Percentages

Notice the common part. It is that symbol %.

This symbol is called Percent.

Percent = Per + Cent

The word Per means 'for every' and indicates a division. Think of - Per Hour, Per
Oxide
The word Cent means 100. Think of Century, Cents.
Essentially, the word Percent (or %) can be translated into For Every 100. Just
rearrange the shapes and see it for yourself.

Dear future manager,

Percentages is the most common mathematical concept you are going to
use in your career, and GMAT exam makes sure that You are 100% spot on
with using percentages.
The GMAT exam tests the candidates proficiency in using percentages in
both direct and, mostly, indirect ways as part of bigger and more
complex questions.

Let's dig in.

As seen above, % symbol means per 100. So, we can
write
25% as 25/100
Discovery #1: Percentages are just Fractions!
That's right every percentage figure can be re-written
in a fractional form.
So, 15% = 15/100
22.7% = 22.7/100
Remember we also learnt that fractions can be rewritten in a decimal form.
So, 15% = 15/100 can be further written as 0.15
i.e. 15% = 0.15
Discovery #2: Percentages are also Decimals!
So, 20% = 0.20
and 22.7% = 0.227
Percentages can easily be converted into decimals by
just shifting 2 decimal points to the left. Similarly,
decimals can be converted into percentages by
shifting 2 decimal places to the right.

As we observe, Percentages, Decimals and Fractions

are Inter-convertible. In fact, Percentages are just the
everyday slang for using decimals and fractions in
the real world.
To find the actual percentage value, you Will Have to
convert the percentage either into a fraction or a
decimal.
Like Decimals and Fractions, Percentages also
express a Part-Whole relationship. And the PartWhole relationship brings us to....................

Memory Tip:
Confused about
the direction in
which
the
decimal
point
should move. All
you
need
to
remember is the
alphabet.
a b c D e f..... n o
Pqr
D comes before
P , i.e. D lies on
the Left of P
So if you want to
convert a Decimal
into a Percent, you
shift 2 decimal
places
to
the
RIGHT.
If you want to
convert a Percent
into a Decimal,
you
shift
2
decimal places to
the LEFT.

PIZZA!!!

Let's go over the pizza situation again. It is a 6-slice pizza which has to be
shared between you and your friend.
Both of you get, 6 / 2 = 3 slices of pizza each
Each of you gets 3 / 6, i.e. One-half of the total pizza.
Let's use Percentages and see how much pizza do You get, and how
having more friends affects it. Remember, Percentages is Parts Per 100,
and to solve them we have to first convert percentage figures either into
Fractions or into Decimals.
Using Fractions:
You get 3 slices out of 6. Therefore, you get 3 / 6 = 1 / 2 of the total pizza.
However, to find the percentage value you need to make the base 100.
Right now the base is 2.
i.e.

Now, this can transformation can be made by multiplying the base, i.e. 2,
by 50. Something like,

Therefore, the equivalent fraction of 1/2, with the base as 100, is 50/100.
This means you get 50% of the pizza.
If we view the above situation a bit more closely, we observe that
1/2 = (something)/100
All we had to do was find this 'Something' and that would give us the
equivalent percentage value.
We can rewrite the above equation and claim that
something = 1 / 2 x 100
Or more generally,
This means to find the percentage of pizza a person gets, all we need to

know is the share or fraction of the pizza that the person gets.

Using Decimals:
Converting decimals to percentages is really easy. We just need to shift 2
decimal places to the Right and tada!
So let's try the decimal approach to finding percentages now.
You get 3 slices out of the total 6 slices of pizza. That means your share is
3 out of total 6.
Your share can be written as 3 / 6 = 0.50
Now that we have the decimal value, we just shift 2 places to the Right...

We get the answer as 50%.

Now that we have seen how to calculate percentage share, it's time for
some practice!
Find the Percentage Share in the following cases:
1) There are 40 boys and 30 girls in a class. Find the Percentage of
boys in the class.
2) In a birthday party, a big cake was divided into 20 equal slices.
Jamie got 2 slices of the cake. What percentage of cake did Jamie
get.
--------------------------------------------------------------------Let's deal with a few more percentage problems.
What is 70% of 150?
What Percent of 60 is 20?
The first thing to observe is the use of the word 'OF'. Percentage are always
attached to something, i.e. They are always OF something.
See the headlines again. Sachs bought 17.5% in Nile Technologies, i.e. Sachs
bought 17.5% stake (or shares) out of the company. However, we do NOT know
the exact number of shares bought by Sachs. To find the exact quantity we need
to know the exact Total number as well.
So, to find the exact quantity, percentages need a number to attach themselves
to.
Let's focus on the questions above.
The way to solve these problems is just by Reading them in the right format and
filling in the blanks.

The Original Number

0.____

Percentage Result

(Decimal equivalent of Percentage)

Or if we use the Fractional equivalent of a Percentage, we can write

The Original Number

Result

Percent / 100

Percentage

Now, let's READ the first question - What is 70% of 150. Remember, we are just
READING the question, and if we read it correctly the question would solve itself.

WHAT --> I am trying to find a number

70%

--> 0.70 or 70/100

of 150 -->

The original Number is 150

Filling in the blanks we get,

150

x 0.70 = Percentage Result

So, the percentage result = 105, i.e. 70% of 150 is 105!

Let's READ the second one now - What percent of 60 is 20?

What Percent --> Percentage Value
of 60

--> The Original Number is 60

is 20

--> The percentage result is 20

Now let's just fill up the blanks

The Original Number

Result
60

x Percent / 100 =

Therefore,
Percent
100 / 3 % = 33.33%

Percent / 100

Percentage

20

/ 100 = 20 / 60 , i.e.

Percent =

20 / 60 x 100 =

Solving percentages is as simple as filling up the blanks!

Try it out on your own
3) What is 55% of 120?
4) What is 85% of 200?
5) What Percent of 75 is 25?
-------------------------Now we can find percentage values of any numbers. It's easy right!
Let's add a hint of smart to the above process.
GMAT is an exam that lets you Cheat!

Yes. GMAT allows you to cheat answers. You do NOT have to solve the
question every time. You can Cheat from the 5 options given below the
question.
Let's take an example question and see how to cheat.
Q) What percent of 33 is 12?
1) 21.17%
2) 36.36%
3) 44.14%
4) 33.25%
5) 28.86%

The basic fraction we are given here is this

Now to find Percentage, we want be in a situation where the base (i.e. The
denominator) is 100. So, my problem is to multiply 33 with a number and
make it 100.
The closest I can think of is to multiply 33 by 3.
33 x 3 = 99 which is slightly less than 100
So, to make 33 into 100, I need to multiply 33 with a number Slightly More
than 3. I write it like this...

Notice the + sign on top of 3. It reminds me that 33 has to be multiplied

by a number Slightly More than 3 to get 100.
Now, if the base is getting multiplied by a number slightly more than 3, we
must multiply the top by the same number as well.

So, the answer is a number slightly more than 36 which is Option (2)
Another way to find percentages Break them into 10%:
The easiest percentage value that we can calculate is the 10% value. 10%
means 10/100 and, therefore, the 10% of any number is the number
divided by 10.
So, 10% of 112.5 is

112.5 / 10 = 11.25

Basically, just shifting the decimal point one place to the left.
Now, to calculate 20% of 112.5, all we have to do is break 20% into 10%
values.
I can write 20% as 10% + 10%. Therefore, 20% of 112.5 = 11.25 + 11.25
= 22.50
Similarly, I can write 15% as 10% + (10%)/2. Therefore, 15% of 112.5 =
11.25 + (11.25)/2 = 3/2 (11.25)
The advantage of using this approach is that we are more comfortable
with additions than with multiplications and divisions. Most of us can
easily add mentally.
The other advantage of this approach is that it helps us to determine the
range of the answer. So, if I am trying to find 22.5% of a number, I know
the answer would lie between (10% + 10%) of the number and (10% +
10% + 10%) of the number.
Notes for Rajat:
This concept of percentages would be further expanded to include concepts
using more real-life situations like percentage fat in milk (for the concept of
percentage of percentages) and discount coupons (for the concept of
successive percentage changes). There is also a percentage-decimal-fraction
convertibility table that has to be presented for standard values.
This content can be made more interactive by adding pictures/graphs and voiceovers. The broad idea, however, is to make the reader internalize the concept
and the logic. The focus is on enabling the reader to become self-dependent and
reach a stage of epiphany, rather than spoon-feeding formulae and logic.