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Question P4–P5–P6 Branching

Today’s problem — free all day, every step. Every day has one.

Mr Ong's pay — rent then groceries

Mr Ong earns $1200 a month. He spent of it on rent and of the remainder on groceries. How much money did he have left?

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About this method

Branching

The second fraction is of one piece, not of the whole.

In this one. Treat the amount left after rent as the new whole before finding one-third for groceries.

All of it$81books4/9 → $36the rest5/9 → $45a game1/3 of $45 = $15left$30

How to spot it

A second fraction arrives after the first and is attached to a piece rather than to the whole — 'of the remainder', 'of what was left', or 'of the ones that were red'.

Common mistake

Children take the second fraction of the original total instead of the piece it was named against, which makes the amount come out too big.

Practise a similar question

Standard Ali gave 1/6 of his stickers to Ben and 2/5 of the remainder to Carol. If Ali had 90 stickers at first, how many did Carol receive?
All 3 with this pattern →
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