Joey wants to average 30 new clients on his paper route every month for the first four months of the new year. According to a chart given on the test, Joey got 31 new clients in January, 25 in February and 27 in March. How many new clients does he need in April to get to his goal? To solve this problem, understand that for Joey to average 30 new clients in four months, he needs 120 new clients. Create an equation: Total (120) = January + February + March + April. Then fill in what you know. Now our equation is 120 = 31 + 25 + 27 + x; the correct answer is 37.
What is the perimeter (in feet) of a rectangle with a length of 15 feet and a width of 6 feet? To solve it, you have to remember that the perimeter of a rectangle equals length + length + width + width. In this problem that would be 15 + 15 + 6 + 6, which equals 42.
Do not confuse perimeter with area; area is the length times the width, or 90. The answer 90 will most probably be one of the choices on a multiple choice test, as will 21, which is only the addition of two sides of the rectangle.
Simplify the expression 10(y+3) - 2(4y-3). To begin, be sure that you distribute properly; this expression can be rewritten as 10y + 30 - 8y + 6. The next step is to solve for y: 10y - 8y = 2y. Then solve for the integers: 30 - (- 6 ) = 36. You then have 2y + 36, which reduces to y + 18.
To trip you up, the ACT may throw in some extraneous information on a problem that is not vital to the solution. In this problem there is information you don't need:
Holly's take-home pay is $400 a week. She spends $80 on food and $150 on rent. What fraction of her pay does she spend on food?
The red herring here is the mention of the $150 on rent. We don't need to know that because they are only asking about food. The way to solve is 80 over 400 which reduces to 1/5. Don't think about the rent money; it's just extraneous information.