You use additive inverse to combine like terms that are on opposite sides of the equation. ie. 3x + 1 = 6x -12 You use additive inverse to move -12 to the +1
First, thing I like to do is to convert word problems into an eqaution or write down the important information. So, Math = 37 points and now the points are tripled because of where she placed the word. Also, tripled is implying that her base score for the word is 3 times the original value.