SOLUTION: I am about to be taking a compass test to enter college - I have looked at sample questions and I am terrible in math - Can you explain this to me, what I am trying to solve... ?

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Question 48851: I am about to be taking a compass test to enter college - I have looked at sample questions and I am terrible in math - Can you explain this to me, what I am trying to solve... ? Which of the following expressions represents the product of 3 less than twice x and 2 more than the quantity 3 times x ? Here are my choices. (a) -6x^2 + 25x + 6 (b) 6x^2 + 5x + 6 (c) 6x^2 - 5x + 6 (d) 6x^2 - 5x - 6 (e) 6x^2 - 13x - 6 I am totally lost, do not understand, if you can help I would greatly appreciate it, maybe there is a website you can refer me to where I could read and study algebra. Thanks, Have a Great Day - Krystal
Answer by longjonsilver(2297) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
this is testing a couple of things:

1. can you convert english to maths.
2. can you multiply out brackets.

the product of (3 less than twice x) and (2 more than the quantity 3 times x)

Product means 2 things multiplied...so we have to multiply the 2 brackets, once we have them as maths instead of english.

(3 less than twice x)
(3 less than 2x)
what would be 3 less than 10? Answer is 7. How did you get that? Well, we do the same in algebra... (2x-3)

(2 more than the quantity 3 times x)
(2 more than 3x)
(2+3x)
or (3x+2)

And now multiply the terms in the 2 brackets together:
(2x-3)(3x+2)

jon.