Charlie bought a $60 radio on sale at 5% off. How much did he pay, including 5% sale tax?
A. $54.15
B $57.00
C $57.75
D $59.85
E $60.00
Solution Since 5% of 60 is 3, Charlie saved $3, and thus paid $57 for the radio. He then had to pay 5% sale tax on the $57: .05 × 57 = 2.85, so the total cost was $57 + $2.85 = $59.85. The correct answer is D.
In 1970 the populations of town A and town B were the same. From 1970 to 1980, however, the population of town A increased by 60% while the population of town B decrease by 60%. In 1980, the population of town B was what percent of the population of town A?
A. 25%
B. 30%
C. 35%
D. 20%
E. 24%
In your math class, you would let x be the population of town A in 1970 and then proceed to set an algebra problem. Don’t do that on SAT. Assume that the populations of both towns were 100 in 1970. Then, since 60% of 100 is 60, in 1980 the populations were 100 + 60 = 160 (town A) and 100 – 60 = 40 (town B). Then, in 1980, town B’s population was 40/160= 1/4 = 25% of town A’s. Choice A is correct.
Brian gave 20% of his baseball cards to Scott and 15% to Adam. If he still had 520 cards, how many did he have originally?
A. 600
B. 700
C. 800
D. 900
E. 1000
Originally, Brian had 100% of the cards (all of them). After he gave away 35% of them, he had 100% - 35% = 65% of them left. Then 520 is 65% of what number? 520 = 65x ⇒x = 520 ÷ 65 = 800.
One day at Central High School, 1/12 of the students were absent, and of those present went on a field trip. If the number of students staying in School was 704, how many students are enrolled in Central High?
A. 860
B. 960
C. 1000
D. 1060
E. 1080
If s is the number of student enrolled, 1s/12 is the numbers who were absent, and 11s/12 is the numbers who were present. Since 1/5 of those present went on a field trip, 4/5 of them stayed in Schoo.l Therefore, 704 =(4/5 × 11/12)s= 11s/15 ⇒ s = 704 ÷ 11/15 = 704 × 15/11 = 960. (960).
Billy won some goldfish at the state fair. During the first week,1/5 of them died; and during the second week, 3/8 of those still alive at the end of the first week died. What fraction of the original goldfish were still alive after 2 weeks?
A. 3/10
B. 17/40
C. 1/2
D. 23/40
E. 7/10
Algebraic solution: Let x = number of goldfish Billy won. During the first week, 1x/5 died, so 4x/5 were still alive. During the second week, 3/8 of those died and 5/8 survived: 5/8 x 4/5 x =1x/2. Assume that the original number of goldfish was 40, the LCM of the denominators. Then, 8 died the first week (1/5 of 40) and 12 of the 32 survivors ( 3/8 of 32) died the second week. In all, 8 + 12 = 20 died, the other 20 , 1/2 of the original number were still alive. (C).