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1985 AJHSME Problems/Problem 17

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Contents

Problem

If your average score on your first six mathematics tests was 84 and your average score on your first seven mathematics tests was 85, then your score on the seventh test was

\text{(A)}\ 86 \qquad \text{(B)}\ 88 \qquad \text{(C)}\ 90 \qquad \text{(D)}\ 91 \qquad \text{(E)}\ 92

Solution

Solution 1

If the average score of the first six is 84, then the sum of those six scores is 6\times 84=504.

The average score of the first seven is 85, so the sum of the seven is 7\times 85=595

Taking the difference leaves us with just the seventh score, which is 595-504=91, so the answer is \boxed{\text{D}}

Solution 2

Let's remove the condition that the average of the first seven tests is 85, and say the 7th test score was a 0. Then, the average of the first seven tests would be \frac{6\times 84}{7}=72

If we increase the seventh test score by 7, the average will increase by \frac{7}{7}=1. We need the average to increase by 85-72=13, so the seventh test score is 7\times 13=91 more than 0, which is clearly 91. This is choice \boxed{\text{D}}

See Also

1985 AJHSME (ProblemsResources)
Preceded by
Problem 16
Followed by
Problem 18
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