Pre-Algebra Essentials For Dummies

Chapter 3

Say What? Making Sense of Word Problems

IN THIS CHAPTER

Knowing the four steps to solving a word problem

Jotting down simple word equations to condense important info

Plugging numbers into the word equations to solve the problem

Attacking more-complex word problems with confidence

The very mention of word problems — or story problems, as they’re sometimes called — is enough to send a cold shiver of terror into the bones of the average math student. Many would rather swim across a moat full of hungry crocodiles than “figure out how many bushels of corn Farmer Brown picked” or “help Aunt Sylvia decide how many cookies to bake.” But word problems help you understand the logic behind setting up equations in real-life situations, making math actually useful — even if the scenarios in the word problems you practice on are pretty far-fetched.

In this chapter, I show you how to solve a word problem in four simple steps. After you understand the basics, I show you how to solve more-complex problems. Some of these problems have longer numbers to calculate, and others may have more-complicated ...