Hey, yo, all. How’s the GED math goin’ on? Last time, I talked about problems with percent increase, and now let’s look at percent decrease. It be all about knowin’ what the question’s really askin’. Remember, I said, when it asks what’s the percent increase, what it means is:

What Percent OF the Original amount IS the Difference between the two amounts?

P × O = D

Percent decrease is pretty much the same thing. What percent of the original amount is the difference between the two amounts? Only difference in figuring it out is that the second amount is lower than the first, not higer. No sweat. The percent times the original amount still equals the difference. It’s just a decrease, not an increase. Get it?

Let’s look at it. Here’s a practice problem.

I filled up my car, so it had 15 gallons of gas in the tank. So, I drove out to my uncle’s house and back, and it took $18 in gas at $2 per gallon to fill up the tank. What was the percentage decrease in gas during the trip?

Did I get you with a tough one? More than jus’ one step here. Try to figure it out, then I’ll walk you through it…
continue reading "GED Math: Percentage Decrease"

Yo, one thing I know, math is part of life. Y’all pay yo’ bills every month, right? Gotta balance income and outgo? Math, right? Not jus’ that, but thinkin’ about what you wanna do after you get yo’ GED? Best payin’ jobs, all about math. Construction, design, computers, fightin’ fires, all of ‘em use math one way or another. Not to mention trackin’ all yo’ favorite sports teams. I got dat down. Found this article, ’bout eighth graders learnin’ all about how math leads on to better careers… somethin’ we all could learn: Math Is Everywhere
continue reading "What Can GED Math Do for You?"

Yo, guyz an’ gals. Connie wrote in askin’ for advice about word problems:

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?
continue reading "GED Math Word Problem Advice"

Hey, yo. Here’s a question by Tanya that Liz forwarded me from her blog:

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.
continue reading "GED Math Word Problems…"

Yo, all. Here’s another word problem from Zaher…

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.
continue reading "GED Math: Word Problem"

Hey, all. I know fractions is a big problem for the GED. Here’s another problem: word problems! The GED is full of ‘em. That’s cuz the GED wants to know if you can solve problems you might run across in life. I know word problems don’t always seem like real life, but they’re tryin’ to reflect everyday problems, you know. Stuff that might happen to you.
continue reading "GED Math: More Fractions… in Real Life Problems."

Yo, all you GED studiers. Zaher wrote me with a good math problem… ’bout distance and speed and time. Take a gander…

Hey Curtis ,

Thanks for your prompt reply man . This is one of the problems I struggled with involving distance :

- A man started walking at 2 mph, while a woman 2 miles behind him began walking at the same time at a rate of 4 mph, and in the same direction. Just then, the man’s dog left him and ran toward the woman. Upon reaching her, it instantly turned around and ran back toward thr man. And so, the dog continued to run back and forth between them, at a constant rate of 5 mph, until the woman finally overtook the man. How far did the dog run?

**** Go enjoy figuring it out and let me know how to do it man !

Zaher

In the GED test, on the page with all the formulas, you got one for distance:

distance = rate x time

So, what’s it mean?
continue reading "GED Math: Distance, Rate, and Time"

Yo, everyone…. how’s the GED? I wanted to talk about somethin’ that came up in the GED Forum. Here’s a comment that Rick made:

I am struggling with the math as well. I live in MI and advanced algebra and calculus are required to pass. the thing here is that they make you take pre test before you are allowed to take the real test. And the pre test are unbelievable as well. Determining the height of a sky scraper by the time of day, direction of the sun, and the measurement of it’s shadow??? WTF!
continue reading "Heights of Buildings and Other Hidden Shapes"

Okay…I promised a GED word problem…word problems are a big part of the GED test, so it’s important to take a word problem and change it into a math problem before you can even do the math! So, why’s the GED test like this? Why’s it got so many word problems? Don’t they just make the GED test more confusing?
continue reading "GED Math Word Problem"

Here’s a good question ’bout the GED math test… everyone wants to know how to pass. That be the bottom line…

Out of what 50 questions on the math test how many should i get right just to be safe in order yo pass? Also what sections should i study on the most?

Sincerely,

S. Sain-Mellner in Virginia
continue reading "GED Math Question S. Sain-Mellner"