Rachel had to complete 38 pages of math homework. If she had to complete 15 more pages of math homework than reading homework How many pages did she have to complete in all?
1. Rachel had to complete 38 pages of math homework. 
2. If she had to complete 15 more pages of math homework than reading homework...
3. How many pages did she have to complete in all? 

Step 2 is telling us that we need to find out how many pages of reading homework Rachel had to complete. We can set up an equation to help us solve this problem: 

38 + x = 15 + 2x

We can solve this equation for x: 

38 + x = 15 + 2x
38 - 15 = x + 2x
23 = 3x
23/3 = x

So, Rachel had to complete 7.67 pages of reading homework. 

Now that we know how many pages of reading homework Rachel had to complete, we can plug that value into our original equation: 

38 + 7.67 = 15 + 2(7.67)

45.67 = 23.34

Rachel had to complete 69 pages of homework in all.