Algebra 1a – BENCHMARK #4 REVIEW
Skills Practice 10 and 11 are great reviews for the Benchmark. Make sure that your notes are up-to-date and all your questions answered in class.
Follow these steps and you can’t go wrong … take your time …
- If you have an absolute value, `|x|` for the variable, remove it (ignore it) and rewrite as if it didn’t exist.
- Multiply both sides to clear fractions or decimals, if necessary. Multiply by the LCD for fractions or by 10 or 100 for decimals.
- Distribute (whacky arrows) if you see parenthesis `( )` or square brackets `[ ]`
- Collect like terms on each side, if necessary.
- Use the addition or subtraction property to move the variable to one side and all other terms and constants to the other side of the equation.
- Use the multiplication or division or reciprocal (good for fractions) properties to solve for the variable.
- ONLY FOR INEQUALITIES – if you multiply or divide by a negative number in step 6, DON’T FORGET TO FLIP THE SIGN OF THE INEQUALITY!
- If this was an absolute value problem `|x|`, re-insert the absolute value and check your answers, there may be 2 of them (`±`).
Don’t forget these terms too!
- Addition: plus, sum, more than, increased by, total, in all
- Subtraction: minus, difference, less than, subtract, decreased by
- Multiplication: times, product, multiplied, each, of
- Division: dividend, quotient
and these for Inequalities and Word Problems
- `<` — is less than
- `≤` — less than or equal to, no more than, is at most
- `>` — greater than, is more than
- `≥` — greater than or equal to, is at least
