The average of 10 scores is $25,$ and the lowest score is $20.$ So, the highest score must be...

178 Views Asked by At

The average score of $10$ students in a test is $25.$ The lowest score is $20.$ Then the highest score is: $$A.100,$$ $$B.70,$$ $$C.30,$$ $$D.75$$

The answer key suggests option $B$ as the answer. I don't understand why this differs from my solution:

Let the marks obtained by each student be $x_1,x_2,...,x_{10}$ and $S=\sum_{i=1}^{10} x_i$. Then, we have $\frac{S}{10}=\frac{\sum_{i=1}^{10} x_i}{10}=20\implies S=200.$ If say, only one student obtained $25$, i.e let $x_k=25$, then, $$S-x_k=200-25=175.$$ Considering $S'=\sum_{i\neq k}x_i=175$. Now, if $\exists x_p=100$, then $100+(S'-x_p)=175\implies (S'-75)=75$, thus we are getting a situation, where it's possible for a student to score hundred, then, the rest students, will have to score, $75$ marks in total. This is the highest option given. Hence, the highest possible score can be $100.$ According to the information given, this can be a possible case, when 1 student scores 20, 8 students have a total score of 75 and one student scores 100, i.e then, average of this will still be 20. So, option $A$ is correct.

2

There are 2 best solutions below

3
On BEST ANSWER

Ignoring the typos, your solution is not making a lot of sense, and the overuse of symbols makes it less readable than it could have been.

Note that the question is incorrectly phrased: it should be asking for the highest possible score, not the highest score, because there is insufficient information to deduce the latter.

This happens when everyone else has obtained the lowest score $20,$ in which case those nine students have scored a total of $9\times20=180$ marks, in which case the top scorer has scored $10\times25-180=70$ marks.


On the other hand, to determine possible highest score, we observe that the top score is minimum when $10\times25-20=230$ marks are equally distributed among the nine remaining students.

Hence, the top score must fall on the interval $$\left[25\frac59,70\right].$$

3
On

Average score of $25$ means that total score $S$ is $25\cdot 10 = 250$, not $200$.

If one of students scored at least $71$, and the rest scored at least $20$, then total score is at least $20 \cdot 9 + 71 = 251 > 250$. So no student scored higher than $70$.

However, both $B$ and $C$ are possible.

If $9$ students scored $20$ each and one scored $70$, then total score is $250$, as needed.

If $5$ students scored $20$ each and $5$ scored $30$ each, then again total score is $250$.

Actually, any score from $26$ to $70$ can be the highest.