This question was reported to be well attempted by majority of the candidates.
In part (a), candidates were reported to have expressed 27x as 33x and applied the law of indices as required. Hence they were able to obtain 3(2x + 1) – ((3x – 4) + (6- 7x)) = 33x. They also equated the powers and simplified it to obtain 6x – 1 = 3x which gave x = .
In part (b), candidates were reported to have expressed  as  = , and 2  as . These values were substituted into the expression and appropriate laws of indices applied to obtain  =  =  = 1.
Though this question was attempted by majority of the candidates satisfactorily, some of them were not able to apply and simplify the appropriate laws correctly.