A grove has 6 rows of birch trees and 5 rows of maple trees. Each row of birch trees has 8 trees...

Bluebook Digital SAT Practice Test 6, Section 2, Module 2 (HARD), Question 16:

A grove has 6 rows of birch trees and 5 rows of maple trees. Each row of birch trees has 8 trees 20 feet or taller and 6 trees shorter than 20 feet. Each row of maple trees has 9 trees 20 feet or taller and 7 trees shorter than 20 feet. A tree from one of these rows will be selected at random. What is the probability of selecting a maple tree, given that the tree is 20 feet or taller?

KEEP IN TOUCH:

[koora.]

I understand your way of calculating this question but I don’t understand the question itself. I don’t understand why I got the answer a because the way I read the question is that I should look for the maple trees that are 20 feet or taller over the whole number of trees in the groove so 164 I chose answer A because that was the most logic answer I found because in the question it doesn’t specify that the probability should be over just the trees over 20 feet and not over all of them

[OverclockingCowboy]

Something is ambiguous about how the question is worded.

“What is the probability of selecting a maple tree, GIVEN that THE tree is 20 feet or taller?”

The word GIVEN here is not describing the denominator as trees that are 20 feet or taller. It is describing the maple tree that precedes it because of “THE tree”. THE tree is referring to the maple tree. It is the same as the SAID tree. I can rewrite the question as:

What is the probability of selecting a maple tree that is 20 feet or taller?

The proper way to write the question is:

What is the probability of selecting a maple tree, GIVEN trees that are 20 feet or taller?

“ xxxx means that we are only choosing FROM TREES that are 20 feet or taller” — precisely as you describe it at 2:30.

Sometimes, SAT asks ambiguous question.

[mildzinc]

I thought this question was kind of ridiculous, they could have worded it better with something like “given that the tree is selected excluding trees shorter than 20 feet”

[SWARM______]

I’m an international student so I have the June sat tomorrow. Any last minute tips or reviews your recommend ?

[landonabbott]

ugh the sat worded the question so annoyingly