Okay I have already taken this test 2 times and now I have to do it a 3 time ASAP. My last year here at college depends on it since my last 4 classes require that you pass the PPST 1 test before taking them (and those are the only classes I have left and are supposed to take them in the fall which if I fail it will set me back 2 semesters because I will have to pass the test then take the 4 classes and reapply for student teaching in hopes of landing another placement for the next spring '05) I have been studying all semester break (5 weeks so far) and now my academic advisor says I have to take it by next week or I won’t get my classes. I still feel as though I am not ready and now I am getting stuck on problems that I had no problems with a week earlier. So if you all would so kindly please help me out if you can. The problems I am struggling with deal with are mixture word problems and Similar triangles there are more but these have had me stumped for 3 days now. I have tried using the formulas and directions the study book tells me too but I can’t seem to get the same answers as them. Here are some examples … please say there is someone out there who can help me.
You might want to move this to the questions forum. I can help you, but it will have to wait until after work, and after I drive my kids around, and have dinner, … There are others that can help you more quickly, and they will find it more easily there.
I will mention one poster. Chronos. Maybe he will find this on a search.
What’s a PPST I?
For mixture problems, the key is that the amount of pure alcohol (or whatever) present is equal to the percentage strength of the solution times the amount of solution. So if you have 80 liters of a 50% alcohol solution, There’s .50(80) (= 40) liters of pure alcohol there (and the other 40 liters are water or whatever). If there’s x liters of 20% solution, that gives you .20x liters of alcohol. If you pour these two together, there’s .50(80)+.20x liters of alcohol in 80+x liters of solution. But this is supposed to be 45% alcohol, so .50(80)+.20x=.45(80+x). Now solve for x.
For the similar triangles questions, similar triangles have the same shape (so their angles are all the same as each other), and their sides are in the same proportion. (In the example you linked, the sides of the big triangle are one-and-a-half times the sides of the smaller triangle.) So 6 is to 4 as 4 is to b, or 6/4 = 4/b. Cross-multiply (or, multiply both sides of the equation by 4b and cancel denominators) to get 6b = 4(4), and then b = 16/6, which is 8/3 or 2 2/3.
** Thudlow Boink ** OMG thank you … now I see what I was doing wrong … on the similar triangles I just had the ratio’s flip flopped and the mixed problem I just completely screwed up the equation. Oh and the PPST I test is the first Pre-Professional Skills Test that all Education majors must take in order to get into student teaching. The test evaluatates us on our Reading, Writing, and Mathematical skills. If we don’t pass all areas then we don’t get to do our student teaching.