Tables & Limiting Factors

A two-table question: marks in Term 1 and Term 2, prize for the biggest IMPROVEMENT. The trap is answering the wrong question — Jon tops Term 2, but the prize isn't for the top mark. Match each NAME across the tables (the rows are re-ordered — that's deliberate!) and compute each difference: Ivy −2, Jon +8, Kai +12, Lea +6, Max +9. Kai wins with +12. Two rules: read what the question actually rewards, and never trust row positions — names move between tables. Match by name, compute, then compare.

A muffin question: a recipe for 6 muffins needs 150 g flour, 100 g sugar, 50 g butter and 1 egg; Dana has 600/350/250 g and 5 eggs. Check EVERY ingredient: flour allows 4 batches (24 muffins), sugar 3½ (21), butter 5 (30), eggs 5 (30). The SMALLEST answer rules — you can't bake around missing sugar. Answer: 21 muffins. This is the limiting-factor pattern: divide what you HAVE by what one batch NEEDS, ingredient by ingredient, and the minimum wins. The trap answers are the other ingredients' numbers, all sitting in the options.

Table craft, the unglamorous mark-saver: read the HEADERS before any number, so you know what each row and column means; match entries BY NAME because tables re-sort deliberately; check the UNITS agree before comparing; and physically track the row with your finger or cursor — eye-slip between rows is the most common table error at speed. Ten seconds of header-reading buys the whole question. In the real test, table questions are won by care, not cleverness.

Leftover logic: the same division rounds opposite ways depending on the question. 'How many full boxes can 23 eggs fill, 6 per box?' — 3 (round down; the spare 5 fill nothing). 'How many boxes to CARRY 23 eggs?' — 4 (round up; the spare 5 still need somewhere). Making and filling round down; needing and holding round up. 37 students, 4 per car: 9 full cars but 10 cars needed. Before rounding, say which world you're in — the options always contain both numbers.

The toolkit: answer the EXACT question asked (biggest improvement, not top mark; per-game, not total); in resource problems divide have-by-need for EVERY ingredient and let the smallest rule; match table rows by name; and round by the story — make/fill rounds down, need/hold rounds up. The deep pattern across all of these: every trap option is a right number to a wrong question. The examiners compute the wrong answers for you and lay them out as options A, B and D. Precision about the question is the whole game. Quiz and exercises!