A line of best fit for a data set is given by y = 2.5x + 30, where x represents years of experience and y represents predicted salary in…

Substitute 12 years of experience into the model: $y = 2.5(12) + 30 = 30 + 30 = 60$. The predicted salary is 60 thousand dollars, so the answer is 60. The slope of 2.5 means each additional year adds $2,500 to the predicted salary, and the intercept 30 is the predicted starting salary in thousands of dollars. A common wrong answer is 30, which forgets to multiply by 12 for the slope term. Another is 32.5, from adding $2.5 + 30$ as if $x = 1$. A third is 360, from multiplying $30 \times 12$. Plug in the value, multiply first, then add.