Example
| Column A | Column B |
| 52,291 x 831 | 52,730 x 894 |
Qualifying Exam: Math Section
The math section of the ATS Qualifying Exam tests how well students work with numbers.
Each question has two parts (Column A and Column B). Students must determine if the value presented in Column A is greater than the value presented in Column B or if the parts are equal. The possible answers are:
| A | if the part in Column A is greater |
| B | if the part in Column B is greater |
| C | if the two parts are equal |
| D | if not enough information is given to make a decision |
Solution
This example shows that it is not always necesasry to make computations to arrive at an answer. While it is possible to solve the problem by finding the products (answers) to the two multiplication problems, there is another way to arrive at an answer. Looking at the numbers to be multiplied, it is easy to see that the numbers in Column B are larger than their counterparts in Column A (52,730 is larger than 52,291 and 894 is larger than 831).
The correct answer is B. The product of the numbers in Column B will be larger than the product of the numbers in Column A.
