# Question about doctors' quizzing patients to determine neuro status (yes, it's relevant here)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-doctors-quizzing-patients-to-determine-neuro-status-yes-its-relevant-here/943066>\
**Category:** Politics & Elections\
**Created:** [May 28, 2021, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-doctors-quizzing-patients-to-determine-neuro-status-yes-its-relevant-here/943066 "2021-05-28T02:22:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2021, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-doctors-quizzing-patients-to-determine-neuro-status-yes-its-relevant-here/943066/21 "2021-05-31T12:02:45Z")

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That same logic works of course regardless of what number you’re counting down by. If you can subtract without borrowing do so. If not add the 10s-complement (.e.g. 7 vs 3, 6 vs 4) and subtract 10.

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**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2021, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-doctors-quizzing-patients-to-determine-neuro-status-yes-its-relevant-here/943066/22 "2021-05-31T15:10:57Z")

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> [@Senegoid](#):
>
> Mentally subtracting 7 each time seems difficult, at least to me. This is likely a detail where YMMV. What works for me is:
> 
> If the units digit is 7, 8, or 9, just subtract 7. If the units digit is 0 through 6, subtract 10 and add 3. This avoids ever having to deal with borrowing.

Wow, I read this _after_ I’d posted above saying -

> [@Saintly\_Loser](#):
>
> Holy crap, you’re right.
> 
> And I’m basically innumerate.

That seems _way_ more complicated than what I was doing. Which, now that I think about it, was just subtracting 7 each time.

Never mind. As I said, I really don’t get numbers.

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