Percentages 6th Grade Style!
Common Core Standard: Find a percent of a quantity as a rate per 100 (e.g., 30% of a quantity means 30/100 times the
quantity); solve problems involving finding the whole, given a part and the percent.
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Ratios can be percentages
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Percentage –is the rate per a hundred
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Cent means 100, as in 100 years in a century
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For all percentages, the percent is really that number divided by 100
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Example: 13% is
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It does become more complicated, when the converting from fractions that do not have a denominator of 100 to a
percent
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When this occurs, if possible, determine an equivalent fraction that has a 100 for the denominator
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Example: Determine the percentage for
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Since the denominator is not 100 one approach to determine what this percentage is, to determine an
equivalent fraction with 100 in the denominator
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Can 25 be divided evenly into 100 (with no remainders)? YES!
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Now, multiply the whole fraction by
because this actually equals 1, and by multiplying by 1 you are not
truly changing the value of the original fraction
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Therefore, the percentage is 24%
What if the denominator cannot evenly be divided into 100?
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Use decimals!!!! 
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Change the fraction into a decimal by dividing the numerator by the denominator (remember the fraction is
just a division symbol)
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Example: What is as a percent?
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Can 8 be evenly divided into 100 without any remainders? No!
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So, divide 7 by 8 = 0.875
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Now, convert this to a percentage by multiplying the decimal by 100 (remember its per-cent!)
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0.875 ● 100 = 87.5%
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Thus, is 87.5%
Example: Twenty-five percent of the students in 6B have perfect attendance. There are 16 students in 6B. How
many students have perfect attendance?
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Again, there are numerous solution paths, only one of which is shown below
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25% is the same as ¼ or a quarter, so determine what is a quarter of 16
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16 ÷ 4 = 4
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Therefore, there are 4 students with perfect attendance in 6B.
Example: On a recent science worksheet, you earned an 85%. If there were 60 points on the worksheet, how many
points did you miss?
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Eighty-five percent is not as common or as simple of a percentage as 25%
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For this question, there are again, numerous solution paths, only one is shown below
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Convert 85% to a decimal by dividing by 100
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Now, multiply the total number of points by the percentage 0.85 ● 60 = 51
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This means that you got 51 points correct
To determine the amount of points missed subtract 51 from 60
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85% ÷ 100 = 0.85
60 – 51 = 9, you missed 9 points
Example: In math class, your grade for an assignment was
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Convert the fraction to a decimal by dividing 14 by 19
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determine your percentage score.
14 ÷ 19 = approximately 0.7368
Now, convert this decimal to a percentage by multiplying by 100
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0.7368 ● 100 = 73.68% for your score