page 115, Q8

[aladelokunoladimeji]

Quant Compare:

Quantity A: X^2 + 1 Quant B: 2X - 1

with no constraint given, ETS says Quantity A is greater. Please, how is this possible?

Oh! I would have deleted this post after looking through the question, and discovering the reason why Qty A is always greater, but since there is no 'delete' tab, I decided to write this

[tommywallach]

Ha! Yes, I always remind students that if you haven't actually tested numbers on a QC question like this, you really shouldn't be posting yet! No matter what you plug in here, you end up with the same result. In the future, seeing a question like this, with exponents, you would want to try:

1. 0 and 1
2. Another positive integer
2. A fraction
3. A negative integer
4. A negative fraction

If Quantity A is bigger in all those cases, you can feel confident A is the answer.

-t

[aladelokunoladimeji]

thank you Tom

[tommywallach]

Glad to help!