GACE Elementary Education II Practice Test

The main idea is identifying the amount you start with before anything changes. In these problems, you often track three things: the amount you begin with, the amount that changes, and the amount after the change. The quantity at the very start—before any additions or subtractions—is the starting (or initial) quantity. That’s exactly what the question is asking for: the amount before any changes occur. The change quantity is how much was added or removed, and the final or result quantity is what you have after applying that change. For example, if you start with 20 and gain 5, the starting quantity is 20, the change quantity is 5, and the final quantity is 25. So the correct descriptor is the starting quantity.