Can anyone explain to me how you work out the answer to question 17:

An ice cream shop sells cones with 2 scopes of ice cream. It offers a choice of 6 different flavours each day. The scoops can be the same flavour or different flavours.

The flavours are:

1. Vanilla
2. Strawberry
3. Chocolate
4. Mint
5. Peach
6. Melon

QUESTION: How many different combinations of ice cream flavours does the shop offer each day?

A. 21
B. 30
C. 18
D. 36
E. 15

6+5+4+3+2+1 = 21

Just count from top to bottom.
A flavour can be combined to itself or any other.

Is it not 36? You could do a cross table showing the different combinations and there would be 6 flavours on each side.

That would work for digits where 16 is different to 61, but chocolate and strawberry is the same as strawberry and chocolate, so it's not 6*6, but instead as described by akb.

This is an extremely poor question as it does not define 'different' - this is the sort of question I would give to a Year 7 so they can discuss who is right!

Both 21 and 36 and correct depending on how you define 'different' ... truly shocking

I'd have gone for 36, looking at e.g. 'Strawberry then Vanilla' as a different combination from 'Vanilla then Strawberry' if you visualise them. Whereas 21 is also right if you see the combination of flavours as the commutable 'x and y'.

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Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx

I've personally completed every single GL Maths practice paper currently available for sale (my DS was far more motivated if he saw me doing the exact same paper that I gave to him) and I can assure you GL has quite a few what I consider vague questions or questions that is actually testing your knowledge of English comprehension rather than Maths.

Another example that's been discussed on forums previously is the fractions question involving eating/sharing pizza.

My advice is don't allow yourself or your DC to get too hung up on these questions and focus on the other questions.

No - it's not to do with English comprehension - it is a very badly composed question.

If this is typical of GL's questions then they should be challenged - this question is not written by a mathematician.

Yes if the scoops are on top of eachother it's a very different experience if the chocolate is on top of the strawberry or the other way round.....

Exactly.

But somewhere calling itself an 'ice cream shop' and only offering six flavours at a time is a bit rubbish, anyway, if you ask me. At our better local one, it would be more like 256 combinations. And not everyone can restrict themselves to two scoops, of course .

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Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx