Percentage and profit and loss topics explain

Rishab Soni

Hello. You'll be glad to know that percentage and profit and loss questions are a common occurrence in UGC NET exam and compared to other competitive exams, NET has fairly simple and easy problems from this section. The sections you're most likely to see percentage problems are : Paper 1 :a) Mathematical Aptitude (1 or 2 questions based on percentage and profit and loss) b) Data Interpretation : In this section there will be at least 1 to a possible maximum of 5 questions based on percentage and profit and loss and/or a combination of both. Paper 2 : Here for example in your life sciences paper there could be a simple numerical asking you to calculate the percentage of composition of a substance in blood or other fluids. Percentage : I'm sure you're well aware of the concept of percentage that is number of required values per 100 units. Here are some formulas of percentage that could help you with commonly appearing questions. 1)To calculate a% of b = b X a/100 Ex : 10% of 50 = 50 X 10/100 = 5 2) To calculate what percent is x of y = x/y X 100 Ex : 300 is what % of 600 = 300/600 X 100 = 50% 3) Percentage Increase/Decrease (The most commonly appearing) difference/Initial value X 100 Ex : Price of product increased from 50 to 55. what was the % increase? Difference = 55 - 50 = 5 Initial Value = 50 => 5/50 X 100 = 10% Note : The same formula works for both increase and decrease, you just have to be careful about the initial value. 4) Percentage Increase / Decrease Initial Value + or - (Initial value x percent increase or decrease /100) note : + in case of increase, - in case of decrease Ex : price of a product increased 10% from 40 40 + (40x10/100) = 44 in case of decrease 40 - (40X10/100) = 36 8) if the value of an item goes up/down by a% , the percentage reduction/increment required so that your expenditure remains the same = 100a/100+a % Ex : Price of petrol increased by 50% , what reduction is required in consumption so that expenditure remains same 100 X 50 / 100+50 = 33.33% (same could be used to increase/reduce budget) These were important percentages. Now profit and loss are often combined with percentage so I'm going to explain the basic things you need to know for profit and loss problems. In profit and loss the most important data is the Cost Price (CP) , followed by Selling Price, And the difference of them which results in a profit and loss and I'm sure you're well aware of the basic concepts. so I'll conver the more useful ones 1) % profit or % loss = profit or loss /Cost X 100 Ex : Item purchased at 50 and sold at 60 (profit 10) , % = 10/50 X 100 = 20% (gain) 2) Sale price calculation if cost and profit % is given : Cost + (Cost X profit /100) Ex : Calculate sale price of Cost is 200 and profit margin is 20% = 200 + (200 X 20/100) = 240 3) Calculate cost price if sales price and profit or loss % is given : 100/100+pofit% X sales price or 100/100-loss% X Sales price (in case of loss) Ex : An item is sold at 550 to gain 10% profit. Cost = 100/100+10 X 550 = 500 or An item is sold ar 450 to loss 10% Cost = 100/100-10 X 450 = 500 I hope I have covered most commonly appearing questions from these in UGC NET. With sufficient practice you'll be aware how and when to use these formulas and get accurate results. Best of luck.