Unit 7 · Data and Percentage

James's Guaranteed Win — What Score on Test 3?

Lesson 8 of 9

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About this lesson

To guarantee a prize, your target student must be able to score high enough that even the best possible opponent score cannot beat them — and a tie doesn't count as winning.

Chapters

0:00Introduction
0:23The Question
1:20Exam Strategy – Scanning for the Leaders
1:48Calculating the Top Totals
2:09The Worst-Case Scenario (Guaranteeing the Win)
2:31Avoiding the Tie
2:49Finding the Final Score
3:10Verification and Final Answer

Question

Twelve students are studying Mathematics. They take three tests, each marked out of 100.

The results for the first two tests taken are shown below.

Test 1Test 2
Tom4853
James8386
Alira6167
Connor7354
Edward6659
Heidi6978
Jo3398
Kai8844
Sarah10053
Piper7578
Layla8179
Isabelle5765

A prize is awarded to the student with the highest combined total score from the three tests. If two students are tied for the highest score, nobody gets the prize.

As the scores currently stand, one student is able to be sure to win this prize as long as a high enough score is achieved in the final test.

What is the minimum score in the final test that will guarantee this student the prize?

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