each expression to 0, we have

x – 18 = 0, x = 18
x + 30 = 0, x = – 30.

Since we are talking about age, we take the positive answer x = 18.

This is the second part of the the Solving Number  Word Problems Series. In this part, we will
discuss how to solve various number problems.  Note that some of these problems are not really
number problems per se, but the strategy in solving them is technically the same. You could say
that they are really “number problems in disguise.”

We already had three problems in the first part of this series, so let’s solve the fourth problem.
Problem 4

If is subtracted from three times a number, then the result is . What is the number?

Scratch work

In the How to Solve Number Word Problems Part 1, I mentioned that sometimes, if it is hard to
convert the words in the problem to equations, it is helpful to think of a particular number. For
example, in this problem, the phrase is “three subtracted from three times a number.” So, if we
choose a number, say for example, , we want to subtract from three times . In numerical
expression, that is . So, if a number is , the expression is . Now, this
results to as stated above. Intuitively, it is saying that is equal to . That’s our
equation!

Solution

Let be the number.

is 8 less than 3 times the number.

Now, .

Check: The problem says that if is subtracted three times the number, the result is . Now,
three times is . Now, if we subtract from the result is and we are correct.

Problem 5

Separate into two parts such that the one exceeds the other by . What are the numbers?

Scratch Work

If we separate into two parts, and one part is, for example, , then the other part is
which is . This means that if one part of is , then the other part is .

Now it says that the larger number exceeds the smaller number by . This means that

larger number – smaller number = 24.

The only part left now is to choose which is larger, or . It won’t really matter.
Solution

Let be the larger and be the smaller number.

Then,

Subtracting from both sides results to

Dividing both sides by , we get

So, the smaller number is and the larger number is .

Check: Is the sum of the two numbers is ? Does exceed by ? If both answers are yes,
then we are correct.

Problem 6

The sum of the ages of Abby, Bernice, and Cherry is . Bernice is twice as old as Abby, while
Cherry is 4 years older than Abby. What are the ages of the three ladies?

Scratch Work

As I have mentioned above, some problems are really number problems in disguise. This
problem is one of them.

From the problem, it is easy to see that the youngest in the group is Abby. Let us say, Abby is
. So, Bernice is twice as old or years old. Then, Cherry is four years older than Abby
or .

So, from this analysis, if Abby is years old, then, Bernice is . Since Cherry is four years older
than Abby, then here age is .

In the first sentence, it says that the sum of the ages of the three ladies is . Therefore, we must
add their ages ( , and ) and equate it to . That is our equation.

Solution

Let be Abby’s age, be Bernice’s age and be Cherry’s age.

Dividing both sides by , we have .

So, Abby is , Bernice is and Cherry is years old.

Check: Is the sum of their ages ?

Introduction to Coin Problems
by Civil Service Reviewer · April 1, 2014

Coin problems is one of the word problem types that may also appear in the next Civil Service
Examination. Coin problems may refer problems regarding actual coins or even problems
involving bills. Although the Civil Service Examination is solely for Filipinos, nobody will
prevent the creators of the exams using American terms such as pennies, nickels, and dimes.  In
case you do not know, or you have forgotten, a penny is equivalent to 1 cent, a nickel is
equivalent to 5 cents, and a dime is equivalent to 10 cents.

Let us try to solve two problems as a teaser to this series.

Problem 1

Bingbong has 18 coins in his pocket. Three of them are nickels and five of them are pennies. If
the remaining coins are dimes, how much money does Bingbong in his pocket?

Solution

There are 3 nickels and a nickel is 5 cents, so the three nickels are worth 15 cents.

There are 5 pennies and each penny is 1 cent, so 5 pennies are worth 5 cents.

There are 10 coins left, each of which is a dime or 10 cents. Therefore, there is 1.00 peso.

So, Bingbong has 0.15 + 0.05 + 1.00 = P1.20.

Therefore, Bingbong has one peso and 20 cents.

Problem 2

Jamie has 18 bills in her wallet worth 20 pesos and 50 pesos. If the bills totaled to 660 pesos,
how many 20-peso and 50-peso are there?

Solution

There are 18 bills and for example, there are five 20-peso bills, then we will be left with
fifty-peso bills. This means that if there are 20-peso bills, then there are
50-peso bills.

Now, if we multiply the amount and the number of coins, we have for the 20-peso coin and
for the 50-peso coin. If we add these total amounts, we have 660 pesos. Therefore, we
can form the equation

By distributive property, we have

Simplifying, we have
Subtracting 550 from both sides, we have

Dividing both sides by , we have .

Therefore there are twenty-peso coins and fifty-peso bills.

Check

The total amount for the 20-peso bill is 8(20) = 160.

The total amount for the 50-peso bill is 10(50) = 500.

How to Solve Coin Problems Part 2

by Civil Service Reviewer · April 15, 2014

I have already introduced how to solve coin problems, so in this post, we solve more problems
about it. Coin problems involve problems consisting coins, bills, and of course, any object of
value. We have already solved 2 problems in the previous post, so we continue with the third
problem.

Problem 3

A box contains 32 bills consisting of Php20 and Php50. The total amount of money in the box is
1000 pesos. How many bills of each kind are there?

Note: For my readers from other countries, Php means Philippine pesos.

Solution

This problem is similar to problem 2, so we will not be solving it in details.

Let be the number of 50-peso bills. Since there are 32 bills, then the number of 20-peso bills is
Now, if we multiply the number of 50-peso bills by 50 pesos and multiply the number of
20-peso bills by 20 pesos, we have

and

respectively.

If we add them, the total is 1000 pesos. That is,

Simplifying and solving for , we have

Subtracting both sides by 640, we have

.
Dividing both sides by 30, we have

Therefore, the number of 50-peso bills is 12. Now, since there are 32 bills, the number of 20-
peso bills is 32-12 = 20.

Check

12(Php50) + 20(Php20) = Php600 + Php400 = Php1000

Problem 4

In a charity musical show, there are the same number of tickets sold worth $20, $50, and $100.
The total cost of the tickets is $5100.

Solution

Let be the number of tickets sold.  Since there are the same number of tickets, if we multiply
the number of ticket to each of the price, we have

, and

which are the total cost of each kind. If we add them all together, then, it is the total cost of all
the tickets which is $5100. That is,

Simplifying, we have

Dividing both sides by , we have

This means that there are 30 tickets of each price that were sold.

Check

$20(30) + $50(30) + $100(30) = $600 + $1500 + $3000 = $5100.

How to Answer Paragraph Organization Tests Part 1
by Civil Service Reviewer · May 3, 2014

Paragraph Organization or arranging separate sentences into a coherent paragraph composition is

probably one of the most difficult types of test in the Civil Service Examination. In this series, I
am going to show that it is actually not that hard.

In this post, I am going to show you how to analyze in details a Paragraph Organization sample
question. The task is to arrange the five sentences below in correct order. Please read the
sentences thoroughly before you continue.

L
ocating the First Sentence

Knowing the first sentence is very crucial in Paragraph Organizaiton questions.  Always
remember that the first sentence is a topic introduction. From the sentences above, B, C, and E
cannot be topic introductions because they begin with “in fact,” “indeed” and “not only that.”
These are clauses that refer to ‘something’ that has already been introduced.  Therefore, we are
only left with A and C as possible topic introduction.

It looks like A and C are both good candidates for introduction, but notice that all of the
sentences talk about action figures which is obviously the topic.  In A, the subject of the sentence
is “small children, adult, and adults” which is not the topic. In C on the other hand, the sentence
talks about collecting action figures. Therefore, the first sentence is C.

Locating the Second Sentence

The second sentence usually elaborates the first sentence. Looking from the paragraph, A and B
are the only candidates (Why?). However, notice that in the first sentence, we are talking about
many Filipinos. Now, who is ‘closer’ to “many Filipinos”? The author’s father, or the children,
teenagers, and adults? In addition, observe below that it is a bit “strange” if we place B as the
second sentence. Further, if we place B as the second sentence, we would not find any place for
A later. Therefore, the correct answer is A.

Correct

Collecting action figures has become a popular hobby for many Filipinos nowadays. Small
children, teenagers, and even adults would spend money just to get ahold of their favorite action
heroes.

Incorrect

Collecting action figures has become a popular hobby for many Filipinos nowadays. In fact,
even my father who is already 40 years old has a big Transformer robot.
Third Sentence

In the third sentence, the author may talk about his father (B) or his neighbor (E). This is logical
because we talked about many Filipinos, then children, teenager adults. Notice that we are
talking about a topic from general to specific.

Now, B and E may be interchangeable, but looking at the beginning of the sentences, the word
“in fact” is more appropriate as the third sentence. The phrase “not only that” if put on the third
sentence would reinforce the idea of “small children, teenagers, and adults” which is not
connected to “neighbor.” Read the paragraphs below and you will see that putting E on the third
sentence makes the flow of the paragraph disconnected. Therefore, the correct answer is B.

Correct

Collecting action figures has become a popular hobby for many Filipinos nowadays. Small
children, teenagers, and even adults would spend money just to get ahold of their favorite action
heroes.  In fact, even my father who is already 40 years old has a big Transformer robot.

Incorrect

Collecting action figures has become a popular hobby for many Filipinos nowadays. Small
children, teenagers, and even adults would spend money just to get ahold of their favorite action
heroes.  Not only that, our rich neighbor who is already in his late 50’s just came back from
Japan, bought a life-size statue of Vegeta.

Fourth and Fifth Sentences

It is clear after we have chosen the third sentence that D is the conclusion of the paragraph. You
will also see that the phrase “not only that” in E reinforces the idea of old people (ages 40 and
50’s) collecting action figures.

Collecting action figures has become a popular hobby for many Filipinos nowadays. Small
children, teenagers, and even adults would spend money just to get ahold of their favorite action
heroes.  In fact, even my father who is already 40 years old has a big Transformer robot.  Not
only that, our rich neighbor who is already in his late 50’s just came back from Japan, bought a
life-size statue of Vegeta.

Therefore, the correct order of the above question is C-A-B-E-D.

This is probably what you are thinking now:

What the heck, you said it is not that hard. This is so freaking hard!

In the next part of this series, I will tell you why Paragraph Organization questions are easier to
answer than other question types.

How to Answer Paragraph Organization

Tests Part 2
by Civil Service Reviewer · May 4, 2014

In the previous post, we have discussed in detail some strategies on  how to arrange shuffled
sentences into a coherent paragraph. Although I have mentioned in that post that it was not that
hard, it appeared to be the opposite. This time, we discuss why is it actually not as hard as you
think.

In actual examinations, what makes a Paragraph Organization test a bit easy is the availability of

choices. For instance, let us answer the question in the previous post — this time with choices.
Use Sample Choices 1 in the table below.

If the person who constructed the test used Sample Choices 1, then it is very easy to answer
because once you know that C is the first sentence, then you don’t have to read the whole
paragraph. There is only one choice which has C as the first sentence; that is, b.

Now, suppose the person who constructed the example used Sample Choices 2. In the choices,
there are only two sample choices which begins with C (b and d), so still, you eliminate the
three wrong answers.

Sample Choices 3 is well-thought because each choice might be equally likely to be chosen. A

and C are good candidates as the first sentene and D is a very good candidate for a conclusion.
Still, even though Sample Choices 3 is better made (on the perspective of the examinee),
knowing the first sentence will still eliminate three choices.

That is the reason why I was saying that Paragraph Organization is not that hard. This is because
in Paragraph Organization questions, once you know the first sentence (or sometimes the last), it
is possible for you to eliminate the other wrong answers. The more wrong answers you
eliminate, the higher is the chance of getting the correct answer.

Let’s Do the Math!

If you know the first sentence in a Paragraph Organization question, then

 you have a 100% chance of getting the correct answer in Sample Choices 1
 you have a 50% chance of getting the correct answer in Sample Choices 2
 you have a 33.33% chance of getting the correct answer in Sample Choices 3.

In other types of exams with 5 choices where you don’t know the answer and you just guess, you
only get 1/5 chance of getting the correct answer or 20%.  Since it is likely that you will know
the introduction sentence in a Paragraph Organization test based on the tips that I have given
you, I think it is quite reasonable to use the calculation above.

That is why Paragraph Organization is easier than many multiple-choice type exams.

How to Answer Paragraph Organization

Tests Part 3
by Civil Service Reviewer · May 5, 2014

This is the third part and the conclusion of How to Answer Paragraph Organization Tests Series.
In the first part, we have learned how to strategically order random sentences into a coherent
paragraph, and, in the second part, we have learned how to make use of the choices in Paragraph
Organization questions to increase the chance of getting the correct answer.

In this post, I will share with you a personal strategy, the things I usually do when I answer
Paragraph Organization questions. Note, however,  that different strategies work for different
persons, so be careful. You should try out the strategy first before using it in actual exams.

Let us use the question below for discussion.

C
hoices a. A-C-B-E-D b. C-A-B-E-D c. C-E-B-A-D d. D-B-A-E-C e. E-D-B-A-C

This is what I do when I answer Paragraph Organization questions:

1. I read the question thoroughly by reading all the sentences.

2. I look for the sentence that might be a candidate as a first sentence in the paragraph. This
is usually easy to see since it introduces the topic.
3. I look at the choices and see which of them has my choice as first sentence. For example,
in the paragraph above, if I know that the first sentence is C, then I only have to consider
b and c. This narrows the choices to 2 instead of 5.
4. Once I already narrowed the choices, I look for the sentence that might be a conclusion.
In the case above it’s D. Note that both b and c has D as the last sentence, so I have now
to choose between b and c.
5. I read the paragraph in the order of b and c and see check which is more coherent.

Note that the strategy above happens very fast because of time constraint. You have to read as
fast as you can.
Strategies in Answering Paragraph
Organization Tests
by Civil Service Reviewer · May 7, 2014

This is the summary of the last three posts about answering paragraph organization tests.

The first part discusses strategies on how to order random sentences into a coherent
paragraph. The sentences that can easily be seen in terms of order is the first sentence which
usually introduces the topic and the last sentences which is the conclusion. As for the second
sentence, it usually explains, supports, or elucidates the first sentence.

The second part discusses what makes paragraph organization easy. Although in the first
part, ordering the sentence are somewhat difficult, this is complemented by the available choices.
Reading all the sentences and looking at the options will likely narrow the choices for the correct
answer. This gives you a higher probability of getting the correct answer.

The third part concludes the advantages of paragraph organization over other multiple choice
questions. Knowing the beginning of the paragraph, which is likely to happen, reduces the
chance of getting the wrong answer. In this part, I have also given some personal tips on how I
answer questions. Note that these tips are based on my own experience and may or may NOT
work with others. There is no harm in trying though, but you have to practice it first before using
in actual examinations.