5003 Praxis Practice Test Practice Question
Samantha is 2 years younger than Jake. The total of their ages is 26. What are the ages of Samantha and Jake? Let S be Samantha's age and let J be Jake's age. Which of the following systems of equations can be used to solve the word problem shown?
Correct Answer: A
Rationale: Option A correctly represents the relationship between Samantha and Jake's ages. The equation \(J - S = 2\) indicates that Jake is 2 years older than Samantha, aligning with the statement that Samantha is 2 years younger. The second equation \(S + J = 26\) accurately reflects the total age of both individuals.
Option B incorrectly states \(S - 2 = J\), which suggests Samantha is older than Jake, contradicting the problem's conditions.
Option C has an error in the age difference equation, using \(S - j = 2\) instead of \(J - S = 2\), and incorrectly sums their ages to 24 instead of 26.
Option D is nonsensical as it uses \(S = j = 2\) which does not represent the age relationship or total correctly. Thus, only option A provides the correct framework to solve the problem.
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