Percentage, Profit and Loss Tricks & Study Notes: 11th March 2019

Percentage, Profit and Loss is a very important part of quantitative aptitude and usually asked in all banking exams. In banking exams, it covers 2 to 3 questions which may play very important roll in selection.

So, students should aware with all type of Percentage, Profit and Loss asked in exams and should practice more and more on the Percentage, Profit and Loss. Here, we are providing some important notes and tricks for Percentage, Profit and Loss which will be helpful in your preparation.

A percentage is a number or ratio that represents a fraction of 100 i.e.  1/100. For faster and easy calculation one should use fractional equivalent of percentage. For example, it’s always easier to use 2/3 in place of 66(2/3)%.

It becomes easy to understand a question when one talks in terms of percentage, but while calculating, it is always the fractional equivalent that comes handy.

While solving the question one must try to do away with unnecessary calculation. This happens in many of the questions related to profit and loss. Many a times one starts calculating the absolute values of CP, SP etc. even when it’s not required.

Let’s take a couple of sample questions

‘The CP of an item is Rs. 270. After giving a discount of Rs. 27 a shopkeeper earns a profit of 20%. What will be the profit percentage if he does not give the discount?’

Here, instead of finding out SP or MP, one should look at it the other way round. If discount of Rs. 27 is not given, then Rs. 27 will become further profit for the shopkeeper.

27 is 10% percent of 270. Profit of 20% is already there, so new profit% would become 20%+10%=30%.

‘A man while buying cloth from a wholesaler uses a scale that measures 10% more than the actual length and while selling the same cloth he uses a scale that measures 10% less than the actual length. Find his overall profit or loss in this transaction.’

Here, one just needs to deal with the percentage the shopkeeper gains. While buying he gets 110 metre cloth on the cost of 100 metre coth and while selling he gains the cost of 100metre just by selling 90 metre cloth.