In a terminal digit filing system with 100 units of 8-shelf files, how many shelves should be allocated to each primary number?

• A. 8
• B. 80
• C. 800
• D. 1

Answer: (A)

In terminal digit filing, you allocate a fixed block of shelves to each primary number so that work is evenly distributed and access stays efficient. Here, there are 100 units of 8-shelf files, which means there are 800 shelves in total (100 × 8). Distributing these shelves equally among the 100 primary numbers gives 800 ÷ 100 = 8 shelves per primary number. This equal allocation ensures each primary number has enough space and keeps filing balanced.

Eight hundred shelves would imply all space goes to a single primary number, which isn’t how the system is set up. Eighty would only make sense if there were ten primary numbers. One would be far too little for one hundred primary numbers.