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Q
uantitative
R
easoning &
P
roblem
S
olving
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© 2014 Pacific Crest
W
hat Do You Already Know?
Tapping into your existing knowledge
1.
What is a unit?
2. What is a conversion from one unit to another?
3. What is a large number?
4. What is a large negative number?
5. What is a very small number?
M
athematical Language
Terms and notation
contextualize
— being able to put an idea, practice, or tool to use in a specific situation to bring value
through its use
estimation
— quick mental calculation or use of experience to determine an approximate value of
something
number sense
— a person’s ability to use and understand numbers; knowing:
●
their relative values
●
how to use them to make judgments
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how to use them flexibly when adding, subtracting, multiplying or dividing
●
how to develop useful strategies when counting, measuring or estimating
thinking skeptically
— a way of being that challenges everything until you have thought it through
completely for yourself
I
nformation
What you need to know
R
eadings
M
ethodology
M
aking
S
ense of
N
umbers
Example:
Since the mid-1980s, corporate profits have soared, reaching a post-World War II
record as a share of economic output. The profits of the companies in the Standard
& Poor’s 500 have doubled since the recession ended in June 2009, but wages have
stagnated for a vast majority of workers in the same period. Recently, workers’
wages fell close to an all-time low as a share of the economy. (Standard & Poor’s
500 is a stock market index that tracks performance of 500 large companies.)
In 2012, the share of the gross domestic income that went to workers fell to 42.6
percent, the lowest on record.
The New York Times March 11, 2014, “Obama Will Seek Broad Expansion of Overtime Pay” by
Michael D. Shear and Steven Greenhouse (accessed March 12, 2014; URL on companion website).