Share of a total questions: which figure is the whole
A share of a total is one part written as a percentage of the whole it belongs to, and the whole includes that part. After you submit, each one shows the working and names the wrong turn behind every other option.
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One question of this type, worked in full
Work it out on paper, then open Check your answer to see the full solution.
A helpdesk logged 160 support tickets, 360 sales tickets and 480 billing tickets last week. What percentage of all the tickets logged were support tickets?
Check your answer
- The whole is every ticket logged, support included, so add all three columns, 160 + 360 + 480 = 1,000 tickets.
- Divide the support tickets by that whole, 160 ÷ 1,000 = 0.16.
- Read that as a percentage, 0.16 × 100 = 16 percent of all the tickets.
Answer: 16 percent. Testonome practice pace: 55 seconds for a question like this.
Four ways this question type goes wrong
Each question offers four wrong answers beside the right one, drawn from a longer list of mistakes. These four are among them, and the review names the one you took.
Support left out
Dividing by the other columns added together, so the tickets you are measuring are missing from the whole.
Support counted twice
Adding the support tickets to a total that already holds them, so the base is too big and the share too small.
The opposite share
Giving the share of the tickets that were not support, which answers the opposite question.
Count, not percent
Reporting the number of support tickets where the question asks for a percentage, so the division never happens.
What the review gives you after you submit
You get the working for every question, the answer you chose beside the right one, and the reason the option you picked is wrong. Nothing is sent anywhere while you work.
Other numerical skills you can drill
If the method feels rusty, read how percentages work.
The share of a total formula, beside the other numerical formulas