GED and HiSET mathematics — distance, simple interest and unit conversions

Three formulas on the GED Mathematics Formula Sheet come straight from daily life: distance equals rate times time, simple interest equals principal times rate times time, and total cost equals the number of units times the price per unit. The HiSET Mathematics test uses the same relationships in its word problems. What makes these questions hard is rarely the formula itself; it is the units. Minutes have to become hours, months have to become years, ounces have to become pounds, and a speed in miles per hour sometimes has to become feet per second. This material practices the formulas and the conversions together.

The twelve quiz questions start with travel. You find the distance a truck covers in 2 hours and 24 minutes, the time a delivery van needs for 195 miles, answered in hours and minutes, the moment two trucks driving in opposite directions are 330 miles apart, and the true average speed of a round trip driven at two different speeds, which is not the average of the two speeds. Four questions are about simple interest: interest on a business loan over three years, interest on a six-month loan, the total a savings deposit grows to, and the rate hidden in a loan's interest. The last four are conversion chains: miles per hour to feet per second, gallons of soup stock to cups, an hourly wage to a yearly income, and the price of 12 ounces of cheese sold by the pound.

Every conversion factor you need is printed in the question. The wrong options come from the conversions people skip: 3.25 hours read as 3 hours 25 minutes, six months used as six years, two speeds simply averaged, twelve ounces treated as half a pound. The explanations show exactly where each wrong number comes from.

The flashcards hold the distance and interest formulas and their rearrangements, the total cost formula, converting minutes to hours and months to years, the US customary units of length and volume, and the unit-fraction method for chaining conversions.

The written work asks for full solutions with units at every step: a trip with a stop, a loan paid back early, finding the time a deposit needs, a car's speed in feet per second, a restaurant order in several units, and a medication drip over a shift. The oral exam asks one question at a time and expects you to say which units you are converting and why.

The material is independent practice written by Zestly, based on the published content of the GED and HiSET mathematics tests; it is not produced or endorsed by GED Testing Service or ETS.

• Use d = rt to find distance, rate or time, converting minutes to hours and back
• Find the average speed of a trip from total distance and total time
• Compute simple interest with I = Prt, with time in years or months, and the total amount owed
• Solve I = Prt for the rate or the time
• Chain unit conversions for length, volume, weight and time
• Combine total cost = units × price per unit with a change of units

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the published content of the GED Mathematical Reasoning test (distance formula d = rt, simple interest I = Prt and total cost, as printed on the GED Mathematics Formula Sheet, GED Testing Service, 2014 test; unit conversions) and the HiSET Mathematics test (number and operations; measurement).