Algebra & word problems tutorial

Algebra is a common question topic in the GRE and if you include word problems
which are really just algebra problems in disguise then even more of GRE
quantitative questions are algebra problems. For many of these word problems the
most difficult part of the question is understanding exactly what they are telling you
and what you need to find out.

This tutorial will assume that you have already worked through our 'Fractions' and
'Exponents, ratios and percents' tutorials. It will also assume that you a fair
knowledge of algebra. For example you should be able to solve the following
equation to find a.

=
2a + 3
11
a =? solution at the bottom of this page

Solve this problem by finding the value for a. This tutorial will begin by giving you
two methods for making sense of and solving word problems. Then we will revise the
solution of quadratic equations and finally look at substitution techniques which will
help when you do not know how to find the solution to a question.
Solution: a = 4

Word problems with equations

We will begin with an example of a word problem and then look at how to use
equations to solve it .

Carl has twice as much money invested in stocks as in bonds. Stocks earn 10%
interest per year and bonds 5% per year. If Carl earned a total of $800 dollars
from his stocks and bonds last year how much money did he have invested in
stocks?
A $9,600
B $8,000
C $6,400
D $4,000
E $3,200

If you feel brave you can have a go at it now. My advice would be to follow these
guidelines.

• Summarize: Write equations, which contain the information given to you in

the question.
 o Use sensible variable names for example the first letter of the thing
that the variable represents.

o Identify answer i.e. write down exactly what you are looking for.

• Solve: find the solution for the equstions you have written down.

If you have had a go at the question then check your answer. If not then we will
answer the question together.

Summarize using equations

In the question you are given a great deal of information and you need to be able to
summarize it in a more manageable form. Often it is a good idea to translate the
question into equations. It is important to use variable names that will make sense
to you when you are translating these questions into equations.
'Carl has twice as much money invested in stocks as in bonds. Stocks earn 10%
interest per year and bonds 5% per year. If Carl earned a total of $800 dollars from
his stocks and bonds last year how much money did he have invested in stocks?'
We will use 'S' to represent stocks and 'B' to represent bonds. Using the first letters
of each word makes it easy to remember which is which and avoids any confusion
that might arise from using more traditional variable names such as 'x' and 'y'.
'Carl has twice as much money invested in stocks as in bonds.'
Translates to:

S = 2B
Note: many people get confused with the phrase 'twice as much' and write 2S = B.
This is a very common mistake and must be avoided. If you find that you get
confused writing the equation try replacing the variables with numbers and then read
the sentence again to see if it makes sense. For example in this case if S = 2B, then
if B = 1, S = 2. This makes sense because stocks are '2' which is twice as much as
bonds which are '1'.
'Stocks earn 10% interest per year and bonds 5% per year. If Carl earned a total of
$800 dollars from his stocks and bonds last year...'

Stocks earned 10% of S and bonds earned 5% of B and this totaled $800 so,

( 10% × S ) + ( 5% × B ) = 800
It is also important to write down what you are trying to find. It is all to easy to do
the correct working and get to a related or intermediate answer which you find in the
list of answers A-E and to choose it in your haste to finish the question.
'...how much money did he have invested in stocks?'
You are trying to find the amount in stocks so write down

S=?
To summarize we have:
 S = 2B
( 10% × S ) + ( 5% × B ) = 800
S =?

Two equations with two unknowns so we can solve them.

Solving equations
We have already done much of the work in solving this problem by changing it from
the word problem
'Carl has twice as much money invested in stocks as in bonds. Stocks earn 10%
interest per year and bonds 5% per year. If Carl earned a total of $800 dollars from
his stocks and bonds last year how much money did he have invested in stocks?'
to the algebraic problem
S = 2B
( 10% × S ) + ( 5% × B ) = 800</FONT<< td>
S =?

To solve the system of equations you want to reduce the problem from two variables
in two equations to one variable in one equation. Usually the easiest way to do this is
by substitution i.e. replacing one of the variables by the other.

( 10% × S ) + ( 5% × B ) = 800 We know that S = 2B so we can replace

the S in the second equation with 2B.
( 10% × 2B ) + ( 5% × B ) = 800 multiply out 10% × 2B
( 20% × B ) + ( 5% × B ) = 800 20% of B and 5% of B are 25% of B
25% × B = 800
We know that 25% = , (see fractions)
= 800
Multiply both sides by 4
×B
B = 800 × 4
B = 3200

Careful at this point not to assume that you have finished. You have found the
amount of money invested in bonds, no you need to use the equation S = 2B and
calculate the amount invested in stocks.
S = 2B

S = 2 × 3200

S = 6400
Returning to the question.
Carl has twice as much money invested in stocks as in bonds. Stocks earn 10%
interest per year and bonds 5% per year. If Carl earned a total of $800 dollars
from his stocks and bonds last year how much money did he have invested in
stocks?
A $9,600
B $8,000
C $6,400
D $4,000
E $3,200

The amount invested in stocks was $6,400 and the answer is C.

Word problems with a table

Another example of a word problem that we will use a different technique to solve.
We will summarize the information given in the form of a table.

At a football game 50% of the seats are sold to season ticket holders who pay
$11 each and 10% are sold to children who pay $5 each. All the remaining
tickets are sold to non-members at $15 each. What proportion of the total gate
receipts for the game is contributed by non-members?
A 60%
B 52%
C 50%
D 40%
E 5%

If you would like to try the question now then follow these guidelines.

• Summarize:

o Organize the information you are given into a table.

o Identify answer i.e. mark on the table exactly what you are looking
for.

• Solve: Keep calculating more elements in the table until you arrive at the
answer you need.
If you have had a go at the question then check your answer. If not then we will
answer the question together.

Summarize using a table

Yet again the question contains a great deal of information. This time we can put all
the information into a table and this will make the question simple to solve.
'At a football game 50% of the seats are sold to club-members who pay $11 each
and 10% are sold to children who pay $5 each. All the remaining tickets are sold to
non-members at $15 each. What proportion of the total gate receipts for the game is
contributed by non-members?'
In the question we have three different types of tickets, 'club-members', 'children'
and 'non-members' and three different types of information are given or asked for,
'% of tickets sold', 'price of ticket' and '% of total income'. Therefore we would
sketch a table, which is 3 × 3.

% tickets sold price % total income

club-members

children

non-members

And begin to fill in the information.

'At a football game 50% of the seats are sold to club-members who pay $11 each
and 10% are sold to children who pay $5 each.'
% tickets sold price % total income

club-members 50% $11

children 10% $5

non-members

'All the remaining tickets are sold to non-members at $15 each. What proportion of
the total gate receipts for the game is contributed by non-members?''
% tickets sold price % total income

club-members 50% $11

children 10% $5

non-members $15 ?

Where '?' represents what we need to find to answer the question.

We have the summary now let's answer the question.

Solve using a table

We reduced the question to the following table.
 % tickets sold price % total income

club-members 50% $11

children 10% $5

non-members $15 ?

We will add a totals row because we are working with percentages and an income
column so that we can later work out the percentages for the income. We can fill in
100% for the totals of the percentages.

% tickets sold price % total income income

club-members 50% $11

children 10% $5

non-members $15 ?

total 100% - 100%

Then it is a matter of filling in as many cells as we can calculate until we have

enough information to find the answer.

In this case we know the % tickets sold will sum to 100% so the percentage sold to
club members will be

%non-members = 100% - ( %club-members + %children )

= 100% - ( 50% + 10% )
= 40%

% tickets sold price % total income income

club-members 50% $11

children 10% $5

non-members 40% $15 ?

total 100% - 100%

Now we will work out the amount of income from each group. The income from each
group will be the number of tickets sold multiplied by the price of each ticket. Since
we do not know the total number of tickets sold we can assume that there were 100
tickets because this will make the mathematics easier

income = number of tickets sold × price of ticket

from club-members = 50 × $11 = $550
from children = 10 × $5 = $50
from non-members = 40 × $15 = $600
total income = $550 + $50 + $600 = $1200

% tickets sold price % total income income

club-members 50% $11 $550

children 10% $5 $50

 non-members 40% $15 ? $600

total 100% - 100% $1,200

Now that we have the total income and the income from non-members we can find
the percentage we need.

non-members / total = 600/1200 = = 50%

% tickets sold price % total income income

club-members 50% $11 $550

children 10% $5 $50

non-members 40% $15 ? = 50% $600

total 100% - 100% $1,200

Returning to the question.

At a football game 50% of the seats are sold to season ticket holders who pay
$11 each and 10% are sold to children who pay $5 each. All the remaining
tickets are sold to non-members at $15 each. What proportion of the total gate
receipts for the game is contributed by non-members?
A 60%
B 52%
C 50%
D 40%
E 5%

50% was contributed by non-members so the answer is C.

Quadratic equations
Quadratic equations are of the form ax2 + bx + c = 0 where a, b and c are real
numbers and, more specifically, in the GRE they will be integers. For example
x2 + 5x - 6 = 0
To solve an equation like this you will have to find the values of x for which the
equation holds true. Normally there will be two such values.

We will begin by looking at the factorization of quadratic equations in detail because

you need to know it in the GRE and it can also be used to solve quadratics. Then we
will see how to solve them more quickly. If you have little patience for following the
math and you would just like a quick method for solving quadratic equations then
skip ahead.
Factorizing quadratic equations

The easiest way to solve a quadratic equation is by factorization.

x2 + 5x - 6 = (x + g) (x + h) Where we g and h are unknowns

2
= x + gx + hx + gh
= x2 + (g + h)x + gh

Therefore, to factorize, we need to find values of g and h so that.

g + h = 5 and gh = -6
What are the factors of -6?
1 and -6
-1 and 6
2 and -3
-2 and 3
Which of these pairs sum to 5?
-1 + 6 = 5
Therefore g and h must be -1 and 6.
x2 + 5x - 6 = (x - 1) (x + 6) = 0
You can check the factorization by multiplying out (x - 1) (x + 6), if you wish. This
will now give us the solution for the product of these two factors to be 0, one of the
two factors must be 0, i.e.
x - 1 = 0 or x + 6 = 0
Therefore
x = 1 or -6
Notice that the signs have changed from g and h, which were -1 and 6, to the
solutions for x, which are 1 and -6.

A quick method

We can condense this method of solving a quadratic equation into 3 steps if the
equation is in the form x2 + bx + c = 0.

1. Find the factors of c

2. Decide which of these pairs of factors sum to give b

3. Reverse the signs of the two numbers you have found and these will be the
solutions for the equation

An example

So now an example for you to try.

Solve x2 - 7x + 10 = 0
Explanation:

1. Find the factors of 10.

 1 and 10
-1 and -10
2 and 5
-2 and -5

2. The pair which sum to -7 are

-2 and -5.

3. Reversing the signs, we find 2 and 5 which are the solutions to this quadratic
equation.

So the solution is x = 2 or 5

Solving by substitution
If you do not know how to do an algebra question then you can often use the fact
that the GRE is a multiple choice test to your advantage. You can substitute the
value of your choice for the variable in the algebraic expression and then evaluate
the answer choices to see which one is equal to the original expression.

Example

is equivalent to which of the following expressions?

A x-3
B x-2
C x+1
D x+2
E x+3

If you followed 'solving quadratic equations' carefully you should be able to see how
to answer this question using factorization but let us assume, for now, that you do
not know.

Substitute the number of your choice into the equations to replace x and evaluate
them all. Pick a number which will make your calculations easy for example 0.

If x = 0
then,
 = =3

A: x - 3 = 0 - 3 = -3
B: x - 2 = 0 - 2 = -2
C: x + 1 = 0 + 1 = 1
D: x + 2 = 0 + 2 = 2
E: x + 3 = 0 + 3 = 3

Both the expression and answer E have a value of 3, therefore E is the correct
answer.

It is left as an exercise for you to solve this question using factorization.

A summary of word problems and algebra

In this tutorial we have looked at techniques for solving word problems.

• Summarize:

o Organize the information you are given into equations or a table.

o When using equations, use sensible variable names.

o Identify exactly which value you have to find.

• Solve:

o Keep working even if you are not sure exactly what to do.

o When using equations, keep eliminating variables until you have only
the one you need to find.

o With tables, keep calculating more elements in the table until you
arrive at the answer you need.

...and algebra.

• Quadratic equations: x2 + bx + c = 0.

o Find the factors of c

o Decide which of these pairs of factors sum to give b

o Reverse the signs of the two numbers you have found and these will
be the solutions for the equation

• Substitution:

o Pick an nice easy number to substitute the variable with.

o Evaluate all the expressions and answer choices.