<p>Nick had c cigarettes. He then started to divide the cigarettes equally among his 5 cellmates, but after giving each cellmate j cigarettes, he decided to smoke the rest. How many cigarettes did Nick smoke?</p>
<p>Never thought the college board would make up a math question about prison life.</p>
<p>Well after smoking c-5j cigarettes, I’m sure Nick will have some lung issues down the road! Is this really a question from the BB?</p>
<p>Answer is 0. As soon as Nick decided to smoke the rest of his cigarettes, his cellmates convinced him otherwise.</p>
<p>Good you think it is as funny as I did! Turns out it was not the Blue Book it was from a book his $900 SAT prep class gave him.</p>
<p>And why you should ask for a refund for any class that uses such a garbage book. Will people ever learn?</p>
<p>My D in fourth grade had a similar ambiguous question like this in her state issued math book.
The question: You have 10 marbles and give some to your brother. How many do you have left?<br>
She said 9. Which was right of course–she decided to give the brother only one marble. Her answer was marked wrong which I challenged. After that I looked at her educational materials more carefully. It was an eye-opener for sure.</p>
<p>gouf78 and shacherry</p>
<p>I suspect the motivation behind this sort of question is to teach students basic ideas about how to think in algebraic terms. </p>
<p>In the case of nick, he smoked c-5j cigarettes. Your daughter has 10-b marbles.</p>