Appendix C

Numeracy Scale—General

1. Imagine that we rolled a fair, six-sided die 1,000 times. Out of 1,000 rolls, how many times do you think the die would come up even (2, 4, or 6)?

2. In the BIG BUCKS LOTTERY, the chances of winning a $10.00 prize is 1%. What is your best guess about how many people would win a $10.00 prize if 1,000 people each bought a single ticket to BIG BUCKS?

3. In the ACME PUBLISHING SWEEPSTAKES, the chance of winning a car is 1 in 1,000. What percent of tickets to the ACME PUBLISHING SWEEPSTAKES win a car?

Numeracy Scale—Extended (Adapted)

4. Which of the following numbers represents the greatest risk?
a. 1 in 100
b. 1 in 1,000
c. 1 in 10

5. If Person A’s risk of getting a disease is 1% in 10 years, and person B’s risk is double that of A’s, what is B’s risk?

6. If Person A’s chance of getting a disease is 1 in 100 in 10 years, and person B’s risk is double that of A’s, what is B’s risk?

7. If the chance of getting a prize is 10%, how many people in 1,000 would be expected to win the prize?

8. If the chance of getting a prize is 1 out of 50, this would be the same as having a _______% chance of getting the disease.

9. The chance of getting a viral infection is 0.0005. Out of 10,000 people, about how many of them are expected to get infected?