SAT · Problem Solving & Data Analysis · Percentages and percent change
Question sat-q-00131
Medium Multiple choice Calculator OK
The question
The price of an item decreased from $72 to $55. What was the percent change?
- 23%
- 31%
- 17%
- −23%
Show answer & worked solution
Answer: −23%
Worked solution. Percent change = (new − old)/old × 100% = (55 − 72) / 72 × 100% = -24%.
Why each wrong choice is wrong. The most common distractor uses the new value as the base instead of the original — a classic and reliable trap.
Test-day tactic. Always divide the change by the original price, not the new one. 'Percent change from' means 'with respect to'.
About this question type
Items test percent of a quantity ("what is 18% of 250"), percent change ("the price rose from 80 to 92, what is the percent increase"), reverse percent ("after a 15% discount, the item costs $51 — what was the original price"), and successive percent changes ("a 10% raise then a 5% raise — what is the net percent change").
You will see a question shaped like this one on roughly every other official SAT form, typically at a moderate position in the section — solidly within the range that separates a 600-band student from a 700-band student. Treat any miss in this subtopic as a signal to drill the subtopic page before you do another full practice test.