All SAT Mathematics Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #1 : Working With Fractions
Jesse has a large movie collection containing movies.Â
of his movies are action movies,Â
of the remainder are comedies, and the rest are historical movies. How many historical movies does Jesse own?
 of the movies are action movies.Â
ofÂ
of the movies are comedies, or
, or
. Combining the comedies and the action movies (
or
), we getÂ
of the movies being either action or comedy. Thus,Â
of the movies remain and all of them have to be historical.
Example Question #2 : Working With Fractions
If  andÂ
, find the value of
.
Substitute the values of andÂ
into the given expression:
Example Question #3 : Working With Fractions
Let the nth term of a sequence be denoted as  and given by the following equation:
For example, the tenth term of the sequence is .
What is the sum of the first five terms of the sequence?
In order to find the sum of the first five terms, we will need to find the values of each of the first five terms using the equation given above. Essentially, we will let  range fromÂ
 toÂ
 to determine each term.
Remember that anything to the power of zero is equal to 1. Therefore,  raised to the zero power is alsoÂ
.
In general, when  is raised to an even power, the result isÂ
. Conversely, ifÂ
 is raised to an odd power, the result isÂ
.
Thus, the first five terms of the sequence are . We must now add these all together. Because we are adding fractions with unlike denominators, we need to find the smallest multiple thatÂ
 have in common. BecauseÂ
 is a multiple ofÂ
, we really only need to worry aboutÂ
. If we were to list out the multiple ofÂ
, e would see that the smallest one they have in common isÂ
. Sometimes, the easiest way to find the least common multiple of several numbers is o multiply them together. The products ofÂ
 isÂ
.
We will now convert each fraction to an equivalent form with a denominator of . For example, if we were to convertÂ
 to a fraction with a denominator ofÂ
, we would multiple both the numerator and denominator byÂ
, as shown below:
The answer is .
Example Question #4 : Working With Fractions
What is the solution, reduced to its simplest form, for ?
Example Question #5 : Working With Fractions
What is the result of adding  ofÂ
 toÂ
?
Let us first get our value for the percentage of the first fraction.  ofÂ
 is found by multiplyingÂ
byÂ
(or, simplified,
):Â
Our addition is therefore . There are no common factors, so the least common denominator will beÂ
or
. Multiply the numerator and denominator ofÂ
byÂ
and the numerator ofÂ
byÂ
This yields:
, which cannot be reduced.
Example Question #6 : Working With Fractions
Add:
Find the least common denominator to solve this problem
Multiply 27 with , and multiplyÂ
 with 3 to obtain common denominators.
Convert the fractions.
Combine the terms as one fraction.
The answer is: Â
Example Question #7 : Working With Fractions
A record store has stocked up on new supplies so that their current inventory consists of pop, rock, and hip-hop. of their records are pop records andÂ
of their records are rock records. If the store has a total ofÂ
records, how many hip-hop records are stocked in the store?
First we must find what fraction of hip-hop records are there in the store. We find a common denominator for the faction of pop records and rock records by multiplying  byÂ
andÂ
by
 to get
 records being pop records and
 records being rock records.Â
In order to get the faction of hip-hop records remaining in the store, we must write out:
 since the sum total of the fractions must add up to
. We solve to get
.
This tells us that fraction of hip-hop records must be .
The question is asking how many records are stocked in the store, therefore we need a denominator of . We can write outÂ
and solve for
.
Similarly, this question can be solved using deduction. If  ofÂ
isÂ
andÂ
ofÂ
is
, knowing that we need the amount remaining, we can subtractÂ
fromÂ
and get
.
Answer choice is wrong because it is finding the total amount of Pop records.
Answer choice  is wrong because it is finding the total amount of rock records.
Answer choice is wrong because the factions were added incorrectlyÂ
.
Example Question #8 : Working With Fractions
Jackson wrote a song with equal parts pre-chorus, chorus, and bridge. The song ends up being minutes andÂ
seconds with a beat occurring everyÂ
seconds. How many beats are there in the chorus?
First, we must convert the song length from minutes and seconds to simply seconds. . We addÂ
seconds toÂ
seconds and getÂ
seconds total song length.Â
If the song is equal parts pre-chorus, chorus, and bridge that means of the song is composed of pre-chorus,Â
of the song is composed of chorus, andÂ
of the song is composed of bridges. Therefore, we divideÂ
byÂ
and getÂ
seconds of chorus.
Since a beat occurs every five seconds, we divide seconds byÂ
seconds to get the amount of beats in that time frame.
. Since a beat can not be sectioned, the answer is rounded down to
.
Answer choice is incorrect because it is finding the total number of beats in the song.
Answer choice is incorrect because it rounds up to the nearest beat.
Â
Example Question #9 : Working With Fractions
Please simplify the following:
The rule for dividing fractions is invert the second fraction and multiply. We keep the as it is then change the division sign to a multiplication sign and invertÂ
into
.
 becomesÂ
.
Similarly, you can memorize, “top, bottom, bottom, top” meaning  is on top and it stays on top,Â
is labeled bottom and it stays on the bottom,Â
is labeled bottom and it moved to the bottom, thenÂ
is labeled top so it moves to the top.
Example Question #10 : Working With Fractions
Find the value of  ifÂ
To find the answer we must cross multiply. When we cross multiply we get:
 orÂ
We subtract fromÂ
Then we solve for x by dividing by 6,
All SAT Mathematics Resources
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