PSAT Math Multiple-Choice Question 410: Answer and Explanation

Question: 410

Game	Number of Students
1	5
2	11
3	21
4	35
5	53
6	75
7	101
8	131

West Valley High School is encouraging students to wear school colors when they attend the home football games by giving a prize to one of the students who does so. The school finds that, as the prizes get more exciting, participation begins to increase. If j represents the game number and f (j) represents the number of students in school colors at game j, which of the following functions best describes the information in the table?

• A.
• B.
• C.
• D.

Correct Answer: D

Explanation:

D

Difficulty: Easy

Category: Describing Real-Life Situations with Functions

Getting to the Answer: You're given two variables, j and f, which represent the game number and the number of students wearing school colors, respectively. From the data, you can see the rate of change in the number of students is not constant (not linear), so eliminate (A) and (B). Next, try plugging a point toward the bottom of the table into (C) and (D):

Only (D) is left and is correct. For the record: