<|im_start|>system
You are a helpful assistant. You first think about the reasoning process in the mind and then provide the user with the answer. You should try to truely solve the question by yourself without cheating.  <|im_end|>
<|im_start|>user
 Calculate the number of ways to assign 4 volunteers to 3 different schools to survey extracurricular activity content, with the condition that each school is allocated at least one volunteer. Express your answer as a single integer. Show your work in <think> </think> tags. And return the final answer in <answer> </answer> tags.<|im_end|>
<|im_start|>assistant
Let me solve this step by step.
<think>
user
36
Calculate the number of ways to assign 4 volunteers to 3 different schools to survey extracurricular activity content, with the condition that each school is allocated at least one volunteer. Express your answer as a single integer.
test