hi can you help me with my maths problems?
thanks...



Mr leong won some money in a lucky draw. he spent 1/3 of the money and the additional $20 on a wallet. next, he gave his family a treat which he spent $30 and 3/5 of the remaining money.
finally,he bought a shirt and had $18 left. if the shirt cost $138 less than what he had spent on the treat, what was the amount of money Mr Leong won in the lucky draw?

rachael wrote:
Mr leong won some money in a lucky draw. he spent 1/3 of the money and the additional $20 on a wallet. next, he gave his family a treat which he spent $30 and 3/5 of the remaining money.Finally,he bought a shirt and had $18 left. if the shirt cost $138 less than what he had spent on the treat, what was the amount of money Mr Leong won in the lucky draw?
Amount of money that Mr Leong won in the lucky draw was $480

Where is this question taken from?

Amount of money that Mr Leong won in the lucky draw was $480

Cost of wallet = 1/3x$480+$20 = $180
Amount of money left after spending on wallet= $(480-180) = $300
Cost of treat for family = 3/5x$300+$30 = $210
Amount of money left after spending on wallet and treat = $480-$180-$210= $90
Amount of money left after spending on shirt = $18
Cost of shirt = $90-$18=$72
Difference between cost of shirt and treat = $210-$72 = $138


This is an interesting question.Is this from your P6 Prelim exam question or just P6 Prelim practice paper?

Mr leong won some money in a lucky draw. he spent 1/3 of the money and the additional $20 on a wallet. next, he gave his family a treat which he spent $30 and 3/5 of the remaining money.Finally,he bought a shirt and had $18 left. if the shirt cost $138 less than what he had spent on the treat, what was the amount of money Mr Leong won in the lucky draw?

For this question you can use the Remainder concept found in Chapter 2.3 of the P5 +hinkingMath book. You will a number of similar examples there.



Let me know if there are parts that are a little difficult to understand as this question has a total of 6/5Rem (3/5Rem + 3/5Rem) at the bottom making it a little more confusing.

its from my P6 preliminary exam question

Hi Mr Chris Rogers

This is a very interesting question. I would like you to take note this part of the question "Next he gave his family a treat which he spent $30 and 3/5 of the remaining money." My point is 3/5 of the remaining money is after he spent $30 or before. From the solution it looks like 3/5 of the remaining money is before $30 but after the wallet. My son raise this point because he got a different answer. The $30 in the question is mentioned before 3/5 of the remaining money.

Please clarify. Thank you.

Hi Teresa, I think your son deserves a pat on the back.

I think I am used to reading it the other way around "fraction + an additional amount" that this was overlooked. I do agree with your understanding and have drawn the solution out again for you. This is clearly something to look at for and gives support that we need to look at each line slowly, analysing the information presented before moving onto the next bit.

I think I'll be giving my daughter this question to see if she picks it up

Hi Chris Rogers

No problem. It is my pleasure to help. My son is sitting for PSLE this year and this forum has been a great help. I really hope all students sitting for PSLE will read the questions carefully before answering. I also hope that they will see this post. Here is another interesting question. You may get different answers because it depends on how you understand the question.

John drove at a constant speed from his house to Town B. On his way, he passed Town A. At 9.20am he was 383 km from Town B and 205 km from Town A. At 12.50 pm he stopped at a petrol kiosk which was midway between Town A and Town B. At what speed did John drive before he came to the petrol kiosk?

Yes you are correct.

John drove at a constant speed from his house to Town B. On his way, he passed Town A. At 9.20am he was 383 km from Town B and 205 km from Town A. At 12.50 pm he stopped at a petrol kiosk which was midway between Town A and Town B. At what speed did John drive before he came to the petrol kiosk?

If you work it out in the order the information is presented, you will arrive at an answer with many decimal places which rounds out to 25.4km/h. In addition, he is travelling for too slow for the question to make sense.

However, if you read such that at 9.20am he has yet to pass Town A, then the solution works out to a whole number - 84km/h. This is also logical from a speed point of view.

I believe this question could be written a little better by removing this entire sentence "On his way, he passed Town A."

Thanks for the questions

Chris Rogers wrote:
Yes you are correct.

John drove at a constant speed from his house to Town B. On his way, he passed Town A. At 9.20am he was 383 km from Town B and 205 km from Town A. At 12.50 pm he stopped at a petrol kiosk which was midway between Town A and Town B. At what speed did John drive before he came to the petrol kiosk?
If you work it out in the order the information is presented, you will arrive at an answer with many decimal places which rounds out to 25.4km/h. In addition, he is travelling for too slow for the question to make sense.

However, if you read such that at 9.20am he has yet to pass Town A, then the solution works out to a whole number - 84km/h. This is also logical from a speed point of view.

I believe this question could be written a little better by removing this entire sentence "On his way, he passed Town A."

Thanks for the questions
Just to share. Solution by Dharma for the above speed question to get answer as a whole number - 84 km/h. Only the name in the question was changed but the rest remained the same.Curious to know the source of this question, any idea? Sorry for the blunder in the earlier question-lucky draw as I didn't read the question carefully.