Percent Market

How to Play Percent Market

1. Choose a difficulty, a shopping-trip length, and an optional practice category, then start your market run.
2. Read the challenge card: it tells you whether to find savings, a sale price, tax, a tip, a budget fit, or a receipt field.
3. Inspect the product display and price tags. Select discount tags when a challenge asks for a percent off.
4. Use the Market Calculator for percent-of, subtract-discount, add-tax, and add-tip steps without solving automatically.
5. Enter an amount or choose an answer, then press Checkout to run the register validator.
6. Watch the receipt print after a correct checkout and keep the Smart Shopping streak for bonus points.
7. On budget rounds compare discounted totals with your remaining money before you check out.
8. Hints teach the next math step using the exact prices from the current challenge.

Learning goals

• Calculate a percent of a money amount using integer cents.
• Find discount amounts and sale prices from percent-off tags.
• Work backward from a sale price to the original price.
• Add fictional practice sales tax and tips after a clear base amount.
• Apply fixed-dollar and percent coupons without negative totals.
• Compute stacked discounts one step at a time instead of adding percents.
• Compare promotions and unit prices to choose the better deal.
• Stay within a budget after discounts and complete multi-item receipts.
• Estimate a sale price before calculating the exact cent amount.

About this game

Percent Market is a lively shopping-district simulation set in Brightside Market District. You travel through eight illustrated neighborhoods, read original prices on animated storefront displays, flip sale tags, build receipts, and check out with integer-cent math. Challenges cover sale prices, savings, discount percents, original-price reverse problems, sales tax, tips, fixed and percent coupons, stacked discounts, best-deal comparisons, budgets, multi-item receipts, unit-price comparisons, and estimate-then-calculate rounds. Penny, Dex, Mara, and Theo guide the counters with frame-by-frame shopkeeper animation, while a learning calculator, Guided Calculator mode, and Large Controls keep every challenge playable with mouse, touch, or keyboard alone.

Controls: mouse-touch-keyboard. Scores are verified before appearing on the public leaderboard. Read how scoring works.

Skills practiced

• Percent of a number with money amounts.
• Discount amounts and sale prices.
• Savings calculations from percent-off tags.
• Sales tax on a taxable subtotal.
• Tips calculated from a displayed subtotal.
• Original-price reverse percentage problems.
• Percent increase and percent decrease.
• Fixed-dollar and percent coupons.
• Stacked discounts applied sequentially.
• Best-deal and unit-price comparisons.
• Budget reasoning with discounted totals.
• Multi-item receipt completion.
• Estimation before exact calculation.
• Integer-cent money arithmetic and basis-point percents.

Scoring tips

• Identify what the question asks for before you calculate: savings, sale price, tax, tip, or total.
• Calculate the discount amount first, then subtract to get the sale price.
• Apply stacked discounts one at a time to the reduced price, not by adding the percents.
• Check whether tax applies before or after discounts in the challenge text.
• Estimate first on hard estimate rounds for a small bonus, then enter the exact cents.
• Double-check cents — answers use nearest-cent rounding after each meaningful step.
• Use receipt fields to organize multi-item work before checkout.
• Skip hints when you can to keep the no-hint bonus and protect the Smart Shopping streak.

Difficulty guide

• Easy uses common discounts of 10%, 20%, 25%, and 50% on mostly whole-dollar prices from $5 to $100. It shows a visual hundred-grid discount model, offers four answer choices, allows calculator help, and does not introduce tax yet.
• Medium mixes cents, sales tax, fixed and percent coupons, original-price questions, budget checks, and receipt completion. Discounts range from 5% to 60% on prices from about $2.50 to $250 with moderate timers.
• Hard adds stacked discounts, percent increase and decrease, best-deal comparisons, tips, multi-item receipts, unit-price comparisons, and estimate-then-calculate rounds on prices up to $750 with tighter but fair timers.

Parent and teacher notes

Percent Market uses fictional shops, practice prices, and practice tax rates — no purchases occur and no real retailer brands appear. Every money value is stored as integer cents and every percent uses basis points so rounding stays deterministic: results round to the nearest cent after each legally meaningful step. Difficulty, session length, and practice category are adjustable, and a trip can be as short as ten challenges. The built-in tutorial walks through a real $40 backpack at 25% off with no scoring or leaderboard session. Large Controls and Guided Calculator modes have no score penalty. No account is required, leaderboard submission is optional, and the game is practice and entertainment rather than financial advice or a formal assessment.