A school math contest requires that students complete all 12 problems on the contest exam. Each participant receives 5 points for each correctly solved problem and loses 3 points for each incorrect or omitted answer.
a. How many problems wer solved correctly by a student who receives a score of 36>
b. What is the minimum number of problems that participants must answer correctly to receive a positive score?
c. Provide an expression that can be used to determine the score for each participant.

I hate that I am having trouble helping my son with his math. I just can't afford a tutor. It's a shame that with all of this math that they are teaching now kids can't balance a checkbook or make change at McDonald's any more.

You can name two different variables.

x - number of correctly answers.
y - number of incorrectly/omitted answers.

The total number of problems is 12, hence, x + y = 12.

1. Then, for the marks to exceed 36, you get:

5x - 3y > 36

5x because these will sum up to the marks awarded for correct answers and -3y because this will amount up to the sum for negative marking. Solve using the two equations.

2. For this part, a positive score will be obtained when:

5x - 3y > 0

3. You should be able to guess this by now. :)

Post what you get! :)

No offense to ever tried to solve this problem, but you are way off. I have no clue what you are doing but for future references, here's the correct answer.
There is 12 questions that equal 5 points each if answered correctly, leaving you with a total of 60 possible points (5x12=60)
If a question is missed or omitted you get a penalty. Not only do you not get the 5 points but you also miss an extra 3 points added to it, which means you get a -8 points for each problem missed.
If you miss one question (60-8) you get a 52.
If you miss another questions (52-8) you get a 44.
If you miss another questions (44-8) you get a 36.
Bully made a 36, which means he missed 3 problems.
12-3=9
Bully got 9 problems correct.
You can use an actual equation here but this is better understood written out when teaching it to kids.

No offense to ever tried to solve this problem, but you are way off. ...

First - this question is 2-1/2 years old, so it's way out of date.

Second - Unknown008's approach is perfectly correct. He uses a different approach than yours and he left he final steps to the OP to complete, but his method gets to the same result of there being 9 correct answers and 3 incorrect.