The ratio of John's savings to Alice's saving is 1:2. If their mum gave $1000 to each of them, John had 2/5 as much money as Alice. What is John's saving?
Your ratio of 2/5 may not be correct! It could be either 2/3 or 3/5 or something else! Check it carefully.
Write as an equation:
25=x+10002x+1000
Solving for x, we find John originally had −3,000 dollars.