How much zoom will I get with a 55-200mm lens on my Nikon D3000?

I'm a new DSLR user, and I have graduation commencement this Sunday. I found someone who is selling their Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6G VR lens for $100. I'm speaking at my commencement and I want some good quality photos of me on stage. I plan to offer the seller $80 for this lens, after I meet with them and ensure the lens is in good condition of course. I'm just curious if this will be enough zoom that I'm looking for. I used to have a Canon PowerShot and it had amazing zoom, so I was a little spoiled, but I wanted to upgrade to the good quality of a DSLR camera. I know it will be 3x zoom, but what exactly does that mean? How far away can I shoot, and will the pictures be good quality?

Any answers are appreciated!

Here is a link so you can see what different focal length lenses see.

http://imaging.nikon.com/.../index.htm

It seems you are attempting to equate the optical zoom on a P&S camera with an interchangeable lens used on a dSLR camera. You really can't do that successfully.

While P&S cameras list there lenses optical zooms as some kind of "X" focal range, lenses on dSLR's are listed by the focal length of the lens. That means that the user must understand the relationship between the camera they are using and the focal length of the lens

For instance. I have a 12-24 mm and 200-400 mm zoom lens, using the P&S criteria, they are both 2x lenses, but in fact, they are totally different lenses used for different reasons.

To answer your question, the 55-200 mm lens will reach out so someone using your camera can photograph you, but they have to be competent enough to use the camera and lens during the graduation if you expect great shots.

At a minimum, they need to know how to balance ISO, shutter speed and lens aperture to assure that the photos are not blurred caused by camera or subject movement while the camera is taking the shot. Do you have such a person in mind? Can they use the cameras light meter to assure good exposures?

When it comes to zoom and dslr cameras you can forget the whole "X" thing - that goes away.

Enough? That depends on where your shooter is sitting. Also remember that as you zoom your
f/stop goes up letting less light.

My son has a 55-200mm lens (and used to have a D3000 before I gave him my D90).

He used to shoot hockey games with it. The closeups of the players would not fill the screen @ 200mm, but he could take photos with perhaps 2 or 3 players in the photo. And that was probably 50-100ft away.

The quality of the photos depends on the person behind the camera. This is not the most stellar of lenses, especially in low light conditions, so don't expect miracles.