Grade 8 Word Problems Worksheets — Percent Change, Rate & Interest PDF
By Grade 8 word problems apply proportional reasoning to the situations algebra will soon formalise: percent increase, steady-rate distance and time, and simple interest on an investment. This generator writes those stories with generous working space and an Answer line, so a student can lay out an organised solution the way an exam or an algebra course will expect.
Six sub-skills are offered at this grade and the page opens on Percent Increase & Decrease, where the difficulty control steps from The new amount, to Find the percent change, to Work back to the original. Rates & Speed, Simple Interest, Discount & Sale Price, Profit Stories and Multi-Step Problems are separate sheets with three levels of their own. Pick the sub-skill, choose the number of problems with the stepper, and tick the answer key box to print a numbered key on its own page. The instant preview matches the downloaded PDF exactly, and the shareable link reproduces the identical sheet for fair, repeatable testing.
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Word Problems · Grade 8
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Grade 8 · 3 pages · A4More Grade 8 word problems skills
Each one generates a different kind of question, with its own three levels and answer key.
- Percent Increase & DecreaseGrow or shrink an amount by a percentage — and work back again.
- Rates & SpeedWords per minute, kilometres per hour — find a rate and then use it.
- Discount & Sale PriceSale prices, savings, and a price with tax added on top.
- Profit StoriesBuy, sell, and work out the profit — as money and as a percentage.
- Simple InterestInterest earned, the total in the account, and finding the rate.
- Multi-Step ProblemsTwo or three operations chained together in one story.
What each level generates
Grade 8 percent increase & decrease — the exact skill behind each difficulty setting, straight from the generator.
- Level 1The new amount
- Level 2Find the percent change
- Level 3Work back to the original
Grade levels follow the progression common to most English-language curricula — not one specific national curriculum. Every level shows exactly what it generates, so you can check the fit with your own program. See the full scope & sequence →
Grade 8 expectations and the algebra bridge
Most Grade 8 curricula use proportional and linear relationships as the run-up to algebra. These sheets keep that structure explicit: Percent Increase & Decrease grows or shrinks a starting amount by a given percent, Rates & Speed uses a steady speed to project distance over a new time, and Simple Interest multiplies principal, rate, and years. Every answer is exact by construction, so the setup carries the difficulty, not the arithmetic.
Use them to build the habit that makes algebra easier — writing the relationship as an expression before evaluating it. Encourage a student to record "5000 × 120/100" or "principal × rate × years" first and only then compute. That single move, practised on concrete percent, rate, and interest stories, is exactly what turns a Grade 8 word problem into a one-line formula later.
Self-checking like a mathematician
At this level the Answer line should carry a labelled quantity and survive a reasonableness check. Teach three quick tests: a percent increase makes the amount bigger (a population growing 20% must end above where it started), a steady rate keeps the unit consistent (kilometres on a distance answer, not km per hour), and simple interest is a slice of the principal, not larger than it at ordinary rates. Any answer failing a test gets reworked, not erased.
For each type, a one-line setup written before the arithmetic prevents the common slip of using the wrong base — taking the percent of the new figure instead of the start, or the rate over the wrong time. Keep the routine of underlining the question and naming the base quantity first. Shuffle supplies fresh sets for daily work while a fixed shared link makes fortnightly re-tests genuinely comparable.
Frequently asked questions
▸What word problems should a Grade 8 student master?
Percent-change problems, steady-rate problems (kilometres, pages or parcels per hour, and words per minute), and simple-interest calculations. The Percent Increase & Decrease, Rates & Speed and Simple Interest sub-skills generate exactly those, with clean whole-number answers.
▸How do these help prepare for algebra?
They reward writing each story as an expression — say, 5000 × 120/100 for a 20% rise, or principal × rate × years for interest — before computing. Getting fluent at turning a situation into a symbolic step is precisely the move Grade 8 algebra formalises, so the practice transfers directly.
▸Are the answers always whole numbers?
Yes. Populations, distances, and interest are all built so the result is an exact whole number — a growing population comes out in whole people, a distance comes out in whole kilometres, and interest is a whole-dollar amount — so answers stay clean while the setup stays demanding.
▸Can I run the same test across a class and again weeks later?
Yes. The shareable link reproduces the identical problems and answer key every time it opens, so a class-wide test and a later re-test compare like for like. Press Shuffle whenever you want a fresh version instead.
▸Do these worksheets cover exponents, equations, or scientific notation?
Not on these sheets — they target percent change, rate, and simple-interest reasoning, the applied backbone of Grade 8. All three are on the site elsewhere, though, so it is worth knowing where. Exponents are covered under other names: Powers of Integers at Grade 8 does squares, cubes and two powers multiplied, Squares at Grade 6 drills the square numbers on their own, and Powers in Expressions at Grades 6 and 7 puts them inside a longer chain. Square and cube roots are on the Grade 8 geometry page. Equations are Pre-Algebra's whole subject. Scientific notation is the one genuinely not here yet.