Test the testmakers
On CBC’s Test the Nation, one of the questions:
If 2 < x < 6 and 4 < y < 6, what is the maximum possible value of x + y?
a. 2
b. 6
c. 10
d. 11
I see something wrong with this question. And not that more accurately it would have been 2<x and x<6, etc.
Update: found a place to complain, which I did. Nothing says procrastination like complaining about a game show on the CBC.
March 18th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
[…] got me most was that one of the questions even has an error in it (and I’m not the only one to notice). Question 41 dealt with algebra. If 2 < x < 6 and 4 < y < 6, what is the maximum value […]
March 18th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
I noticed the same thing. They should have said both X and Y are integers, but they didn’t
Wendy Mesley owes us an apology.
March 19th, 2007 at 1:15 am
Yes, I see something wrong with this question, too.
March 19th, 2007 at 7:59 am
I find myself unreasonably annoyed by this question.
March 19th, 2007 at 6:48 pm
Justly annoyed, Wolfa, and any mathematician would instantly agree. As stated, the problem has no well-formed answer, because the set in question has no maximum. (It is bounded above, by 12, but it does not contain the bound.)
Steve is probably right that they intended to include an integrality constraint, but we shouldn’t be expected to psych out the formulators.
March 19th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
The correct answer, according to them, is 10, so yes, they intended us to assume that x & y are integers. But I could very well argue that of those answers, the most correct one is 11, and that’s what the correct answer should be — multiple choice answers often have levels of correctness, and you’re supposed to be able to find one extreme. Not, generally, in math, but still.
I’ve had no real luck finding anywhere to complain about this.