So, here’s your GED test practice question…

Alabama: Democrat = 2.2 million votes
Republican = 2.3 million votes

Alaska: Democrat = .5 million votes
Republican = .1 million votes

Arizona: Democrat = 2.3 million votes
Republican = 2.8 million votes

Arkansas: Democrat = 1.7 million votes
Republican = 1 million votes

GED Question 1: What’s the total popular vote for each candidate?

This is an easy one, right? On the GED they got this thing called “number sense,” and that just means knowin’ what kind of math to use and bein’ able to get the numbers to do what got to do. So, here, all you got to do is add up the “popular vote”…that’s the total people that voted…for each candidate:

Democratic = 2.2 + .5 + 2.3 + 1.7 = 6.7 million people

I can totally do that in my head… cuz 2.2 + 2.3 = 4.5, plus .5 = 5 even, plus 1.7 = 6.7

Republican = 2.3 + .1 + 2.8 + 1 = 6.2 million people

Faster you can do this kinda math on the GED, the better you’ll do. So, I can say, 2.8 + 2.3 would be 5.1, plus .1 is 5.2, plus 1 even is 6.2. By the popular vote, the Democrat wins by about half a million. But in real life, it don’t go that way… so there’s the second GED question…

GED Question 2: What’s the total electoral vote for each candidate?

Electoral votes goes by states. Each state got so many of ‘em, an the people in the state vote to see who gets their state’s votes. So, it’s like the state votes for the president instead of the people votin’ for the president. That’s good background for the social studies GED. But it’s also good for the math GED, cuz you got to use your number sense. In each state, the person who gets most votes in that state, gets the electoral college votes, like this:

Alabama: Republican gets more votes = 9 electoral college votes

Alaska: Democrat gets more votes = 3 electoral college votes

Arizona: Republican gets more votes = 10 electoral college votes

Arkansas: Democrat gets more votes = 6 electoral college votes

Republican = 19 electoral college votes

Democrat = 9 electoral college votes

Landslide victory for the Republican! But wait… more people voted for the Dem… what gives?

GED Question 3: If these were all the states, who wins?

Easy… the popular vote don’t count, only the electoral college votes, so the Republican wins. These numbers are all made up, but do you see how that math works? Math is about manipulating numbers, right? So how you calculate a vote with math can change the outcome… These GED skills is things you can use in life.

The election fun is just gettin’ started, with Obama and Huckabee winning in Iowa and New Hampshire bein’ the next contest… so I’ll think of some more GED math for these here elections.

To find out more about the GED test and GED test preparation, visit The GED Academy at passGED.com.

If this was a GED question, it’s be a breeze. If I got 1-1/2 coffee mugs of rice, and I need a 1:2 ratio of rice to water, then I need 3 coffee mugs of water.

If I had 3/4 coffee mugs of rice, I’d need 1-1/4 of water, or (2) 3/4 coffee mugs. Get it?

If I had 2-2/3 coffee mugs of rice, I’d need 5-1/3 (4 + 4/3) coffee mugs of water.

Pretty easy. A 1:2 ratio means the second thing’s always 2 times the first thing. I know you’ve got ratios totally down, now, so if you see any on the GED test, you’ll know what to do.
And the recipe works pretty good, too. I just put 1-1/2 coffee mugs of rice and 3 coffee mugs of water in a big bowl, nuke them for 10 minutes, turn it down to 50% and nuke ‘em for 15-20 minutes. Then, bingo, I got rice.

Don’t worry, I ain’t gonna start cooking all the time.

Next time, let’s get back to these elections that’s comin’ up… I wanna start applyin’ some of that GED math to some real important real life… Because the GED test is pretty important, but so’s the real world, like the elections, right?

To find out more about the GED test and GED test preparation, visit The GED Academy at passGED.com.

Well, she taught me a quick and easy way to make some rice in the microwave. Cheap way to eat. She gave me a bunch of measurements, but I don’t have no measuring cups. So she put it in terms of a ratio… you gotta have a 1:2 ratio of rice to water.

Well, I’ve got a coffee mug to measure stuff with, that’s it. Here’s the question…

I’ve got 1-1/2 coffee mugs worth of rice. How much water do I got to have to cook this stuff? Does the 1:2 ratio give me enough information?

So, here’s a website that gives a bunch of information on election polls…

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/polls/

All that information! What’s it mean? What’s goin’ on here? Let’s take the page from top to bottom… it says it’s “Poll Averages.” See how the rows of the charts give a number of people who do polls (like FOX News and Gallup… they call people up on the phone and ask their opinion). Then at the top it says “RCP Average” (Real Clear Politics Average). So, how to they figure the average?

The poll numbers for Biden for the democrats are 3%, 2%, 1%, 1%, 4%, and 3%, and the average is 2.3%. The poll numbers for Huckabee for the rep’s say 17%, 11%, 8%, 10%, 6%, and 8%, and the average is 10%. So, lookin’ at those numbers, how’re they figurin’ the average? Figure it out!

I wanna be smart about this, and not just listen to them say they can give me this or that rate or payment. I gotta figure out what’s the best deal, see?

I don’t got nothin’ for a down payment, you know how it is. Not like I was expecting to fall for this sweet baby. So that’s $28,000 bucks I’m dealin’ with, on the round. Here’s my choices:

$3,000 bucks off and 4.9% interest for 60 months

Full price and 1.9% interest for 48 months

Which one is the best deal? That’s what I want to know… then I’ll see if I can afford the payments. I’m gonna make this easy and figure the total cost of the interest is (Price) x (Interest) x (Years). That’ll give me a good approximation of what I’m paying. So I can fly fast and figure this out.

So which one’s the best deal? Can you figure it out? I’ll let you know what I figured next week.

1. $3,000 bucks off and 4.9% interest for 60 months
2. Full price and 1.9% interest for 48 months

Here’s the formula:

(Price) x (Interest) x (Years) = total interest

So here’s how to figure the interest for the two deals… see how to get number of years, I divide months by 12? 12 months in a year…

1. ($27,599 – $3,000) x 4.9% x (60/12)
2. $27,599 x 1.9% x (48/12)

Now, it’s just doin’ the math, right… let’s start with the first one… 27 minus 3, is 24. And 60 months are 5 years. Don’t hardly need to know the math.

1. $24,599 x 4.9% x 5

On the second on, all you gotta do is divide 48 by 12… four years.

1. $24,599 x 4.9% x 5
2. $27,599 x 1.9% x 4

You can break out a calculator now to figure this one out….

1. $6,026.755
2. $2,097.524

Damn, the second one’s got like $4,000 less interest. The first one, though, the price is $3,000 cheaper. So if I go with the second deal, I’m payin’ $1,000 less. On the downside, the payments are higher… gotta think this one through….

So try this… next time you go get groceries, keep track in your head how much you’re spending. Try to estimate the costs… you know, $1.50 instead of $1.38… to make it easier to add together the amounts in your head. When you get in the checkout line, see how close you were, and try to get closer each time you buy groceries. Maybe start with just buyin’ a few things, then more each time. That way, you can build up your street math, just like I got in my head.

Median hourly earnings of automotive service technicians and mechanics, including commission, were $15.60 in May 2004. . . . Median annual earnings in the industries employing the largest numbers of service technicians in May 2004 were as follows:

Local government…..$38,160
Automobile dealers…..38,060
Automotive repair and maintenance…..28,810
Gasoline stations…..28,030
Automotive parts, accessories, and tire stores…..27,180

So, I noticed this word median on the GED test and on online GED study information. So, I figure this will help with GED preparation. I looked it up, and here’s the scoop…

Mean is what normal people call an average… you have a bunch of numbers, and you add them together and divide by how many numbers there were. So, if I have 1, 5, 5, and 5, I add them together… 16… and divide by 4 (I added 4 numbers)… and I get a mean of 4.

Okay. Median is the number in the middle… so if I had five numbers and put them in order, the median would be the one in the center. (Median of 1, 3, 5, 5, 8 is 5.) If you have an even number of numbers, you average the middle two. (Median of 1, 3, 5, 8 is 4… halfway between 3 and 5).

So, when they give the median, it means half of all people earn more money, and half earn less money. Half of all mechanics earn less than $15 bucks an hour? I gotta get into somethin’ that pays more! So I guess I gotta get my GED!

I looked up mechanics, and here’s what it said:

Median hourly earnings of automotive service technicians and mechanics, including commission, were $15.60 in May 2004. The middle 50 percent earned between $11.31 and $20.75 per hour. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $8.70, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $26.22 per hour. Median annual earnings in the industries employing the largest numbers of service technicians in May 2004 were as follows:

Local government…..$38,160
Automobile dealers…..38,060
Automotive repair and maintenance…..28,810
Gasoline stations…..28,030
Automotive parts, accessories, and tire stores…..27,180

Well, the first thing I see is that mechanics make like $10,000 bucks more working for auto dealers! Man, I gotta look into that!

But then, I started seeing that everything said “median.” What’s that mean? Why’re they using “median”? Do they mean average? I’m going to look it up… see what it means and see if I can figure out why they use that. Gimme a holler in a comment if you have any ideas!