Word problem Kaplan entrance exam

Question

Team A had 4 times as many losses as it had ties in a season. If Team A won none of its games, which could be the total number of games played that season?

A) 15

B) 18

C) 21

D) 24

Answer 1

Answer A) 15 because it is the only number evenly divisible by 5!

In general, to set up these kinds of problems, you can think of them as ratios.

Let's make T stand for the number of ties the team had and L stand for the number of losses. This means that

ties / losses = T/L = 1/4

So, what that means is that if my T:L is 1:4 I have five total parts (1+4). Thus, I need to choose the only answer that is evenly divisible by 5, which is 15. These types of questions are designed to be solvable by this kind of strategy every time.