SAT Math : Arithmetic
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Example Questions
Example Question #161 : Percentage
The price of a pair of shoes after a 15% clearance discount and a 20% employee discount is $113.74.
Give the price of the shoes before the two discounts (nearest cent).
Call the price of the shoes before the two discounts 
A subsequent reduction in price by 20%, which is the employee discount, is
Set this quantity equal to the price of the shoes after the two discounts, $113.74, and solve for 
To the nearest hundredth:
The price of the shoes before the discounts was $167.26.
Example Question #164 : Percentage
Katy buys jeans that is on sale for $84. The tag says that the price was originally $142. What discount is she receiving on the shirt? Round to the nearest tenth of a percent.
None of the other answer options.
Use proportions and cross-multiply to find the percentage of the cost that she is paying, then subtract that answer from the original price to solve for the discount.
If she is paying 59.2% of the regular cost, then subtract that figure from 100%.
100% - 59.2% = 40.8%
You could also set up the proportion so that you could arrive at the answer after cross-multiplying by subtracting 84 from 142 as the first step.
Example Question #1 : Profit Margin
A sunglasses kiosk at the mall makes a $50 profit for every 6 pairs of sunglasses it sells. How many pairs of sunglasses must it sell to earn $1000 profit?
120
300
30
20
100
120
Divide the profit per 6 pairs into the total desired profit $1000/$50 = 20.
Multiply 20 by 6 sunglasses = 120 sunglasses. Or use 6/50 = x/1000 and solve for x.
Example Question #21 : Monetary Percentage
Ricky works at a shoe shop, and earns $40 in commission for each pair of shoes he sells plus a $100 weekly salary. If Ricky receives no other money, which of the following expressions represents the total dollar amount Ricky receives for a week in which he sells n shoes?
140 + n
140n
100 + n
40(100 + n)
100 + 40n
100 + 40n
If Ricky sells n shoes in a week, he earns $40n in commission. His salary is a constant $100 per week, so his total payout is $100 + $40n.
Example Question #162 : Percentage
An entrepreneur started a company making floggles. The factory requires $1000 worth of fixed expenses to keep it running every month. She is able to produce one floggle at the cost of $4 and sell one floggle at the cost of $6. If she produces and sells 500 floggles in one month, what is her profit?
$4000
$2000
$0
$1000
$3000
$0
Profit = Income - Expenditures
Income = $6/floggle times 500 floggles = $3000
Expenditures = $1000 + $4/floggle times 500 floggles = $1000 + $2000 = $3000
Profit = 3000 - 3000 = 0
Example Question #22 : Monetary Percentage
You are planning a New Year’s Eve bash. For each person attending, the caterer will charge you $15 for food, $10 for beverages, $5 for service. The band charges $2000 for the entire evening. You also have to pay the venue $2500 to rent the location for the night and $3 for parking for each attendee. If you expect 500 people to attend and you would like to make a $10000 profit for planning the event, how much must each ticket cost?
$60
$42
$53
$62
$33
$62
First determine total cost.
Caterer: Per person = $15 + $10 + $5 = $30 per person
Parking: Per person = $3 per person
Total per person = $33
$33 * 500 people = $16,500
Plus cost of renting venue + band = $2500 + $2000 = $4500
Total (net) cost = $16,500 + $4500 = $21,000
Total (gross) cost = net cost + profit = $21,000 + $10,000 = $31,000
Cost per ticket = Gross cost / # of attendee = $31,000 / 500 = $62
Example Question #2 : How To Find Amount Of Profit
The Widget Company has annual revenues of $150,000. Their expenses over the same time frame was $75,000. What was the percent profit?
25%
50%
75%
60%
30%
50%
Profit = Revenue – Expense
% Profit = $ Profit ÷ $ Total Revenue
% Profit = ($150,000 – $75,000) ÷ $150,000 = 50%
Example Question #25 : Monetary Percentage
Nicki sold 20 albums at $5 each. How many albums should Minaj sell at $4.50 to earn more than Nicki?
19
25
23
24
22
23
The answer is 23. 23*$4.50 = $103.50, which is more than what Nicki earned.
Example Question #26 : Monetary Percentage
During Laura and Anna’s bake sale, 35 brownies, 12 cupcakes and 23 glasses of lemonade were sold. These goods cost $44 for the raw ingredients, and they sold for $79. What is the average profit per item?
$0.35
$1.75
$0.50
$0.70
$0.25
$0.50
Total profit ($35) divided by total items (70) yields the answer of $0.50 profit per item.
Example Question #1 : Profit Margin
Each wooden chair that a carpenter makes requires $20 worth of supplies. He then sells the chairs for $50 each. The carpenter recently discovered a new supplier that would allow him to spend 25% less on supplies. If he doesn't change his selling price, by what percent could the carpenter increase his profit by using the new supplier?
Using $20 worth of supplies and selling the chairs for $50 each, the carpenter is originally making a profit of $30 per chair.
The new supplier would reduce costs by 25% or 1/4. One-fourth of $20 is $5, so the new supplier would be $5 less, or $15.
If the selling price is the same ($50), then the carpenter would now make a profit of $35 per chair, a change of $5.
To calculate percent increase, divide the actual change in profit by the original profit amount, and multiply the result by 100%:
(Actual Change ÷ Original Amount) * 100% = 5/30 * 100% = 500%/30 = 16.7%
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