This year, the advertising budget of the park committee is 12% more than it was last year. If the advertising budget is $300 more this year, how many dollars was the budget last year?

Question

PLEASE HELP I DO NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO!!!

Answer 1

12% of budget=300
1% of budget = 300/12 = 25
so 100% of budget = 25*100
=2500

Answer 2

A few key terms in your math problem:

"is" means "equals"
"of" means multiply.
% is "per 100" (Think of 1 cent being 1/100 of a dollar)

So, from there, translate your equation. We know that $300 is 12% of last year's budget. So:

300 = (is) 12/100 (12 per-cent) x (of) LastYear'sBudget

We'll call last year's budget "x"

300=.12x

300/.12 = x
x=2500

Just knowing what the terms mean makes a huge difference to know how to translate the problem into an equation. Learn those ideas and the rest will come more easily :)

Matt