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(Reprinted from January 2006 newsletter)

The National Association of College Stores has a breakdown of where each dollar goes for a new textbook. A closer look at their logic, though, reveals enough slight-of-hand to make Penn and Teller genuflect in awe.

First, let's take their categories for the non-bookstore portion. (Face it, no matter what the publisher charges the bookstore is going to make their cut - at least they aren't shy about telling you that.)

Gasoline is $3+ per gallon, textbooks run $500 or more per semester, tuition has had double-digit increases. Face it, going to college is getting way too expensive. What's a poor struggling student supposed to do? Here are some suggestions for keeping your head (and finances) above water:

Dear Professor Cram:

600 children attended summer camp, 58% girls, 42% boys (overall). 25% attended dance camp. If dance camp was exclusively attended by girls, how many girls attended dance camp? The choices are a)150, b)95, c)102, d)118, and e)123. The answer is supposed to be A, but I can't get it. I took 25% of 600 and got 123, then took 58% of 123 but it's not an option. Please help! There must be some underlying factor I'm missing...

Kaye B, Riverdale

Thanks for your question, Kaye. This is a classic word-problem trick -- giving too much information. Let's review the facts first:

Dear Professor Cram:

ABC Corp has 500,000 of debt outstanding, and it pays an interest rate of 10% annually. Annual sales of 2 million with a tax rate of 30% and a net profit margin of 5%. What is the ABC Corp TIE ratio? Somehow I missed the boat on this one. Can you help?

John S., US Navy

Thanks for your question, John. You may want to review some of our Cramlets™ on financial ratios. What you are looking for with Times Interest Earned, or TIE, is ABC Corp's ability to pay interest payments out of earnings.