ISEE Upper Level Quantitative : ISEE Upper Level (grades 9-12) Quantitative Reasoning

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for ISEE Upper Level Quantitative

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Example Questions

Example Question #51 : How To Find The Answer From A Table

One ordinary six-sided die is altered such that the probability of tossing a six on that die is ; a second such die is altered such that the probability of tossing a six on that die is . For each die, the other five rolls are equally probable to one another. 

Which of the following is the greater quantity?

(a) The probability that the roll of two fair dice will come up a total of 2

(b) The probability that the roll of the two altered dice will come up a total of 2

Possible Answers:

It cannot be determined which of (a) and (b) is greater

(b) is the greater quantity

(a) and (b) are equal

(a) is the greater quantity

Correct answer:

(a) is the greater quantity

Explanation:

There is only one way that the roll of two dice can come up 2 - for both dice to come up a one. 

The probability of a fair die coming up a one is , so the probability of this happening with the fair dice is .

The probability of a "1" coming up on the first altered die is

The probability of a "1" coming up on the second altered die is

Therefore, the probability of a roll of double one on the altered dice is

Therefore, "2" is more likely to come up on the fair dice.

 

Example Question #52 : How To Find The Answer From A Table

High and low

Refer to the above graph, which shows the high and low temperatures for Kingdom City over a one-week period.

Which is the greater quantity?

(a) The temperature in Kingdom City at 6 AM Wednesday

(b) The temperature in Kingdom City at 6 PM Wednesday

Possible Answers:

(b) is the greater quantity

It is impossible to determine which is greater from the information given

(a) is the greater quantity

(a) and (b) are equal

Correct answer:

It is impossible to determine which is greater from the information given

Explanation:

The line graph only indicates the high and low temperatures for the individual days; it says nothing about the temperature at any specific time of any day. Therefore, the question cannot be answered from the graph alone.

Example Question #53 : How To Find The Answer From A Table

High and low

Refer to the above graph, which shows the high and low temperatures for Kingdom City over a one-week period.

Which is the greater quantity?

(a) The lowest high temperature for any of the seven days

(b) The highest low temperature for any of the seven days

Possible Answers:

(a) is the greater quantity

(b) is the greater quantity

(a) and (b) are equal

It is impossible to determine which is greater from the information given

Correct answer:

(a) is the greater quantity

Explanation:

Examine the low point of the line representing the high temperatures and the high point of the line representing the low temperatures.

High and low 2

It can be seen that the lowest of the high temperatures is 65 degrees (Friday), and that the highest of the low temperatures is 60 degrees (Wednesday). This makes the former quantity the greater.

Example Question #54 : How To Find The Answer From A Table

High and low

Refer to the above graph, which shows the high and low temperatures in degrees Fahrenheit for Kingdom City over a one-week period.

Which is the greater quantity?

(a) The temperature in Kingdom City at noon on Friday

(b) 70 degrees

Possible Answers:

(a) and (b) are equal

(b) is the greater quantity

It is impossible to determine which is greater from the information given

(a) is the greater quantity

Correct answer:

(b) is the greater quantity

Explanation:

The graph does not tell us the temperatures at any specific time of day on any of the seven days. However, as seen below, we know from the graph that the high temperature on Friday was 65 degrees.

High and low 2

The temperature at noon Friday cannot have been greater than 65 degrees, so 70 is the greater quantity.

Example Question #55 : How To Find The Answer From A Table

Scrabble

A popular word game uses one hundred tiles, each of which is marked with a letter or a blank. The distribution of the tiles is shown above, with each letter paired with the number of tiles marked with that letter. Notice that there are two blank tiles. 

All of the tiles are put in a box except for the unique tiles and the blanks. A tile is drawn at random. Which is the greater quantity?

(a) The probability that the tile is a vowel

(b) 

(Note: "Y" is considered a consonant here)

Possible Answers:

It is impossible to determine which is greater from the information given

(a) and (b) are equal

(a) is the greater quantity

(b) is the greater quantity

Correct answer:

(b) is the greater quantity

Explanation:

There are five unique tiles - "J", "K", "Q", "X", and "Z" - and two blanks, for a total of 7 tiles not placed in the box. Therefore, the box contains 93 tiles.

The number of tiles with each vowel is as follows:

A: 9 tiles

E: 12 tiles

I: 9 tiles

O: 8 tiles

U: 4 tiles

This is a total of  vowel tiles. Therefore,  consonants remain. Since vowel tiles comprise fewer than half of the remaining tiles, the probability that the draw will be that of a vowel is less than .

Example Question #56 : How To Find The Answer From A Table

Scrabble

A popular word game uses one hundred tiles, each of which is marked with a letter or a blank. The distribution of the tiles is shown above, with each letter paired with the number of tiles marked with that letter. Notice that there are two blank tiles. 

All of the tiles are put in a box except for the unique tiles; they are replaced by five tiles from another set - one of each of the five vowels ("Y" is considered a consonant here). A tile is drawn at random. Which is the greater quantity?

(a) The probability that the tile is a consonant

(b) 

Possible Answers:

(a) is the greater quantity

It is impossible to determine which is greater from the information given

(b) is the greater quantity

(a) and (b) are equal

Correct answer:

(a) is the greater quantity

Explanation:

It is easier to count the tiles that are vowels or blanks than it is to count the tiles marked with consonants. Keeping in mind that one of each vowel has been added, the number of each vowel is as follows:

A: 10 tiles

E: 13 tiles

I: 10 tiles

O: 9 tiles

U: 5 tiles

Blanks: 2 tiles

Add these:  tiles not marked with consonants. 

Since the five unique tiles - "J", "K", "Q", "X", and "Z" - were replaced by five vowel tiles, the number of tiles remained constant at 100. Therefore, there are 

 

consonant tiles; consonants therefore make up more than one half of the tiles, and the probability that a randomly drawn tile will be a consonant is greater than .

Example Question #57 : How To Find The Answer From A Table

Scrabble

A popular word game uses 100 tiles, each of which is marked with a letter or a blank. The distribution of the tiles is shown above, with each letter paired with the number of tiles marked with that letter. Notice that there are two blank tiles. 

All of the tiles are put in a box except for the unique tiles and the blanks. They are replaced by enough randomly selected tiles from a second set to bring the total of tiles back up to 100. Which is the greater quantity?

(a) The number of tiles in the box that are marked with consonants

(b) 50

Possible Answers:

(a) and (b) are equal

(b) is the greater quantity

(a) is the greater quantity

It is impossible to determine which is greater from the information given

Correct answer:

(a) is the greater quantity

Explanation:

The number of tiles with each vowel is as follows:

A: 9 tiles

E: 12 tiles

I: 9 tiles

O: 8 tiles

U: 4 tiles

This is a total of  vowel tiles in the complete set. Considering the two blanks, there are 

 

consonant tiles.

There are five unique tiles - "J", "K", "Q", "X", and "Z". Removing them leaves  consonant tiles. Since the removal of seven tiles and their replacement with seven others leaves the number of tiles in all at 100, at the very least, there are 51 consonant tiles in the new set - more than half.

Example Question #58 : How To Find The Answer From A Table

The beverage menu from a coffeehouse reads as follows:

 

Eight friends go out for drinks. Three order cappuccino, two order espresso, one orders Americano, one orders Turkish coffee, and one orders cafe latte. One of the eight agrees to leave the entire amount of the tip, which is to be 20% of the check. How much will be the amount of the tip (round to the nearest dime)?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The costs of the beverages will be as follows:

Add these amounts:

20% of this is 

, which rounds to $5.30.

Example Question #59 : How To Find The Answer From A Table

Spinner 2

The above figure shows a spinner used in a game. The upper semicircle has twice the radius of the lower semicircle.

Which of the following is the greater quantity?

(a) The probability that a random spin will cause the spinner to land in a green region.

(b) The probability that a random spin will cause the spinner to land in a red region.

Possible Answers:

(b) is the greater quantity

(a) is the greater quantity

It cannot be determined which of (a) and (b) is greater

(a) and (b) are equal

Correct answer:

(b) is the greater quantity

Explanation:

The size of the regions do not matter in this problem; it is the central angles of the sectors that are relevant. The best way to understand this is to look at the spinner again, but after cutting out the central circle:

Spinner 2

If we rearrange the sectors, we see the following:

Spinner 2

The probability of the spinner landing in red exceeds that of it landing in green.

 

Example Question #71 : Data Analysis

The median of seven consecutive integers is 129. What is the least integer?

Possible Answers:

It cannot be determined from the information given.

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The median of seven (an odd number) integers is the one in the middle when the numbers are arranged in ascending order; in this case, it is the fourth lowest. Since the seven integers are consecutive, the lowest integer is three less than the median, or .

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