HSPT Math : How to work with percentages
Study concepts, example questions & explanations for HSPT Math
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Example Questions
Example Question #21 : Percentages
Refer to the above diagram. If there were 15,934 voters who were affiliated with a political party in Smith County in 2009, how many voters (nearest whole number) were there total?
40% of the voters were registered as independents, so 60% were registered as a member of a political party. Since 60% of the voters numbered 15,934, we can find the total number of voters by setting up and solving a proportion:
which rounds to 26,557 voters.
Example Question #81 : Hspt Mathematics
Refer to the above graph. If there were 17,856 registered voters in Smith County in 2009, how many voters were registered as neither Republicans nor Democrats (nearest whole number)?
2% of the voters were registered as members of other parties, and 40% were unaffiliated, so we want to calculate 42% of 17,856, or, equivalently,
which, to the nearest whole number, rounds to 7,500 voters.
Example Question #23 : Percentages
Julie bought some groceries at the store where she works for $196.57. She got an employee discount of 15%. How much would the same groceries cost a non-employee?
Paying at a 15% discount is equvalent to paying 85% of the original price, so $196.57 is 85% of the original (non-employee) price, or, equivalently, 0.85 times that price. If 
A non-employee would pay $231.26 for the groceries.
Example Question #2 : How To Find The Whole From The Part With Percentage
Becky ate 
This can be solved using a proportion:
Cross multiply and solve for 
Example Question #21 : Percentages
For her birthday, Susan asks her mother to buy her a car. Susan’s mother agrees to give Susan 150 percent of whatever amount Susan can save up in six months. If Susan saves 
$700
$750
$900
$300
$550
$900
When Susan's mother agreed to match her savings plus fifty percent, she agreed to give Susan 
Before multiplying by the amount Susan saved, we must convert 
Now we multiply 
Susan's mother owes her $
Example Question #26 : Percentages
If sales tax on a pair of jeans is 
$58
$62
$60
$56
$66
$58
Since the jeans are the only item being purchased, and they cost $
Note: In order to find the decimal form of a percent, we divide it by 
Find the tax:
Therefore the sales tax added to the original price is $
The final cost of the jeans is $
Example Question #82 : Problem Solving
If Suzie's birthday cake costs $15 and it is on sale for 25% off how much will she pay at the register?
To find the answer you must first convert the sales percentage to a decimal by moving the decimal left two places yielding
Then multiply the total cost by the decimal 
We then subtract the sales number from the original cost to get the answer:
Example Question #1 : Number Concepts And Operations
There are 500 students at the high school. There are only two menu options: chicken or fish. If 15% of students ordered fish, how many students ordered chicken?
If 15% of students ordered fish, then 85% of the students must have ordered chicken. Then multiply 85% or 
Example Question #28 : Percentages
A college has 
Let 
Then we can set up the following proportion:
Example Question #131 : How To Find The Solution To An Equation
In appreciation for a job well done, Loretta is being awarded a bonus equal to 7.5% of the salary she earned over the last two years. Her monthly salary over the last twelve months was $3,500 per month; she received a raise of $500 per month twelve months ago. What is the amount of the bonus?
Loretta earned $3,000 per month for twelve months, and $3,500 per month for the following twelve months. This is a total of
earned over two years. 7.5% of this is
the amount of Loretta's bonus.
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