Cracking The SAT Premium

We call this procedure the Bowtie because the arrows make it look like a bowtie. Use the Bowtie to add
or subtract any pair of fractions without thinking about the common bottom, just by following the steps
above.

Calculating Fractions

Let’s   say you wanted  to  find        =   using   your    calculator. For a   scientific  calculator, you’d   type    in

“(1 a   3)  +   (1  a   2)  =”  The answer  will    come    up  looking like    something   similar to  56, which

means    5/6.    On  a   graphing    calculator,     you’d   type    in  (1/3)   +   (1/2)   [ENTER].    This    gives   you     the

repeating    decimal     .833333.    Now     hit     the     [MATH]  button  and     hit     the     [>FRAC]     button  and     press

[ENTER].    The calculator  will    now show    “5/6.”  The shortcut    to  turn    a   decimal into    a   fraction    on  a

TI-80   series  graphic calculator  is  [MATH][ENTER][ENTER].   Remember    those   parentheses for all

fraction    calculations!

Multiplying All Fractions

Multiplying fractions is easy. Just multiply across the top; then multiply across the bottom.

Here’s an example:

When you multiply fractions, all you are really doing is performing one multiplication problem on top of
another.

You should never multiply two fractions before looking to see if you can reduce either or both. If you