Question

At the end of May, Janet told Sam that she has read 10 books this year and reads 2 books each month. Sam wants to catch up to Janet. He tracks his book reading with a table on his door. Using his table below, what month will Sam have read the same amount of books as Janet?

Answer 1

Table:

Answer 2

you have to set up an equation. So janet has a head start of 10 books and she reads 2 books per month, so the equation that describes the number of books that she had read is 10 + 2x

Sam reads 3 per month so his is 3x

In both expressions, x stand for the months that have passed.

Equates the two expression together, you have:
10 + 2x = 3x

Combine like terms, solve for x. That's not your final answer yet.

Remember they start in May? x is the number of months AFTER May. So count the number of months and find out what month it is