If you struggle with maths , place value, then I am here to help you and explain a certain SATS style question. Sometimes teachers can help but most of the time ,what they say goes in one ear and straight out of the other. So if you are reading this post, then you are in luck because I am going to do a step by step guide on how to solve the question below:

  A shop sells candles.      A plain candle which costs 35p each.     A star candle which costs 60p each.   And a stripe candle which costs 85p each.

Sapna buys 4 star candles and 2 stripe candles, how much does she pay altogether?                            So, first you read the question carefully. Then look at the writing that is in bold, which is altogether, and see what that word means. So the word altogether means you have to add in this certain problem.

Now you look at the question again and it says, ‘ Sapna buys 4 star candles.‘  So now you look at the star candles, and it says a star candle costs 60p each. Next you look at the 4 , because it says she buys 4 candles, and 60p , because that is how much one star candle costs, so now you times them together, which = 240p/ £2.40p.

So now you do the next step to the question, which is about the 2 stripe candles. Then you look at how much 1 stripe candle costs, which is 85p. Next you times 85p by 2 because Sapna bought 2 stripe candles. This = 170p/ £1.70p.

After that you add the costs of all the candles that Sapna bought, which was the 4 star candles which= £2.40p, and the 2 stripe candles which = £1.70. Afterwards you add them together which = £4.10p

Please comment if this helped you out. By KG