ABE Math Tutorials/Whole numbers/Setup problems

Setup problems
Fortunately, for many of the questions on the GED Math test, you don't actually have to do the arithmetic: you just have to know what to do -- how you would "set up" the problem. Here is an example of what you might see on the test:

Margaret sells baked goods at her local Farmer's Market. She sells bread for $2 a loaf, and pies for $3 each. Which expression below represents how much money she will earn if she sells 25 loaves of bread and 22 pies?


 * 1) 25 + 22
 * 2) 2 + 3
 * 3) (2) + 22(25)
 * 4) 2(25) + 3(22)
 * 5) 3(25) + 2(22)

You're asked "how much money" she will earn, so you know that you can't just add up the pies and loaves and expect to get the right answer. So answer choice #1 is obviously wrong. And look atanswer choice #2: it doesn't seem right that Margaret would make only $5 for selling all those pies and loaves of bread. What we're really going to have do is to multiply the number of loaves by the price she got for each one; and add that to the number of pies multiplied by the price she got for each one of those.

You can see that answer choice #4 shows the right way: 2 x 25 (for the 25 loaves of bread at $2 per loaf) plus 3 x 22 (for the 22 pies at $3 per pie) (2 x 25) + (3 x 22) or, written another way, 2(25) + 3(22)Ready to try a few?

And now the answers:

If you're ready for the Setup Problems homework, click here.