If you got 3 questions wrong on a 12 problem math paper, to figure out how many you got right you must subtract the number you got incorrect (3) from the total number (12).
12-3=9
To figure out your grade, you have to divide how many you got correct (9-see above) by the total number of questions (12).
9/12 = 0.75
If you multiply this decimal by 100, you get the equivalent percentage of 75%.
Therefore, you would have gotten a 75% on the paper.
Hope this helps!