OE


It's important to note that this question asks for the number of hours spent by high school students watching sitcoms, not the percentage. The table gives the percentage of their time, but the hours will need to be calculated.

According to the column on the far right, high school students averaged 12 hours per week watching prime-time programs. According to the column for sitcoms, 22% of this group's average weekly prime-time viewing is for sitcoms. So, the answer is 22% of 12 hours. However, since the question asks for an approximate answer, round the percent to 25% (or one-fourth) of 12, which is 3. The correct answer is (A).

TAKEAWAY: When the question indicates that only an approximate answer is needed, don't waste time with exact calculations; round to more convenient values.

Analyze the table

The title "Average Weekly Viewing of Prime-Time Television" indicates that the chart deals with prime time only, and the chart breaks this viewing down further across genre categories, listed along the top of the chart, and viewer groups, listed down the left. Notice that these numbers are given as percents. The exception is the column on the far right, which shows the average weekly prime-time viewing in hours by viewer group. Nowhere are the numbers of each type of viewer given, so it is not possible to calculate the total number of hours of any genre watched by, say, preschoolers. To find the number of hours spent watching a prime-time program type for a particular viewer type, you'd need to multiply the percent at the intersection of that program/viewer type by the number of hours in the far right column for that viewer category.