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There were 36 people at Emily’s party

2026 Practice Tests (digital)

2026 Practice Test D Math · Question 32 of 50

Question

There were 36 people at Emily’s party. If each person at the party drank 2 cups of juice, how many gallons of juice did they drink altogether?

Note: 1 gallon = 4 quarts; 1 quart = 4 cups.

  • A2142\frac{1}{4}
  • B4124\frac{1}{2}
  • C9
  • D72
Show the answer

Correct answer: B

Since 36 people each drank 2 cups of juice, the total amount of juice they drank was 36×2=7236 \times 2 = 72 cups.

Convert 72 cups to gallons:

72 cups×1 quart4 cups×1 gallon4 quarts=72 \text{ cups} \times \frac{1 \text{ quart}}{4 \text{ cups}} \times \frac{1 \text{ gallon}}{4 \text{ quarts}} =

7216 gallons=\frac{72}{16} \text{ gallons} =

92 gallons=\frac{9}{2} \text{ gallons} =

412 gallons4\frac{1}{2} \text{ gallons}

Question analysis

At Emily's party 36 people each drank 2 cups of juice, and this unit conversion question asks how many gallons they drank in all, given 4 quarts to a gallon and 4 cups to a quart. Students multiply to get the total in cups, then convert through quarts to gallons, and the bold word gallons sets the unit of the answer.

NYS standards
Grade level
Grade 6 content, by NYS standard
Compared with grade 7
Below grade 7 Converting units with given factors is grade 6 work. This adds a first step, the total number of cups, and a two-stage conversion through quarts, but the numbers are friendly and the path is routine for grade 7 students.
Estimated difficulty
Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
What makes it hard
Solution
3 steps
Reading level
Question and choices: about grade 5, 32 words.
Corrected from the DOE handbook
  • A stray word at the end of the explanation was removed.
Students, last 30 days
Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)

Why it is hard

With both conversion facts printed, the question is mainly about keeping the units straight. Students who skip the word each convert 36 cups instead of 72, and those who stop at cups find a total that is right in the wrong unit. Working out that a gallon is 4 × 4 = 16 cups before dividing turns two conversions into one and avoids adding the 4s.

  1. Many steps minor Working it out

    A multiplication, 36 × 2, comes before two divisions by 4, cups to quarts and quarts to gallons, and stopping after the first step leaves a believable 72. (Daniel & Embretson, 2010; Enright, Morley & Sheehan, 2002)

  2. Turning words into math minor Understanding the question

    The word “each” turns 36 people into 72 cups, and the bold word gallons sets the unit of the answer, a change the note supplies in two steps. (Hegarty, Mayer & Monk, 1995; Koedinger & Nathan, 2004)

Strategy: Find the total number of cups first, then divide by 4 to get quarts and by 4 again to get gallons, or work out how many cups make a gallon and divide once.

Traps

  • Units or scale: The answer is wanted in other units, or a rate or scale must be converted first.
  • Misreads the question: Misses or misreads a condition or a word in the question: "at least", "each", "remaining", "not".

The wrong answers, classified

What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why

  • Explanation: The DOE’s explanation ends with a line that reads only “lineExtend”, a formatting code left in the document by mistake. The site leaves it out.

How the questions are analyzed, and the research behind it

Worked solution, step by step

Formulas used

Total amount
total=number of people×amount each\text{total} = \text{number of people} \times \text{amount each}
When every person has the same amount, multiply the number of people by the amount each one has. The word each tells you to multiply.
Cups in a gallon
cups in 1 gallon=4×4=16\text{cups in 1 gallon} = 4 \times 4 = 16
A gallon holds 4 quarts, and each quart holds 4 cups. So a gallon holds 4 groups of 4 cups. You multiply, not add, because each of the 4 quarts has its own 4 cups.
Changing cups to gallons
gallons=cups÷16\text{gallons} = \text{cups} \div 16
It takes 16 cups to make 1 gallon. Dividing by 16 finds how many groups of 16 cups there are. A gallon is bigger than a cup, so the number of gallons is smaller.

  1. Sort out the question

    You know:

    • 36 people were at the party.
    • Each person drank 2 cups of juice.
    • 1 gallon = 4 quarts, and 1 quart = 4 cups.

    You need the total amount of juice in gallons. The bold word tells you the unit of the answer.

  2. Find the total in cups

    Each of the 36 people drank 2 cups:

    36×2=7236 \times 2 = 72

    They drank 72 cups in all.

    Watch out: skipping the word each uses only 36 cups. Then 36÷16=21436 \div 16 = 2\frac{1}{4} gallons, choice A.

  3. Find the cups in a gallon

    A gallon is 4 quarts, and each quart is 4 cups:

    4×4=164 \times 4 = 16

    So 1 gallon holds 16 cups.

    Watch out: adding the two 4s gives 8 cups in a gallon. Then 72÷8=972 \div 8 = 9, choice C.

  4. Change cups to gallons

    Divide the cups by 16. Simplify the fraction by dividing the top and bottom by 8:

    72÷16=7216=92=41272 \div 16 = \frac{72}{16} = \frac{9}{2} = 4\frac{1}{2}

    They drank 4124\frac{1}{2} gallons of juice.

    Watch out: 72 is the amount in cups. The question asks for gallons, so 72, choice D, is in the wrong unit.

    So the answer is B, 4124\frac{1}{2}.

Check your answer

Work backward. 4124\frac{1}{2} gallons is 412×4=184\frac{1}{2} \times 4 = 18 quarts. 18 quarts is 18×4=7218 \times 4 = 72 cups. Shared among 36 people, that is 72÷36=272 \div 36 = 2 cups each. It matches.

More questions like this

The original DOE question

Question 32 as shown on the DOE’s digital test, page 105 of its printable version.
As printed in the DOE’s printable version of 2026 Practice Test D Math, page 105, question 32. This is the DOE’s version, before the corrections listed in the analysis.