Explanation for Question 9 From the Math (No Calc) Section on the 2019 May Sat
Question nine says which of the following is not a factor of the polynomial 2 above. So be very careful here. 3 It makes sure that you're not actually looking for something that is a factor 4 because three of these answers will be factors and one won't be, 5 so I've just started by rewriting the exact equation right there at the top. 6 Um, but now we're going to have to solve, to find what this factors 7 into. So I'm going to start by dividing everything by two spec. 8 It was us X to the third plus 11, 9 over two X squared, plus five, 10 over two X is equal to zero. And now I know I can start 11 factoring. The first thing I'm going to fact out is an X because I 12 noticed that every single term in this equation has an accident already. 13 So once I do that, I get X times X squared, 14 plus 11, over two X plus five, 15 over two is equal to zero. 16 And I can eliminate as an answer choice. Cause I know X is a 17 factor. Now I'm going to have to factor X squared plus 11, 18 over two X plus five over two. Now that might seem a little bit 19 intimidating, but you don't actually have to come up with the factors from scratch. 20 I would just look at the answer choices and try to see if those 21 would fit in. So once I did that, 22 I realized that five times one over two is equal to five, 23 over two and five plus one over two is equal to 11 over two, 24 which means that five and one over two are both solutions to this equation. 25 And I can factor this into X plus five and 26 two X plus Y. 27 And therefore I can eliminate B and C and identify D 28 as the correct answer.