@@blaxican carol was the numbers person before Rachel. She is also a mathematician and very attractive. She has a very different personality than does Rachel which gave the show a different vibe. I would love to see her as a contestant on 8 of 10 cats does countdown. I hope her differences with channel 4 have subsided.
My guess would be that part of Rachel's skill is to be able to factor quickly not only the target, but the numbers around the target, and to quickly multiply various subsets of those factors.
It is always so weird when they can't get the easy ones, but manage to get the insanely difficult ones. For 695, there was a 10 there, so just do 8x8+3 for 67 --> 670 + 25
A couple more ways of doing the first numbers puzzle are: 25 + 9 + 7 = 41 3 + 2 = 5 41 x 5 = 205 9 + 9 = 18 7 + 3 = 10 18 x 10 = 180 180 + 25 = 205 Another way of doing the second is: 9 x 8 = 72 72 + 5 + 1 = 78 78 x 6 = 468 468 + 3 = 471 And an alternate solution for the third is: 10 + 8 = 18 18 x 8 x 5 = 720 720 - 25 = 695