ABE Math Tutorials/Whole numbers/Word problems

Introduction
So far, all of our math work has been just "arithmetic". But most of the GED test involves word problems. Many people say : "I just can't do word problems ." In fact, working with word problems requires only 2 main skills:

Types

 * Reading ability: Word problems involve words. To know what to do in a word problem, you first have to be able to understand what the question is asking you. If you are already a good reader, you will have an advantage with word problems (and with all the GED tests, for that matter!) How can you become a good reader? Research has shown that the best way to improve your reading ability is with practice. Just read. Read for at least 15 minutes every day: read a newspaper, a magazine article, or a good story.

Let's start with an example:
 * Basic arithmetic skills: Once you understand what the question is asking you to do, you have to choose the right operation (add, subtract, multiply, or divide) and then do the arithmetic.

Examples
The first thing we have to do in this problem is to figure out which operation to use. The question itself gives a clue: it says "how much money ... in all". The "in all" suggests that we're going to have to add. And, in fact, all we have to do is to add the two numbers together :
 * One weekend, Susan's family had a garage sale. They made $64 on Saturday, and $102 on Sunday. How much money did they make in all from the garage sale?

64 + 102 = 166. They made $166 in all. Let's try another one:

First, let's figure out which operation to use. It helps if you can picture what is happening here: Mark buys 250 bricks, uses 208 of them, and you're asked to figure out how many are left. It's clear that we're going to have to subtract to get the answer:
 * Mark bought 250 bricks to make a patio. However, the patio only required 208 bricks. How many bricks did Mark have left over?

250 - 208 = 42 He will have 42 bricks left over. Let's try another one:

100,000 ÷ 4 = 25,000 Each person will get $25,000 Ready for one more?

4 x 240 = 960. She has stuffed 960 envelopes at the end of the day.

Ready to try a few on your own? (You may use your calculator if you wish. But if you need the arithmetic practice, please do the work "long hand".)

To check your answers, click here.

The word problems that we have been working on so far are called "one step problems" -- they each require only one operation to find the answer. Other problems are more complicated. Let's look at a problem:

So first we'll add:

64 + 102 = $166 ....and now we'll divide:

166 ÷ 2 = $83 Each family will receive $83 from the yard sale. Ready for another? See if you can figure out which operations you need to use in this question:

Again, you may recognize that this problem starts out like one of the first ones we tried. Try to picture what is happening: Mark starts out with 30 bricks, buys 250 more, then uses 208. So first we can add:

30 + 250 = 280 bricks ... and then we'll subtract the number of bricks he used in the patio: 280 - 208 = 72 bricks left over. If you're ready for the Word Problems homework, click here.