ScoreReady SAT
Drill by score band: 400–500 500–600 600–700 700–800

Score band 400-500 · Problem Solving & Data Analysis

Percentages and Percent Change drills for 400-500

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Targeted practice for students currently scoring in the 400-500 range, drilling exclusively on percentages and percent change.

What a 400-500 scorer needs from this topic

The 400 to 500 score band on SAT Math is the foundations band. Students scoring here are usually strong on arithmetic but losing easy points to careless setup, missed units, or an unfamiliar SAT phrasing of a familiar idea. Drilling the foundations questions here is the highest leverage thing you can do for your score, because every problem you convert from a guess to a confident solve moves you a measurable number of scaled points. Foundations questions in this band test one idea at a time, with friendly numbers and short stems. Treat them as warmups for the rest of the section: do them untimed first, write every step on paper, and check that your final value answers the actual question being asked, not the value of x.

For Percentages and Percent Change specifically, students in the 400-500 band need to focus on the question patterns the College Board uses at this difficulty level. Compute percent of, percent change, and successive percent operations. The questions below are pulled from the ScoreReady question bank and filtered to the 400-500 band based on difficulty calibration that matches publicly released College Board practice materials.

Drill these untimed first. Once you can produce a clean worked solution on paper for every question without notes, switch to timed mode and aim for under 75 seconds per question. That pace is roughly the average time per question on the actual SAT Math section, and it leaves time for the harder questions you will see at the end of each module.

Practice set

  1. 400-500 easy Percent of a Quantity

    A laptop originally priced at $335 is increased by 25%. What is the new price?

    1. A 335.00
    2. B 423.75
    3. C 418.75
    4. D 413.75
    Worked solution

    Answer: C — 418.75

    Increase = 335 × (25/100) = 83.75. New price = 335 + 83.75 = $418.75.

  2. 400-500 easy Percent Increase and Decrease

    A jacket originally priced at $415 is marked down by 20%. What is the sale price?

    1. A 332.00
    2. B 337.00
    3. C 415.00
    4. D 327.00
    Worked solution

    Answer: A — 332.00

    Discount = 415 × (20/100) = 83.00. Sale price = 415 - 83.00 = $332.00.

  3. 400-500 easy Successive Percent Changes

    A stock priced at $960 rises by 15% in one week, then falls by 15% the next week. What is the final price?

    1. A 938.40
    2. B 943.40
    3. C 960.00
    4. D 933.40
    Worked solution

    Answer: A — 938.40

    After the first week: 960 × (1 + 15/100). After the second week: multiply by (1 - 15/100). The result is 960 × (1 - 225/10000) = $938.40. Note: this is less than the original, even though the percentages are equal — a common SAT trap.

  4. 400-500 easy Percent in Word Problems

    A laptop originally priced at $795 is increased by 25%. What is the new price?

    1. A 795.00
    2. B 988.75
    3. C 998.75
    4. D 993.75
    Worked solution

    Answer: D — 993.75

    Increase = 795 × (25/100) = 198.75. New price = 795 + 198.75 = $993.75.

  5. 400-500 easy Percent of a Quantity

    A jacket originally priced at $870 is marked down by 35%. What is the sale price?

    1. A 570.50
    2. B 560.50
    3. C 565.50
    4. D 870.00
    Worked solution

    Answer: C — 565.50

    Discount = 870 × (35/100) = 304.50. Sale price = 870 - 304.50 = $565.50.

  6. 400-500 easy Percent Increase and Decrease

    A stock priced at $690 rises by 35% in one week, then falls by 35% the next week. What is the final price?

    1. A 605.48
    2. B 690.00
    3. C 610.48
    4. D 600.48
    Worked solution

    Answer: A — 605.48

    After the first week: 690 × (1 + 35/100). After the second week: multiply by (1 - 35/100). The result is 690 × (1 - 1225/10000) = $605.48. Note: this is less than the original, even though the percentages are equal — a common SAT trap.

How to use these drills to climb a band

Climbing from one score band to the next requires a different study mix than climbing within a band. Within a band, you are mostly fixing careless errors and pattern-recognizing the question types you already understand. Climbing to the next band means adding new question types to your toolbox — patterns you currently recognize but cannot solve fluently. The 700–800 set in this drill is exactly that toolbox for students currently in the 600–700 range.

The single most reliable indicator that you are ready to move up a band is being able to explain a worked solution to someone else, in your own words, without referring to notes. Practice this with one classmate or one parent per week. The act of teaching exposes the gaps your timed solves did not.

Other 400-500 drills