It is always important to go through the given problem first to get a concept of the requiremement. Then all the information's available from the question has to be noted down in such a manner that there would be no need to look at the question while solving. Total number of students wearing jeans = 10 Total number of students wearing shorts = 9 Total number of students wearing capris = 2 Then the total number of students surveyed by Mrs Lane = (10 + 9 + 2) = 21 Now percentage of students wearing shorts = (9/21) * 100 = (3/7) * 100 = 300/7 = 42.85 percent So a total percentage of 42.85% of the students were wearing shorts.