can someone explain what to look for/how to set up hardy-weinberg problems?

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mrh125

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i know the whole p+q=1
and p^2+2pq+q^2=1 business
where p= dominant allele freq
q= recessive allele frequency
p^2=homozyg dominant in pop
q^2= homozyg recessive in pop
and 2pg = recessive

but i've always had trouble finding out when I use p instead of p^2 or q instead of q^2 and just end up blindly taking the square root of stuff. What are some words you look for to give you a clue and how do you go about setting these up? I remember doing these in gen bio and remembering them as being easy.

this is one of those little things that can probably cost me a question or two on the mcat and i want to figure it out. also if anyone knows a site with a lot of practice hardy weinberg problems that'd be amazing 🙂.
 
Use p for allele.
If it says 50 out of 500 is dominant PHENOTYPE, use p^2.
p^2 = 50/500

p = sqrt1/10

And so on.
 
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