Now ask yourself: What is the weight of the entire purchase? It’s p pounds. But consider that you’re
better off thinking of the same weight as 2p half pounds, because half pounds are the increments in
which the salad is purchased. You then start to see how the money in question is spent: Adding 200
cents for the first half pound plus 75 cents for each additional half pound should produce the
answer.
How many additional half pounds remain to be paid for once 200 cents have been paid for the first
half pound? If the purchase weighs a total of 2p half pounds, and if one of the half pounds has
already been paid for, then 2p –1 half pounds remain to be paid for at 75 cents each:
If you work better with thinking that’s less abstract and more “on the ground,” you could have
Picked Numbers here. The presence of a variable in the choices was a tip-off to do so.
The answer is (B).
PERCENT INCREASE AND DECREASE
Some word problems present classic situations for which there are standard approaches, or even
formulas. Example 5, for instance, requires that you know how to find a percent increase.