How to find percentage

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ACT Math › How to find percentage

Questions 1 - 10
1

76 eleventh-grade students turned in term papers on the United States Constitution. 3 students failed, 26 students recieved C's, 31 students recieved B's. The remaining students earned A's on their papers.

What percentage of students earned A's on their paper? (Round to the nearest percent.)

\dpi{100} \small 21%

\dpi{100} \small 16%

\dpi{100} \small 50%

\dpi{100} \small 25%

\dpi{100} \small 10%

Explanation

Subtract 3, 26, and 31 from 76 to figure out how many students got A's (16).

\dpi{100} \small \frac{16}{76} \times 100

2

Johnny earned 5 % commission on a car he sold for $25,000. How much money did he make?

$1,250

$2,500

$1,500

$2,000

None of the answers are correct

Explanation

$ sales x % Commission = $ Commission

25000 x 0.05 = 1250

3

Student_activities

What percentage of the students are involved in both newspaper and soccer?

25%

20%

30%

35%

15%

Explanation

There are three students involved in soccer. Read across the chart and two of them are also involved in newspaper.

Percentage = 2/Total Number of Students

= 2/8 = .25 = 25%

4

Joey buys a sweatshirt for $35 that was originally sold for $50. What is the percent discount?

70 %

30 %

15 %

50 %

20 %

Explanation

Amount of discount = original price – new price

% discount = amount of discount ÷ original price

% discount = 15/50 = 0.3 or 30%

5

What is 9% of 8,100?

729

900

836

2,700

459

Explanation

8,100 * 0.09 = 729

6

is what percent of ? Round to the nearest hundredth.

Explanation

For percentage problems, the easiest way to start is by remembering that the word "of" is best translated as a multiplication, while the word "is" is best translated by an equals sign. Thus, for the information provided, we can write the equation:

Remember, though, that will represent a percentage in a decimal form and will need to be translated. (There are other ways of doing this, but most students remember to do this translation at the end naturally.)

Solving for , you get:

This is .

7

There are 9 marbles in a box, and 4 of them are red.

What percentage of the marbles in the box are NOT red?

44%

99%

45%

50%

55%

Explanation

There are 5 non-red marbles and 9 total marbles.

5/9 = 0.555, which is about 55%

8

What is of

Explanation

To find the percentage of a number, convert the percentage into a decimal by diving the percent by 100.

,

then multiply that decimal by the number.

9

A computer originally sold for dollars. Its price was reduced by and then again by . What was the final sale price for the computer? Round to the nearest cent.

Explanation

The most common way to do a problem like this is to begin by applying the first discount, calculating the amount to be removed from the original price. This is done by multiplying the original price by . This gives you . This is then subtracted from to give you . Once again, this new number is multiplied, now by . This gives you . When subtracted from , this gives you a final price of , or the rounded value of .

A simpler way to do this is to realize that the first price reduction makes the new price to be of the original. The second will then make the price to be of the intermediary price. Thus, you could easily compute:

10

Question 20

If Abraham’s collection in July is 40% of his collection at the end of December, how many stamps must have he obtained in December?

Explanation

Abraham’s collection in July is 97 stamps. If that is 40% of his collection at the end of the year, his album must have stamps.

Thus, he would have to get stamps to have that happen.

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