Pre-Algebra Homework Help

About Pre-Algebra

Pre-algebra is the arithmetic that everything later depends on: fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio and the order of operations. The questions students send are practical as often as they are abstract — sharing money in a given ratio, working out a discount, converting a fraction to a decimal, or arranging a list of fractions from smallest to largest.

Popular Topics in Pre-Algebra

How ScanSolve Helps with Pre-Algebra

ScanSolve works through arithmetic the way it should be taught: one operation per line, with the reason beside it. For a fraction question it shows the common denominator being found rather than produced, and for a percentage question it shows what the whole is before taking a part of it — which is where most percentage mistakes begin.

Word problems are translated in two stages: first into the arithmetic they describe, then solved. That order matters, because the difficulty in a ratio or interest question is almost never the calculation; it is deciding what to divide by what.

Study Tips for Pre-Algebra

• Learn the fraction-decimal-percentage equivalents you meet most often (1/2, 1/4, 1/5, 1/8, 1/3) by heart. It turns several steps into none.

• For a percentage question, write down what 100% represents before anything else. Once the whole is clear, the rest is one multiplication.

• When a question gives a ratio, add the parts first. Sharing 24 in the ratio 3:5 means eight parts, and one part is 3 — after that there is nothing left to think about.

• Estimate before you calculate. If 15% of 380 should be a bit under 60, an answer of 570 tells you a decimal point moved.