Isabel grows potatoes in her garden. This year, she harvested 760 potatoes and saved 10% of them to plant next...

1. TRANSLATE the problem information

• Given information:
  • Total potatoes harvested: 760
  • Percentage saved: 10%
  • Need to find: Number of potatoes saved

• This asks us to find 10% of 760 potatoes.

2. TRANSLATE the percentage operation

• '10% of 760' means multiply 760 by the decimal form of 10%
• Convert the percentage: \(10\% = \frac{10}{100} = 0.1\)
• Mathematical expression: \(760 \times 0.1\)

3. SIMPLIFY the calculation

• \(760 \times 0.1 = 76\)
• Isabel saved 76 potatoes to plant next year

Answer: B. 76

Why Students Usually Falter on This Problem

Most Common Error Path:

Weak TRANSLATE skill: Students misread 760 as 660, especially when working quickly through the problem.

When they calculate 10% of 660 instead of 760:
\(660 \times 0.1 = 66\)

This may lead them to select Choice A (66).

Second Most Common Error:

Conceptual confusion about percentages: Students might confuse 10% with other decimal conversions, such as thinking \(10\% = 0.01\) instead of 0.1.

If they calculate \(760 \times 0.01 = 7.6\), they realize this is too small and might guess among the remaining choices, or make additional calculation errors trying to 'fix' their work.

The Bottom Line:

This problem tests whether students can accurately translate percentage language into mathematical operations and perform the conversion correctly. The key stumbling blocks are reading accuracy and percentage-to-decimal conversion.