This may help people: > Mary is 24 years old. She is twice as old as Ann was (12) when Mary was as old (18) as Ann is now (18). How old is Ann? So 6 years ago

This may help people: > Mary is 24 years old. She is twice as old as Ann was (12) when Mary was as old (18) as Ann is now (18). How old is Ann? So 6 years ago, Mary was 18, and Ann was 12. Today, Mary is twice the age that Ann was (12 * 2) at the time that she (Mary) was 18, making her 24. What makes it confusing is that the sentence is comparing Mary’s present age with Ann’s past age (which I did not catch until mulling it over a bit).