High School Placement Test (HSPT) Practice Test

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Study for the High School Placement Test with our HSPT quiz. Revise with flashcards and multiple choice questions, each offering hints and explanations. Prepare confidently for your exam!

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Evaluate 3 + [(12÷4)×6] - 20.

-9
0
18
6

The correct answer is: -9

To evaluate the expression $3 + [(12÷4)×6] - 20$, we follow the order of operations, often remembered by the acronym PEMDAS (Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication and Division (from left to right), Addition and Subtraction (from left to right)). First, we look inside the brackets. We need to perform the division $12 ÷ 4$ first. This results in $3$. Next, we multiply this result by $6$: \[ 3 × 6 = 18. \] Now, we can replace the expression in the brackets with $18$. So we rewrite the expression as: \[ 3 + 18 - 20. \] Next, we perform the addition: \[ 3 + 18 = 21. \] Finally, we subtract $20$ from $21$: \[ 21 - 20 = 1. \] It seems there was a miscalculation in the evaluation since the correct final result is $1$. The original answer provided may have derived from a misinterpretation of the operations' order or calculations involved. In this case, if we note the correct steps leading to