Grade 8 Integers Word Problems
Grade 8 integers word problems sheet: 10 problems on .
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Three different problem sets — same skill, same layout, fresh numbers.
Preview — Set A
Read each problem carefully. Show your work, then write your answer on the line.
- 1.Uma gets in an elevator on floor 13, goes down 17 floors, then up 2 floors. Which floor is Uma on now?
- 2.The water level in a reservoir dropped 1.25 feet per day for 4 days and then rose 0.75 feet per day for 2 days. What was the total change in water level?
- 3.Sam's bank balance is $-40. After a deposit of $290, what is the balance?
- 4.A store marked down all prices by 3/4. If a jacket originally cost $80.28, how much does the jacket cost after the markdown?
- 5.Hana gets in an elevator on floor 12, goes down 14 floors, then up 6 floors. Which floor is Hana on now?
- 6.On a winter night, the temperature was -5.1°F. The next morning it was -18°F. How many degrees did the temperature drop overnight?
- 7.The temperature was -9°C at midnight and fell 6 degrees by dawn. What was the temperature at dawn?
- 8.A deep-sea fish swam from -202 feet to -115 feet. How many feet did the fish rise?
- 9.A diver is 64 meters below the surface and rises 25 meters. What is the diver's position, as an integer?
- 10.Tessa borrowed $100 from a relative, paid back 2/5 of the debt in the first month and 1/4 of the debt in the second month. How much does Tessa still owe?
What this worksheet covers
This is a 10-problem word problems for grade 8 integers, printed in black and white with the key on page two. What makes this set particular: six of the ten problems involve a negative quantity and the problems are written as situations that have to be translated before they can be calculated. Problems 4 and 7, for instance, are "A store marked down all prices by 3/4. If a jacket…" and "The temperature was -9°C at midnight and fell 6 degrees by…".
Skills practised
At grade 8, integers is about integer exponents, the product, quotient and power rules, negative exponents and scientific notation, and this sheet takes one slice of that. Concretely, the sheet tests whether a student can read a situation and choose an operation before computing, work in fractional units and give the answer in lowest terms, and keep the decimal points aligned.
About the word problems format
The 10 story problems each get a full line and an answer rule; problem 4, "A store marked down all prices by 3/4. If a jacket…" is one, and the answer key writes the unit with every answer. Temperatures, depths, floors and balances give negative numbers a meaning that makes the direction of an answer checkable.
Set A, Set B and Set C
All three sets are produced by the site's deterministic generator from a fixed seed, so they are the same every time the site is built and the answer keys are exact. Where Set A's problem 6 is "On a winter night, the temperature was -5.1°F. The next…", Set B's is "Willa's bank account balance was -$27.25. Willa deposited…".
How to use this worksheet
Work it without a calculator. Every one of the ten integers problems is designed to be done by hand, and reaching for a calculator at grade 8 skips exactly the reasoning being built. If more than a third of the ten problems come back wrong, stop and step back a grade in integers rather than assigning Set B.
One mistake to watch for
Adding a negative is treated as an error: -8 + 3 is answered 11 or -11. Watch problem 7 of this word problems — "The temperature was -9°C at midnight and fell 6 degrees by…" — for this one.
The rule "addition makes things bigger" held for seven years and is being defended.
Work on a number line only, with no rules, until direction is automatic; introduce the sign shortcuts afterward.
Other grade 8 integers formats
The same skill in the other formats available at this grade.
- Drill — 8.EE.1 — Integer Exponents: Mixed Operations Practice, 22 problems
- Timed Drill — Grade 8 Multiplying Numbers in Scientific Notation, 16 problems
- Missing Number — Grade 8 Integers Missing Number, 24 problems
- Mixed Review — Grade 8 Repeating Decimals as Fractions, 16 problems
A step either side
The same format one grade down and one grade up — the easier sheet is often the faster fix when this one is not landing.
- 7.NS.3 — Rational Numbers in the Real World — grade 7, 22 problems
Word Problems sheets in other grade 8 topics
Print as many copies of this grade 8 integers word problems as you need; Sets A, B and C and their keys are six separate PDFs, all free.