Questions: On a math test, 12 students earned an A. This number is exactly 25% of the total number of students in the class. How many students are in the class? A. 15 B. 16 C. 21 D. 30 E. 48

On a math test, 12 students earned an A. This number is exactly 25% of the total number of students in the class. How many students are in the class?
A. 15
B. 16
C. 21
D. 30
E. 48

Transcript text: On a math test, 12 students earned an A. This number is exactly $25 \%$ of the total -number of students in the class. How many students are in the class? A. $\quad 15$ B. $\quad 16$ C. $\quad 21$ D. $\quad 30$ E. $\quad 48$

Solution

Solution Steps

To find the total number of students in the class, we need to set up an equation where 12 students represent 25% of the total number of students. We can solve for the total number of students by dividing 12 by 0.25.

Step 1: Set Up the Equation

Let $ x $ be the total number of students in the class. According to the problem, 12 students earned an A, which is $ 25\% $ of the total number of students. This can be expressed mathematically as: \[ 12 = 0.25x \]

Step 2: Solve for $ x $

To find $ x $, we can rearrange the equation: \[ x = \frac{12}{0.25} \]

Step 3: Calculate the Total Number of Students

Calculating the right side gives: \[ x = 48 \]