If Mei is on a team that places higher than the Hilltop team, then which one of the following could be true?
MJA7on November 16, 2014
Recommendations for attacking this problem
Do you have any recommendations on how to most effectively attack this problem. I noticed with the video you only set up one of the possible variations of the table with (Team G finishing first with P being on this team) but i believe there are two other ways the diagram could have been set up (neither of which required P to be on the first team). Essentially what was the decision to go with that diagram over other possible variations. Thanks for your help- as you know always trying to solve the questions most efficiently.
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You're correct that there are other options that work with the constraints of the problem. However, because this is a "could be true" question, we are searching for the one answer that works.
Thus, all we have to do is try out an option, and see if any of the answer choices work. If one does, then you circle it and go. If one doesn't, then you try out another option until you find an answer choice that works.
We could have first tried out an option with H as the second highest-placing team, but that would not have given us "P" in the first place team. At some point, we would have come upon the option with H as the third highest-placing team, which leads us to the answer.
In the video, I chose H in third place merely out of happenstance; if it didn't yield an answer we would have tried out H in second place.
Hope that clears things up! Please let us know if you have any other questions.
