Rounding decimals

Round to a target place value: whole, tenth, hundredth. Same rule every time.

01 Mini-Lesson Video

▸ VIDEO COMING SOON

A short walkthrough explaining what you need to know and how to solve this question type lands here once it's recorded.

02 What This Looks Like on ALEKS

ALEKS randomizes the numbers each attempt, but the question shape stays the same. Here are two example versions you might see.

Rounding decimals v1

Round 6.7 to the nearest whole number.

6.7 ≈

Rounding decimals v2

Round 0.78 to the nearest tenth.

0.78 ≈

Heads up: Your ALEKS version will use different numbers. The numbers in the practice below are different too — that way you're exercising the move, not memorizing one answer.

03 How to Solve It

digit is 5 or more → round up
digit is 4 or less → round down

Find the rounding place, then look at the digit one step to its right. That digit decides.

Round 6.7 to the nearest whole number.

The whole-number place is the ones digit. In 6.7, that's the 6. Look one step to the right: the tenths digit is 7. Since 7 ≥ 5, round up.

6. 7 \to 7

Drop everything after the decimal. Answer: 7.

Round 0.78 to the nearest tenth.

The tenths place is one step right of the decimal. In 0.78, that's the 7. Look one step further right: the hundredths digit is 8. Since 8 ≥ 5, round up.

0.7 8 \to 0.8

Drop the hundredths digit. Answer: 0.8.

▸ COMMON SLIPStudents who miss this question almost always look at the wrong digit. The fix: identify the rounding place first (the place you're rounding to), then look one step to its right. That right-neighbor digit is the only one that matters for the rule.

04 Practice — Step by Step

Walk through this practice problem one step at a time. Each step unlocks the next.

Identify the rounding place.

Here's the practice problem: Round 8.4 to the nearest whole number. Which digit is in the ones place?

digit:

Look at the digit one place to the right.

Now look at the digit immediately to the right of the ones place. What digit is it?

digit:

Apply the rule.

Since the tenths digit is 4, and 4 is less than 5, we round down. The 8 stays as 8 and we drop the .4. What's the rounded answer?

answer =

▸ NICE WORK

You walked the rounding move end to end.

Same three steps every time: find the rounding place, look one digit to its right, apply the rule. ALEKS will give you a different number — maybe rounding to the tenth or hundredth instead of whole — but the move is identical. If you can do this one, you can do all of them.

Topic overview Q2