Vic Problems - In Action

by **bueno19** Sat Jul 05, 2008 10:51 am

The solution for problem 13 in the VIC set has me a bit confused.

The question reads:
If X(squared)-11x+28/L=9 What is L? Now i could solve the quadratic and see how the answer is obtained. But why is X=3.

I see how the answer is 4/9. But was x chosen for any particular reason?
Thanks,

Bueno

by **rfernandez** Sat Jul 26, 2008 2:25 am

The choice of 3 for x was completely arbitrary -- this is the essence of the VIC method.

The solution picks 3 for x and evaluates the question stem to be 4/9. It would have been just fine to pick 2 for x; the question stem would evaluate to 10/9.

Either way, you plug the x-value into each of the answer choices and look for a match.