Super Subs Inc. is planning on hiring new employees for the summer. They want to make sure their new employees are available to work on the busiest day of the week. Below is a chart of their four different stores, and how many sub sandwiches they sold at each store the previous week. According to this chart, which day will the new hires most likely need to work?

1. Wednesday

2. Thursday

3. Friday

4. Saturday

5. Sunday

Super Subs Inc. may need to shut down a store due to the bad economy. According to the chart, which store would they most likely shut down?

1. Store A

2. Store B

3. Store C

4. Store D

5. None of the Stores

For more information about the GED test and GED test preparation, visit the GED Academy at http://www.passGED.com

Plus, remember ’bout Stephen Wolfram? Yup, mathematics guy, wrote some software to do advanced math real quick. Well, he’s starting a new online website, and here’s what it does… You type in your question, and it’s got a big encyclopedia of a bunch of info, right? So it figures out your question… and sends you the answer. Don’t think that math ain’t at the bottom of it. The website’s up later this month… called Wolfram Alpha. so check it out, the next cool thing, brought to y’all by MATH.

Math ain’t too hard. Jus’ take it step by step, once you get the basics down, you get there. How ’bout a practice question to get the juices goin’? Here it is…

Annie is an interior designer, and she’s got a budget of $345 to buy fabric for drapes. She needs 12 yards of fabric. The fabric that she really wants, Fabric A, costs $29 per yard. Her second choice, Fabric B, costs $27.50 per yard, and her third choice, Fabric C, costs $26 per yard. She wants to buy her top choice that she can afford and stay in budget. Which fabric should she buy?

1) Fabric A

2) Fabric B

3) Fabric C

4) All the fabrics are too expensive.

So… what’d'ya get? And how’d ya go about it? Here’s what I figure… I could multiply the cost of each fabric by 12 yards to find out how much each would cost, but that seems like too much work to me. So I wanna take the shortest short-cut I got. Here’s what I did… take the total budget, $345, and divide it by 12 yards of fabric. That gonna give me the budget PER YARD, then I can jus’ compare that with all the prices.  $345 divided by 12 is $28.75, so I got my max price per yard. Now, I can’t afford the $29 fabric, jus barely. Don’t know bout you, but I’d be all smooth-talkin’ the fabric store owner to try to get a discount. But dat ain’ t part of the question. So the answer’s 2, Answer B, the $27.50 fabric.

And, you notice, this GED question’s all ’bout a real-life job that’d really use this kinda math. So, keep it in mind… math’s real good for your future!

I’m not bad in math except when it comes to word problems any advice?

Hey, the GED’s real big on word problems, so you gotta get the hang of them. Why’d they gotta have word problems? Cuz they ain’t so much int’rested if you can figure out 3x + 4 = 12 as if you can figure out how much you’ll save each month if you buy generic soda instead of regular soda. See what I mean? One’s a plain math problem, the other’s a word problem. You’ve gotta first figure out what math you need to use it! See, my math teacher told me, math’s like a tool box. You got all these different math tools, and they help you do different things. You gotta know when to use what tool, to solve the problem you got in front of you. So, a math word problem is like a real-life problem that you might use math to solve. Okay, okay, whatcha really wanna know is, how to solve ‘em?

1) Read the Problem and Figure Out What It’s Asking

The first step is to figure out what the answer you’re lookin’ for is. How ’bout that question I asked before?

Greg buys 4 2-liter bottles of brand-name soda a week, at the price of $1.29 per bottle. One week each month, the soda goes on sale for $.79 per bottle. The store also has generic soda, which always costs $.99 per bottle. How much will Greg save in one year by buying the generic soda instead of brand-name soda?

There’s a word problem for ya’. So, read it through. What’s the main idea? What’s it asking? What is it you’re trying to find? In this place the answer is savings, in one year, of buying generic soda. It can help you out to rewrite what you’re trying to find in your own words:

Find the savings, in one year, of buying generic soda.

2) Look at What Information You’ve Got

Go through the problem and make notes of what information it gives you. This is what you’ve got to work with. I might go through the problem an’ pick out:

2-Liter Sodas Bought: 4 bottles a week
Costs: $1.29 each, $.79 once a month for 1 week
Generic Costs: $.99 each

Sometimes it helps to draw a picture or a chart. Anything that helps you get the info straight in your head.

3) Make a Plan

Now you gotta figure out what to do. How do you take the info it gives you, an’ get from there to the answer? This is where thinkin’ it through comes in. You need a plan. You got all the tools in your math toolbox: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division. Which ones make sense? What info do you need to use?

Well. Let’s look at it, one step at a time. We wanna know how much he’ll save in a year. So, how much does he spend in a year? Let’s start there. Then, we’ll figure out how much he’ll spend if he buys generic. Then, we want to know the difference of the two. That means, subtracting. So, that’s my plan:

1) Figure out how much Greg spends in a year.
2) Figure out how much Greg would spend buying generic.
3) Subtract to find out how much he’d save.

3) Do the Math!

Step 1: How much does he spend in a year? Greg buys 4 sodas a week. Most of the time, they’re $1.29 each. To figure out how much he spends most weeks, what do you do? Multiply, right? $1.29 times 4 sodas:

4 × 1.29 =5.16

Okay, that’s a regular week. What about when the soda’s on sale? That’s:

4 × .79 =3.16

Now, you need some more thinking. How many weeks in a year does he spend $3.16? Once a month, right? So that’s 12. For each of 12 weeks, he pays $3.16. Multiplication again:

3.16 × 12 =37.92

Now, that’s part of the year. The rest of the year, he pays 5.16. Now, to know how many weeks that is, you (1) need to know there’s 52 weeks in a year, and (2) need to subtract, because you want to know how many are left.

52 – 12 = 40

So, for 40 weeks, he spends $5.16:

40 × 5.16 =206.40

Great. Long road to get here. But what’s the total he spends in a year? When you want to know a total, you want to add…

206.40 + 37.92 = 244.32

Yikes! That’s a lot of dough. (Hey, most GED problems won’t have so many steps, but it’s good practice.)

Step 2: How much would he spend buying generic? This is easier, cuz it’s all one price. $.99 times 4 bottles times 52 weeks.

.99 × 4 × 52 = $205.92

Step 3: Subtract to find out how much he’d save:

$244.32 – 205.92 = $38.40

4) Does the Answer Make Sense?

Okay. Take a step back. Does what you did make sense? Does it seem like a reasonable answer to the question? The question is, how much will he save in a year if he buys generic soda, about .30 cents less (usually) than brand-name soda–but sometimes .20 cents more. So, on average, what’s he saving? .20 per soda? Maybe? 50 weeks, 4 sodas a week, so 200 sodas-ish a year, at 20 cents would be about 40 bucks.  The answer’s about 40 bucks. That sounds reasonable. I ain’t bein’ exact enough to estimate an answer, but I know my answer at least ain’t way off in the wild somewhere. I mean, if I got $384.00 by accident, I’d KNOW it was wrong.

The other advice I got is, practice! Here’s some places to get practice word problems. Hey, they won’t all be this complex. Start with the easier ones an’ work yo’ way up. An’ show me any of ‘em that give you problems. I’ll try walkin’ thru ‘em.

http://www.mathplayground.com/wordproblems.html

http://www.quia.com/pop/13193.html

http://www.quia.com/jq/19998.html

http://www.cdli.ca/CITE/math_problems.htm

For more information about the GED test and GED test preparation, visit the GED Academy at http://www.passGED.com.

Im about to take my math test,I am horrible in math.right now I am working on word probloms.How do I know if these word probloms are asking me to subtract,divide,multiply or add.please help.

Yeah! Tough, ain’t it? But the GED wants to know if you can do math on the fly, you know. That’s why they give you word problems. Like, you’re waitin’ in the line at the supermarket. Do you got enough money for what’s in your cart? How do you know? You’ve got to choose what math to do to figure it out… in this case, ADD together everything in your cart, and SUBTRACT from how much money you’ve got.

Try to think through the problem in concrete terms. Picture it. How do the diff’rent numbers relate to each other?

ADD if you need to find a total, figure out what more than one thing together is. For example, if you deposit $40, $160 and $30 in your bank, and you started out with $200, how much you got? You ADD because you’re trying to find out what it is all together.  $200 + $40 + $160 + $30 = $430. That’s more than I got!

SUBTRACT if you need to find the difference between two things or what you got left over, or how much bigger one thing is than another. For example, how much more will you save from buying the $150 TV instead of the $180 TV? Subtract, because you need to find out how much more one is than the other. $180 – $150 = $30 saved by buyin’ the cheaper TV.

MULTIPLY if you need to find out the total of something repeated over a number of years, over a number of miles. For example, if you’re going to drive 40 miles to the beach, and each mile costs $0.10 in gas, how much will the drive cost in gas? You need 10 cents for each mile… and that’s what MULTIPLICATION is for. All you gotta do is multiply 40 x $0.10 to get $4.00 in gas for the whole trip.

DIVIDE if you need to find out a part of something, or how something separates into even amount. So, if Karen paid $45 for 5 of the same scarf to give to people for Christmas, how much is one scarf? It’s 45 ÷ 5 = $9 for each scarf. DIVIDING divides a number into equal parts.

That’s the quick low-down. Here’s some resources for more info on word problems…

http://mathforum.org/dr.math/faq/faq.word.problems.html

http://academic.cuesta.edu/acasupp/as/706.htm

http://www.studygs.net/mathproblems.htm

And get some practice…

http://www.satmathpro.com/SMP_WordProblems.html

For more information about the GED test and GED test preparation, visit the GED Academy at http://www.passGED.com.

Satix is at a flea market. She wants to get the most knives at the lowest price. But she also wants to get at least one of each. The prices of the knives are: $ 4.30, $12.80, $11.50, $7.30, $ 7.50. If she has $50 to spend how much will her change be?

This is a tough word problem, so you gotta think it through. Hey, it’s great practice. Cuz if you can think through this, thinkin’ through some other word problems’ll be E-Z. This is what I call a number sense problem, cuz there ain’t no real advanced math, just makin’ sense of it, bein’ logical about it, and doin’ some basic math.

So, Satix wants one each of all the knives. You know she’s gonna buy one of each, so she’s going to buy at least:

$ 4.30 + $12.80 + $11.50 + $7.30 + $ 7.50 = $43.40

She’s spent $43.40, just on one of each knife. But she wants as many knives as possible. So, does she buy anything else? How much’s she got left?

$50.00 – $43.40 = $6.60

She’s got $6.60 left, so she can buy one more of the cheapest knives.

$6.60 – $4.30 = $2.30

That gives her $2.30 in change. Not enough to get another knife. So she be done. And you got the answer to the question…how much change she got left? $2.30. There ya go.

For more information about the GED test and GED test preparation, visit the GED Academy at http://www.passGED.com.

am having problem with Lesson-7 page 491 on A. on Add or subtract as Directed reduce to the lowest terms.Am trying to figure out the form to work the fractions. am stuck on this one. Michael

Okay, here’s the rule with adding and subtracting fractions. Let’s start with a problem:

5/12 + 2/5

For starters, make sure you got the same number on the bottom of both fractions (the same denominator). If the denominators are different (like 12 and 5), how do you get them the same?

Well, you can change the number on the bottom of a fraction by multiplying or dividing BOTH the number at the top (numerator) and the number at the bottom (denominator) by the same number. So, what’s a number you can multiply 12 and 5 into evenly? Gotta go all the way up to 60 to do it. I figure it out by seeing what the multiples of 12 are, until I find one that 5 goes into (cuz I know 5 will go into it if it ends in 5 or 0). Hey, practice those times tables!

So, since 12 x 5 is 60, you change the denominator of the first fraction to 60 by multiplying the top and bottom by 5:

5/12 = (5 x 5) / (12 x 5) = 25/60

For the second fraction, you gotta multiply by 12:

2/5 = (2 x 12) / (5 x 12) = 24/60

So, the problem gets to be:

25/60 + 24/60 =

Now, it’s easy. Just add the top numbers, and the bottom number stays the same:

25/60 + 24/60 = 49/60

Now, you want to REDUCE. That means, is there anything you can divide evenly into the top and bottom? No, there isn’t. So the answer is 49/60. Let’s try a subtraction problem… they’re similar. Make the bottom numbers the same, and then subtract the top numbers. But let’s mix it up with mixed numbers.

5-1/4 – 3-2/3 =

Okay, there are a couple of ways to do this, but I find the easiest is to make them into improper fractions first. How many 4ths is 5? It’s 20/4 (4 x 5 = 20). So, 5-1/4 = 21/4… you can do the same thing with 3-2/3. Three is the same as 9/3 (or 3 x 3 thirds), so 3-2/3 = 11/3 (9 thirds plus 2 thirds is 11 thirds). Now, it’s just fractions:

21/4 – 11/3 =

So, how do we make 4 and 3 the same? What do they both go into? 12.

21/4 = (21 x 3) / (4 x 3) = 63/12

11/3 = (11 x 4) / (3 x 4) = 44/12

To figure out the problem, just subtract the top numbers, and leave the bottom one the same:

63/12 – 44/12 = (63 – 44)/12 = 19/12

Now, what’s 19/12? Take 12/12 out to make 1, and you’ve got 7/12 left: 1-7/12.

Okay, we didn’t really reduce on any of these, so let’s do one that needs to reduce.

11/36 + 7/36 =

The bottom numbers are already the same, so just add the top numbers and leave the bottom number the same:

11/36 + 7/36 = (11 + 7)/36 = 18/36

Okay, now we got 18/36. It needs to be reduced. How do I know? Well, first they’re both even numbers, so I know for sure that 2 goes into both. (If they both ended in either 0 or 5, I’d know 5 went into both… seriously, check your times tables.)

Since 2 goes into both, I can divide both by 2:

18/36 = (18 ÷ 2) / (36 ÷ 2) = 9/18

Now, I can see pretty clear that 9 goes into 18:

9/18 = (9 ÷ 9) / (18 ÷ 9) = 1/2

So, 18/36 is 1/2. If I saw right away that 36 was twice 18, I wouldn’t'a had to divide twice… that’s why it helps your GED to get really good at the basic math, dividing, multiplyin’, just workin’ with numbers.

Let me know if this helps studyin’ for your GED! And let me know if you got any more questions abou adding and subtracting fractions.

For more information about the GED test and GED test preparation, visit The GED Academy at http://www.passGED.com.

Truth is, the GED has word problems because they want to give you more real-life problems…not that all of them are things you might run across every day. But, if you want to figure out how much paint you need for your walls, you need to figure out how to make the calculation first. How do you figure how many gallons of paint you need for your walls?

That’s what the GED wants to test…can you figure out how to solve a math problem that you might run across in real life? Some of ‘em even just give you equations to pick the answer from…not even askin’ if you can solve the equation, but can you tell which one’s the right answer? So that, if you’re shoppin’ and want to figure which box of cereal’s the best deal, or how much paint to cover your walls, or you’re startin’ a business tryin’ to figure out what to price your product, how many you need to sell to make a profit, you’ll be headin’ in the right direction with the right math.

Ok, enough talkin’ about why the GED has word problems. Let’s jump into the practice problem…and here it is…

So, you want to paint two adjacent (next to each other) walls of your bedroom bright red. The bedroom is 10 x 12, and the walls are 8 feet high. One gallon of paint will cover 400 square feet. The paint is sold in quarts, too. You want to buy as little paint as possible. So, what’s the least amount of paint you can buy and still finish the job?

A) 1 quart

B) 2 quarts

C) 3 quarts

D) 1 gallon

D’ya get the answer? Think about it…. this problem’s got a lot of steps to get to the answer.

First thing I’m gonna do is look at how many square feet each of the answers is. 1 gallon covers 400 square feet. Well, there are 4 quarts in a gallon, so each quart covers 100 square feet.

A) 1 quart = 100 square feet

B) 2 quarts = 200 square feet

C) 3 quarts = 300 square feet

D) 1 gallon = 400 square feet

Now, you gotta know how many square feet the job is. Each wall is a rectangle… since they’re next to each other in a 10 x 12 room, one is 10 feet wide, and the other is 12 feet wide. Both of ‘em is 8 feet tall, the height of the room.

So, you’ve got a 10×8 foot wall and a 12×8 food wall.

To get the square feet, just multiply…. 10×8 = 80 square feet and 12×8=80+16=96 square feet (you can do it in your head if you practice). Together, 80 + 96 = 176.

So, 2 quarts will do it, right? That’ll cover your 176 square feet.

Did that make sense? Could you think through it, and keep it all straight? That’s the hard part…

Here is a website I found with practice changing sentences into math problems… maybe that’ll help with the word problems.

Good luck!

Anyway, you’re here for the GED practice question, right? Here was what I asked about:

Suppose a family decides to vote on a place to visit on vacation. Dad loves the mountains but hates the beach (too sandy!). He would enjoy Disneyland (but not as much as the mountains). Mom loves the beach but hates the mountains (too many steep trails to climb!). She would enjoy Disneyland (but not as much as the beach). Alice loves the beach but hates the mountains (just like Mom!). She also would enjoy Disneyland (but not as much as the beach). Tommy loves Disneyland more than anything else! He can’t stand the mountains (boring!) or the beach (too hot!)

If everyone votes for their favorite, the BEACH will get 2 votes (Mom and Alice), the MOUNTAINS will get 1 vote (Dad), and DISNEYLAND will get 1 vote (Tommy). So, the BEACH wins!

Is the BEACH really the best choice for the family vacation? Think about it. Half of the family members (Dad and Tommy) hate the beach. Should the family really go to a spot that half of the family hates? Is there a better choice? Look back at the preferences of each family member and see if you can suggest a ‘better’ vacation spot. Is ‘the most first place votes wins’ method really the best method here?

GED Practice Question Part 1: If everyone votes for a first and second choice, how many votes would there be for each choice?

GED-type Answer: This is what the GED calls number sense… figuring out how to do something and then doing the math. So, if everyone voted for a first and second choice, it’d look like this:

Dad: First choice, mountains. Second choice, Disneyland.

Mom: First choice, beach. Second choice, Disneyland.

Alice: First choice, beach. Second choice, Disneyland.

Tommy: First choice, Disneyland. Second choice, none (or some random place).

All together, there’d be one vote for the mountains, two for the beach, four for Disneyland, and one blank or random choice. Even if Tommy voted for the beach for second choice, even though he hates it, most votes would be for Disneyland! Disneyland would win!

GED Practice Question Part 2: If everyone votes either FOR or AGAINST each vacation choice, how many for and against votes would each choice get?

GED-type Answer: If everyone votes for or against each choice, it’d look like this:

Dad: For: Mountains. For: Disneyland. Against: Beach.

Mom: For: Beach. For: Disneyland. Against: Mountains.

Alice: For: Beach. For: Disneyland. Against: Mountains.

Tommy: For: Disneyland. Against: Beach. Against: Mountains.

So, here’s the results:

Mountains: 1 for, 3 against. Mountains lose!

Beech: 2 for, 2 against. Beach is tied.

Disneyland: 4 for, 0 against. Disneyland wins!

Now, don’t both these ways of voting seem to give a more fair result than just plain voting for one place? So why don’t we vote like this between a bunch of candidates instead of voting for one primary candidate and then for one candidate for president? That’s what I wanna know!

To find out more about the GED test and GED test preparation, visit The GED Academy at passGED.com.

Here’s an example of a vote between three things that the guy gives:

Suppose a family decides to vote on a place to visit on vacation. Dad loves the mountains but hates the beach (too sandy!). He would enjoy Disneyland (but not as much as the mountains). Mom loves the beach but hates the mountains (too many steep trails to climb!). She would enjoy Disneyland (but not as much as the beach). Alice loves the beach but hates the mountains (just like Mom!). She also would enjoy Disneyland (but not as much as the beach). Tommy loves Disneyland more than anything else! He can’t stand the mountains (boring!) or the beach (too hot!)

If everyone votes for their favorite, the BEACH will get 2 votes (Mom and Alice), the MOUNTAINS will get 1 vote (Dad), and DISNEYLAND will get 1 vote (Tommy). So, the BEACH wins!

Is the BEACH really the best choice for the family vacation? Think about it. Half of the family members (Dad and Tommy) hate the beach. Should the family really go to a spot that half of the family hates? Is there a better choice? Look back at the preferences of each family member and see if you can suggest a ‘better’ vacation spot. Is ‘the most first place votes wins’ method really the best method here?

Weird, huh? I mean, you never thought voting was really complicated… everyone votes for one guy, and then the guy with the most votes wins. What about this example? Here’s a GED practice question to think about:

If everyone votes for a first and second choice, how many votes would there be for each choice?

If everyone votes either FOR or AGAINST each vacation choice, how many for and against votes would each choice get?

Think about it… and then think about why the different ways of voting get different results. Hey, is our voting really the best way? I mean, we’ve got this whole process to narrow down choices to two… does it work? Does it give us the best president? Man, I don’t know, and it ain’t on the GED, but you gotta think about it!

To find out more about the GED test and GED test preparation, visit The GED Academy at passGED.com.

So, here’s your GED test practice question…

Alabama: Democrat = 2.2 million votes
Republican = 2.3 million votes

Alaska: Democrat = .5 million votes
Republican = .1 million votes

Arizona: Democrat = 2.3 million votes
Republican = 2.8 million votes

Arkansas: Democrat = 1.7 million votes
Republican = 1 million votes

GED Question 1: What’s the total popular vote for each candidate?

This is an easy one, right? On the GED they got this thing called “number sense,” and that just means knowin’ what kind of math to use and bein’ able to get the numbers to do what got to do. So, here, all you got to do is add up the “popular vote”…that’s the total people that voted…for each candidate:

Democratic = 2.2 + .5 + 2.3 + 1.7 = 6.7 million people

I can totally do that in my head… cuz 2.2 + 2.3 = 4.5, plus .5 = 5 even, plus 1.7 = 6.7

Republican = 2.3 + .1 + 2.8 + 1 = 6.2 million people

Faster you can do this kinda math on the GED, the better you’ll do. So, I can say, 2.8 + 2.3 would be 5.1, plus .1 is 5.2, plus 1 even is 6.2. By the popular vote, the Democrat wins by about half a million. But in real life, it don’t go that way… so there’s the second GED question…

GED Question 2: What’s the total electoral vote for each candidate?

Electoral votes goes by states. Each state got so many of ‘em, an the people in the state vote to see who gets their state’s votes. So, it’s like the state votes for the president instead of the people votin’ for the president. That’s good background for the social studies GED. But it’s also good for the math GED, cuz you got to use your number sense. In each state, the person who gets most votes in that state, gets the electoral college votes, like this:

Alabama: Republican gets more votes = 9 electoral college votes

Alaska: Democrat gets more votes = 3 electoral college votes

Arizona: Republican gets more votes = 10 electoral college votes

Arkansas: Democrat gets more votes = 6 electoral college votes

Republican = 19 electoral college votes

Democrat = 9 electoral college votes

Landslide victory for the Republican! But wait… more people voted for the Dem… what gives?

GED Question 3: If these were all the states, who wins?

Easy… the popular vote don’t count, only the electoral college votes, so the Republican wins. These numbers are all made up, but do you see how that math works? Math is about manipulating numbers, right? So how you calculate a vote with math can change the outcome… These GED skills is things you can use in life.

The election fun is just gettin’ started, with Obama and Huckabee winning in Iowa and New Hampshire bein’ the next contest… so I’ll think of some more GED math for these here elections.

To find out more about the GED test and GED test preparation, visit The GED Academy at passGED.com.