P5/6 Math – Problem Solving

1) Fraction of Remainder 20) Rates

Fraction of Original Left 21) Maximum Cubes
2) Sharing 22) Solving By Assumption
3) Branching Method 23) Excess and Shortage Problems
4) Repeated Identity 24) Using Multiples
5) Total Unchanged 25) Patterns
6) Difference Unchanged 26) Time Logic
7) One Item Unchanged 27) Find no. of items from difference
8) Units and Parts in total and difference in each item
9) Total Units Equalised 28) Find no. of items from difference
10) Number of Units × Value of Units in total and difference in each item
11) Simultaneous Concept when the total cost is not given
12) Either . . . . . or 29) Volume (Filling and draining water)
13) Equal Number Sold 30) Volume (Obtain same height)
Mass of Empty Container 31) Volume (Obtain different heights)
14) Equal Head 32) Rearrangement of Rows
15) Equalising Units 33) Same % Discount
16) More Than/Less Than 34) Special Model
17) Working Backwards 35) Transfers (Working Backwards)
18) If . . . . . If 36) Transfers (%) – Total of each item
If . . . . . If (One person spent all) item remains the same
19) Average 37) Exchanges/Trading
Fraction of Remainder 1
" $
Mrs Lee spend # of her salary on a washing machine and % of the remainder on a
television set. If she saved the remaining $750, how much was her salary?
Fraction of Original Left 1
$
Mr Chan spent $1246 of his income on a computer. He spent of the remainder on
&
"
a handphone. He still had '
of his income left. What was Mr Chan’s income?
 2
Sharing (End with same amount)
"
Jimmy had as many marbles as Sally. They had a total of 400 marbles. How many
(
marbles must Sally give to Jimmy so that they would have the same number of
marbles?
 2
Sharing (End with one person more)
$
Martha had as many seashells as Nadia. They have a total of 110 seashells. How
%
many seashells must Nadia give to Martha so that Martha will have 6 more seashells
than Nadia?
 2
Sharing (Some gave away to the rest)
50 boys in a class were given some marbles to share equally. When 15 of them
gave away all their marbles to the rest of the boys, the rest of the boys had 12
extra marbles each. How many marbles did each of the remaining boys receive?
 2
Sharing (Play Time Equally)
One morning, 6 friends rented 4 computers from 8.00 am to 10.30 am and took
turns to play games on them. At any time, 4 of them played on the computers
while the other 2 friends watched. If each of them had the same amount of
playing time, how many minutes did each person play on the computer?
Branching Method 3
& (
ofthe fruits in a box are apples and the rest are pears. of the apples are red
) "*
apples. There are 102 green apples.
(a) How many apples are there altogether?
(b) How many fruits are there in the box?
 4
Repeated Identity
" %
Roy had as much money as Ali. Ali had as much money as Larry. If Roy had $45
$ '
less than Larry, find the total sum of money among the three of them.
 4
Repeated Identity
Jane has 25% as many stickers as Mary and 20% less stickers than Betty. If they
have a total of 125 stickers, how many stickers does Jane have?
Repeated Identity (Common Shaded Area) 4
$
The figure is made up of a rectangle and a square. The area of the square is the
&
%
area of the rectangle. Given that ' of the square is shaded and the area of the
unshaded part is 96 cm2, what is the area of the square?
Repeated Identity 4
The ratio of 20-cent coins to 50-cent coins is 5 : 3. The ratio of 20-cent coins to
$1 coins is 3 : 2. Given that there are altogether 136 coins, what is the total
amount of these coins?
Total Unchanged (Internal Transfer) 5
"
Jean had the number of paper clips Sally had at first. After Sally gave 8 of her
$
$
paper clips to Jean, Jean had % the number of paper clips Sally had. How many
paper clips did Jean have at first?
Total Unchanged (Add and Subtract Same Amount) 5
In a box, there were 80% as many blue beads as green beads. After 88 green beads
were removed and 88 blue beads were put into the box, there were twice as many
blue beads as green beads. How many green beads were in the box at first?
 6
Difference Unchanged (Difference remains the same)
The amount of sugar in container A and container B is 1 : 6. When 90 g of sugar was
added to each container, the ratio became 3 : 8. Find the amount of sugar in each
container at first.
 6
Difference Unchanged (Age Problems)
Matt is 8 years old and his father is 44 years old. In how many years’ time will he be
"
as old as his father?
%
 6
Difference Unchanged (Age Problems)
The ratio of Jenny’s age to her aunt’s age is 1 : 4. In 25 years’ time, the ratio will
become 2 : 3. How old is Jenny now?
 7
One Item Unchanged (One item remains the same)
"
Betty and Diana shared some money in the ratio of 5 : 6. After Diana spent of
%
her money, the total amount of money they had left was $423. How much did
each girl have at first?
Units and Parts 8
'
In a florist, the number of roses was & of the number of tulips. After 102 roses
and 17 tulips were sold, the ratio of the number of roses to tulips became 3 : 8.
How many tulips were there in the shop in the end?
Units and Parts 8
Mike had some 50-cent coins and 20-cent coins. The number of 50-cent coins is
$
of the number of 20-cent coins. Mike took out four 50-cent coins and exchanged
%
$
them for 20-cent coins. The number of 50-cent coins became (
the number of
20-cent coins. Find the sum of money Mike had.
Units and Parts (Transfers) 8
Jim bought some chocolates and gave half of them to Ken. Ken bought some
sweets and gave half of them to Jim. Jim ate 12 sweets and Ken ate 18 chocolates.
After that, the number of sweets and chocolates Jim had were in the ratio 1 : 7
and the number of sweets and chocolates Ken had were in the ratio 1 : 4.
How many sweets did Ken buy?
Units and Parts (Transfers) 8
Don bought some stickers and gave half of them to Ethan. Ethan bought some
stamps and gave half of them to Don. Don gave away 32 stamps and Ethan
gave away 36 stickers. In the end, 10% of what Don had were stamps and the
number of stamps Ethan had was 20% of the number of stickers he had. How
many stamps did Ethan buy?
Units and Parts 8

The pupils at a camp are divided equally into Team A and Team B. In Team A,
there are 28 more boys than girls. In Team B, there are 18 more girls than boys.
(a) How many more boys are there in Team A than in Team B?
(b) There are 47 boys at the camp. How many girls are there at the camp?
Total Units Equalised
! 9
Adam, Ben, Caleb and Dan shared $288. Dan received "
of the total amount received by Adam, Ben and
# !
Caleb. Adam received of the total amount received by Ben and Caleb. Ben received of the amount
$ #
received by Caleb. How much did Adam receive?
Number of Units × 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐬 10
A sum of $846 is to be divided among a number of adults and children. Each
adult receives $6, each boy receives $5 and each girl receives $4. Given that
the ratio of adults to boys to girls is 2 : 3 : 5, how many more girls than boys
are there?
 10
Number of Units × 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐬
The ratio of the number of cars to lorries to motorbikes found in a car park is
5 : 2 : 4. Given that there is a total of 1008 wheels, find the number of
motorbikes found in the car park.
Number of Units × Value of Units 10
Mrs Lee was preparing to bake some cakes for her shop. The ratio of the flour,
sugar and butter used was in the ratio 8 : 2 : 1. The mass of each packet of the
ingredients are as follows:

Flour 300 g per packet

Sugar 200 g per packet
Butter 300 g per packet

Given that the total mass of the ingredients used was 27.9 kg, find the number
of packets of sugar used.
 11
Simultaneous Concept
Mrs Gan bought 4 kg of beef and 3 kg of mutton for $50. If she bought 3 kg of beef
and 4 kg of mutton, she would pay $2 less. How much did 1 kg of beef cost?
 11
Simultaneous Concept
David bought 2 packets of nuts and 3 packets of potato chips for $19.75. Tim
bought 5 packets of nuts and 7 packets of potato chips for $47.25. Find the
cost of a packet of nuts and the cost of a packet of potato chips.
Simultaneous Concept (With exchange)
11
Ashley bought 8 identical files and her sister bought 8 identical keychains. The
total cost of all the files and keychains was $96. Ashley then exchanged a file
with her sister for a keychain. After the exchange, the total cost of the items
"
Ashley had was % of the total cost of the items that her sister had.
(a) Find the cost of one keychain.
(b) Find the cost of one file.
 12
Either . . . . . or
A bus can carry 30 adults or 45 children. If the bus has already 20 adults and 10
children aboard, how many more children can the bus carry?
Either . . . . . or 12
Box A can hold either 60 small books or 48 big books. If there are already 10 small
books and 12 big books in Box A, how many more big books can Box A still hold?

How many more small books can Box A still hold?

Equal Number Sold (Or equal amount given to each) 13
At first, Shop A had 242 fishes and Shop B had 197 fishes. After an equal number
of fishes were sold at each shop, the number of fishes in Shop A was 4 times that
of Shop B. How many fishes did the 2 shops sell altogether?
Mass of Empty Container 13
%
A container weighed 8.4 kg when it was '
full of sweets. When the same container
&
was "$ 8illed with sweets, it had a mass of 5.2 kg. What is the mass of the empty
container?
 14
Equal Head (Make numerators the same)
25% of Mason’s money is equal to 30% of Jim’s money. Jim has $1680 less than
Mason. How much do they have altogether?
 14
Equal Head
$ '
S, T and U are whole numbers. of S is equal to of T and 50% of S is equal to
% (
60% of U. What is the ratio of S to T to U?
 14
Equal Head
Agnes had $600 more than Beth. Agnes spent 0.8 of her money and Beth spent 75%
of her money. In the end, Beth and Agnes had the same amount of money left. Find
the amount of money Agnes had at first.
 15
Equalising Units
A bag contained equal number of red beads, blue beads and green beads. After Anita
removed some beads from the bag, there were 411 beads left in the bag. There were
twice as many red beads as blue beads left. The number of green beads left was 39
fewer than the number of red beads left. Given that 82 green beads were removed,
how many beads of each colour were there at first?
 15
Equalising Units
Judy had 15 boxes of paper clips. At first, each box contained the same number of
paper clips. She took out 4 paper clips from each box. In the end, the total number
of paper clips left in the 15 boxes was equal to the total number of paper clips in
12 of the boxes at first. What was the number of paper clips in each box at first?
 16
More Than/Less Than
Tom had $400 more than Jerry at first. After Tom gave Jerry $600, Jerry had thrice
as much money as Tom. Find the amount of money Tom had at first.
More Than/Less Than 16
There were 40 more boys than girls at a sports event. After 75% of the boys and
60% of the girls left the sports event, there were 8 more girls than boys remaining
behind. How many boys were there at first?
Working Backwards
!
17
Mr Tan had a box of sweets which he wanted to give to his children. Mindy took #
of the sweets and another 7
" #
sweets. Lindy took of the remaining sweets and another 5 sweets. Cindy took of the remaining sweets but she
$ %
!
decided to put 3 sweets back into the box. Rindy took of the remaining sweets. There were 14 sweets left in the
"
box.
(a) How many sweets were in the box at first?
(b) How many sweets did Cindy take from the box?
If . . . . . If 18
If Andy gives May $12, he will have the same amount of money as May. If May gives
"
Andy $12, the amount of May’s money is $ the amount of Andy’s money. How much
money has May at first?
If . . . . . If (One person spent all) 18
James and Paul had different amounts of money. If James spent $40 each week and
Paul spent $60 each week, James would still have $470 left when Paul spent all his
money. If James spent $60 each week and Paul spent $40 each week, James would
still have $70 left when Paul had spent all his money. How much money did each
have at first?
If . . . . . If
There are some red and green apples in a box. If 20 red apples are removed from the box, the number of red
18
!
apples left will be of the total number of apples left. If 20 green apples are removed from the box, the
$
!
number of red apples left will be # of the total number of apples left.
(a) Find the number of red apples in the box.
(b) What fraction of the apples in the box is green?
If . . . . . If
18
Mrs Ong has a bag containing some ten-cent and fifty-cent coins. If she adds in 4 ten-cent coins, 70% of the
coins in the bag are fifty-cent coins. If she continues to add in another 20 fifty-cent coins, 80% of the coins
in the bag are fifty-cent coins. Find the value of her ten-cent coins at first.
Average (Bought more items, average changed) 19
Jane bought some calculators at an average price of $28. When she decided to buy
one more calculator at the price of $91, the average price became $35. How many
calculators did Jane buy?
 19
Average (Some left the group, average changed)
The average test score of a group of pupils was 70 marks. After two pupils with an
average test score of 75 marks left the group, the average test score of the
remaining pupils became 68. How many pupils were there in the group at first?
 19
Average (In a set of consecutive numbers)
* The middle number in a set of consecutive numbers is the average of that set
of numbers and is also the average of the first and last numbers.

The average of four consecutive even whole numbers is 23. What is the largest
of these four even numbers?
 19
Average (Recorded Wrongly)
The average mass of each apple in a basket was 34.2 g. When Ali recorded the mass
of the apples, he wrongly recorded one as 43 g when it should have been 34 g. As a
result, he calculated the average mass as 34.5 g. How many apples were there in the
basket?
 19
Average (Recorded Wrongly)
The average height of a group of children was 129.6 cm. One of the children’s height
was wrongly recorded as 162 cm when it should have been 126 cm. As a result, the
average height calculated became 132.6 cm. How many children were there in the
group?
Average 19

Amy and Beth have the mass of 50 kg each. The mass of Celia is 6 kg less than the
average mass of Amy, Beth and Celia. Find the total mass of Amy, Beth and Celia.
Rates (Parking charges) 20
The parking rate of a multi-storey car park is 80 cents per hour or part thereof
from 7.00 am to 5.00 pm. After 5.00 pm, motorists are charged $1.50 per
entry. Mr Lim parked his car at the car park from 1.45 pm to 7.30 pm. How
much must he pay for the parking fee?
Rates (Photocopying) 20
The table below shows the rate a shop charges for its photocopying services.
Number of Pages Cost Per Page
First 150 pages "
4$ ¢
Subsequent pages 3¢
Hui Hui has a set of notes which consists of 232 pages. If she photocopies 2 copies
of the set of notes, how much does she have to pay in all?
Rates (Taxi fare) 20
The table below shows the fare for a journey by taxi.

First 500 m $2.40

Every subsequent 500 m or part thereof $0.60

Dr Ling took a taxi from her home to her clinic, which was 6.75 km away. How much
taxi fare did she have to pay?
Rates (Utility charges) 20

Electricity Charges
First block of 15 units $3.60
Second block of 15 units $4.30
Subsequent blocks of 10 units or part thereof $1.10
The table above shows the rate of electricity charges in a certain country. Mr Chen’s
family used 324 units in March. How much was his electricity bill?
Maximum Cubes 21
Billy needs to pack as many 4-cm wooden cubes as possible into a box measuring
31 cm by 15 cm by 22 cm.
(a) What is the maximum number of wooden cubes that can be packed into the
box?
(b) What is the volume of the remaining space in the box after the maximum
number of wooden cubes has been packed in?
 22
Solving By Assumption (Marks)
There are 25 questions in a Science quiz. 4 marks were awarded for each correct
answer and 1 mark was deducted for each incorrect answer. Amy scored 60 marks.
How many questions did she answer correctly?
Solving By Assumption (With Average) 22
100 people went for a health check at a polyclinic. Their average mass was 65 kg.
Given that the average mass of the women was 50 kg and the average mass of
the men was 70 kg, how many men were there?
Solving By Assumption 22
John has 30 pieces of $2 and $5 notes altogether. The total value of the money he
has is $120. Find the number of pieces of $2 notes and the number of pieces of
$5 notes that John has.
 23
Excess and Shortage Problems
1) (Excess + Shortage) ÷ Difference = No. of Items
2) (Excess − Excess) ÷ Difference = No. of Items
3) (Shortage − Shortage) ÷ Difference = No. of Items
4) Total = No. of Items × Equal share for each item + Excess
5) Total = No. of Items × Equal share for each item − Shortage
 23
1) Miss Soh has a bag of sweets. If she gives each pupil 8 sweets, she will have 18
sweets left. If she gives each pupil 11 sweets, she will need another 54 sweets.
(a) How many pupils are there in her class?
(b) How many sweets does she have?
 23
2) Excess: 30
Excess: 10
Difference: 14 −12 = 2
3) Shortage: 20 23
Shortage: 44
Difference: 12 −10 = 2
Excess and Shortage Problems 23
Deborah brought some money for shopping. She bought 3 dresses and 4 skirts for
$433 and had some money left. She wanted to buy another dress but she was short
of $50. If she decided to buy another skirt instead, she would have $15 left.
(a) What is the difference between the cost of a dress and a skirt?
(b) How much did Deborah bring for shopping?
 24
Using Multiples
At a children’s party, every 8 children shared a plate of cupcakes and every 12
children shared a plate of muffins. If 10 plates were used altogether, find the
number of children present at the party.
Using Multiples 24
There were quail eggs on a tray.
If the quail eggs were divided into groups of 4, 1 quail egg would be left on the
tray.
If the quail eggs were divided into groups of 6, 3 quail eggs would be left on the
tray.
If the quail eggs were divided into groups of 7, 5 quail eggs would be left on the
tray.
What was the least number of quail eggs on the tray if the number is between
20 and 40?
Using Multiples
24
Patterns 25
Patterns 25
Patterns 25
Patterns 25
Patterns 25
 26
Time Logic
Painter A takes 3h to paint a hall. Painter B takes 4h to paint the same hall. How
long will they take if they were to paint the hall together?
 26
Time Logic
Printer A can print 400 pages in 15 min while Printer B can print 400 pages in 10 min.
"
If both printers are used at the same time, how many pages can they print in $ h?
Time Logic 26
James was tasked to repair the roof of a building. He takes 9 days to repair the roof
on his own. If he works together with Kelvin, the roof can be repaired in 6 days. If
he works together with Leonard, the roof can be repaired in 5 days. Given that
James and Kelvin worked on the roof for the first two days, followed by Kelvin and
Leonard who completed the rest of the roof, find the total number of days required
to repair the roof.
Find no. of items from difference in total and difference in each item 27
Mrs Ling bought some scarves and dresses from a wholesale seller for $4650. She
paid $150 less for the scarves than the dresses. Each dress cost $14 more than each
%
scarf. The number of dresses bought was & of the number of scarves bought. How
many scarves did Mrs Ling buy?
Find no. of items from difference in total and difference in each item when the 28
total cost is not given
Pauline sells a packet of popcorn at $2.50 each and a packet of candy floss at $1.80
each. After selling for a day, she earned $2.10 more from the sale of candy floss than
the sale of popcorns. She sold 14 more packets of candy floss than popcorns.
(a) How many packets of popcorn did she sell?
(b) How much did she earn from selling candy floss?
Volume – Filling and draining water 29
Volume - Obtain same height 30
Volume – Obtain different heights 31
 32
Rearrangement of Rows
A farmer planted apple seedlings in rows such that there were 15 seedlings in each
row. The farmer planted 7 more seedlings and rearranged them. There are now 11
seedlings in each row and 9 more rows than before. How many apple seedlings did
the farmer plant in total?
 32
Rearrangement of Rows
Leslie arranged some rows of chairs. At first, each row had 10 chairs. When he
added 4 chairs and the chairs were rearranged, there were 8 chairs in each row
and 2 more rows than before. How many more chairs must he add to have a
total of 12 rows of 8 chairs?
Same % Discount 33
A watch cost $800 at Store M and 17% more in Store L. During the Great Singapore
Sale, both shops gave the same percentage discount for the watch. The discounted
price in Store L was $102 more than that in Store M.
(a) Find the original price of the watch in Store L.
(b) What was the percentage discount given by both stores during the sale?
Special Model 33
Melissa and Nancy had a total of 117 beads. Melissa used 3 times as many beads as
Nancy to make some bracelets. The number of beads Nancy had left was 12 more
than what she had used. She had twice as many beads left as compared to Melissa.
(a) How many beads did Nancy use?
(b) How many beads did Melissa have at first?
Transfers (Working Backwards) 35
Eddie, Freddie and Georgie had some stickers. Eddie gave 20% of his stickers to
Freddie, Freddie in turn gave 20% of his stickers to Georgie. In the end, Georgie’s
stickers increased by 20%. If Eddie and Georgie had 16 and 42 stickers respectively
in the end, how many stickers did the three boys have altogether?
Transfers (Working Backwards) 35
Mrs Lum had a total of 330ℓ of water in basins A, B, C and D. She transferred some water from Basin A to
Basin B and as a result, the volume of water in Basin B doubled. She then added 6ℓ of water into Basin C and
transferred 30% of water from Basin B to Basin D. Finally, she increased the water in Basin C by 50% after
transferring some water from Basin D. In the end, there was an equal amount of water in all four basins.
(a) What was the volume of water in Basin C at first?
(b) How much water was transferred from Basin D to Basin C in the end?
Transfers (%) – Total of each item remains the same 36
Some men and women attended a Conference. They were divided into Group A and Group B. At first, there were
1200 participants in Group A and 30% of them were men. There were 800 participants in Group B and 60% of
them were men.
After some participants were transferred from Group B to Group A, 40% of the participants in Group A and 60%
of the participants in Group B were men.
How many participants were transferred from Group B to Group A?
Transfers (%) – Total of each item remains the same 36
There are two bags of stones labeled A and B. In Bag A, there are 26 black stones and
20 white stones. In Bag B, there are 39 black stones and 30 white stones. How many
black and white stones should be transferred from Bag B to Bag A such that 60% of
the stones in Bag A and 50% of those in Bag B are black?
Exchanges/Trading 37
Celine had a total of 87 gold stars and silver stars. She exchanged all her gold stars for
silver stars. After she exchanged each gold star for 5 silver stars, she had 231 silver
stars in the end. How many gold stars did she have at first?
Exchanges/Trading 37
A pack of trading cards contained 7 normal cards and 2 special cards. Weihua and John
each bought a box of 40 packs of card. After opening their cards, they decided to trade
with each other for the cards they wanted. 3 normal cards were traded for each special
card. After trading, Weihua was left with a total of 384 cards.
(a) How many cards did John have in the end?
(b) How many special cards did Weihua have in the end?