Maths test - to think Civil Service have it wrong?

[Sharingaroomtinightthen]

I’ve just applied for a Civil Service test. Part of it is passing a numerical test.

This is the question.

The answer is 125%. I’m sure of it.

If you start with £100, and in the first year it doubles it’s £200. So at the of year one it’s £200.

In year two it trebles to £600.

It then falls by a quarter in the third year to £450.

So end of year 1 - £200.

End of year 3 - £450.

It’s increased by 125%.

125% isn’t an answer option.

WIBU to email and tell them they’ve got it wrong?

Which is how people get bamboozled by politicians.

The exact question was 'what was the percentage increase in circulation from the end of year 1 to the end of year 3'.
So if circulation at end of year 1 was 200 and the circulation at end of year 3 was 450 the percentage increase was 125%.

They don't ask what the percentage the circulation at the end of year 3 is to the circulation at the end of year 1 (225%).

I think you mean 166%

Thank you!!!

Did not think I would be learning about the differences between percentages and percentage increases tonight!

No idea about the answer, but I find these tests odd. I am a CS, and I just use one of those percentage increase etc online calculators when working out how much my team backlog has increased or decreased by! Even when I managed a large budget, excel was my friend. Guess they have to use some kind of test since they largely removed qualification’s from vast majority of entry level jobs, but most people get someone else to it for them. My son’s gf did one herself, she said she wanted to do it with integrity, but failed. DS has a 1st class maths degree. So little point really unless they are done under test conditions and no chance of that happening.

Thank you!!

Learnt something tonight.

The OPs mistake was to ask on here as numeracy is shocking considering that the demographic is supposedly better educated than the general population.

This would annoy me too. Its not a difficult question and the wording is clear, just that none of the options are correct. Yet its likely to be a machine marked test with no option to give feedback so hopefully if the OP doesn't answer what the test thinks is the right answer, it won't mean she doesn't achieve the pass mark.

But it should be obvious from the results that something's wrong with the question due to the spread of answers given.

This is very interesting psychology. The answer options are wrong. The question is crystal clear by mathematical standards. The working is standard primary school maths in many parts of the world. Yet because we have this deep need to make the wrong answer the right one and cannot countenance the experts making a mistake, we resort to mind reading and magical explanations for the wrong answer.

But the question is how much is your increase and this how much your 10£ increased to 22.50. The answer is 225%. You will look like an ass if you point it out because as you said, math is math and your math is wrong.

It is tricky language for many people, Horsie and learning is great. Good night.

It doesnt matter how many times you call OP an ass. This is maths and she is 100% correct. Are you a civil servant by the way?

I posed the question to ChatGPT and it had a bit of a melt down too!

Quite. Because ChatGPT gets it's information from the internet, from sites like this, where two thirds of people will argue that black is white and call anyone who disagrees an ass.

Cn people really not see the difference between percentage and percentage increase? It's clearly two different amounts.

100 newspapers are in circulation at the end of Year 1.

If sales were to increase by 1% over the next 12 months, how many newspapers would they have sold during Year 2?

What if it were a 101% increase?

Dare we try for a 125% increase?

Absolutely agree. I don’t know how/why op has persisted with the nonsense. Team 125% increase.

‘percentage of’ and ‘increase of’ are different things.

No, it can apply logic to solve problems - it's the absence of a correct answer in a multiple choice quiz that makes it go a bit loopy.

LMAO!

By your logic, if a shop applies a 10% increase to prices, an item that used to cost £100 now costs £10. Correct?

What was the percentage increase? 10%

10% of £100 is £10. QED.

From the first result of my search for ‘percentage increase’ (the exact wording from the OP):

"How to Calculate Percentage Increase

• Subtract final value minus starting value
• Divide that amount by the absolute value of the starting value
• Multiply by 100 to get percent increase
• If the percentage is negative, it means there was a decrease and not an increase.

Percentage Increase Formula
You can use the percentage increase formula for any percent increase calculation:
Percentage Increase=
((Final Value−Starting Value)/Starting Value)×100"

I will ask my father when I see him later today. He claims to be the GOAT of maths.

I, meanwhile, can't figure out whether the figure trebling refers to trebling from the original figure at the start of year 1, or the doubled figure at the end of year 1. 😕

Yes, or more simpy...

"Percentage increase" means the percentage by which a value has increased.

I don't recall hearing the term before, but would say its plain English.

Why is everyone piling on the civil service for this when the OP said it was from a recruiter?

Seems I was wrong and percentage increase does have a mathematical definition.
We do probably need a term for percentage change over the base number, or is there one? It could be 100% change is no change.

What does public sector productivity have to do with this? The vast majority of private sector employers don't carry out any testing of potential employees at all.

We have that term. It’s “percentage”.

However 100% change is 100% change. No change is 0% change.