Hmm. If she had meant, "Use the distributive property to simplify," I would be inclined to agree. But she wrote:

Originally Posted by teacher's comment
So she wants it to be A-sub-n = 3(A-sub-n-minus-1) -5.

If this comment has been conveyed accurately, the expression would be:

3(99)-5, as it wants you to subtract one from A. This would give 292, not 295.

Again, my brain isn't functioning at full capacity right now; am I wrong? If I am wrong, I will stop contributing to this thread.