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?

That isn't how I read pp's suggestion (as being limited to an increase).

Ah fair enough- it’s probably me misreading it and if that’s the case then she’s very obviously right.

@Samscaff - do you really teach maths using examples of buying and selling children - instead of say apples or pizzas. That's super dark.

We are swimming against the current here. I swear to you that this thread would be done and dusted by the first 20 responses if it were posted in Singapore. We have loads of maths controversies posted yearly after the PSLE , a primary school national exam which has rather fiendish msths questions. This question is too standard/simple to run to 600 posts!

Percentage increase is the actual increase as a fraction of the original amount, multiplied by 100 (to make it a percentage).

So (450-200)/200 =1.25, 1.25 x 100 =125

This makes it a valid comparator based on different start numbers.

😂

no

Is this a my truth your truth mindset? 😆

Yes. Children like super dark things. They compete to invent new price rules for their classmates.

Nope. The answer would be 350% if it was from the start.

They actually get some really solid results at Trump-Epstein U.

I think this needs to be known. If you email them can you update op

They ask for an increase from end of first year. I think it is 125% too.

End of first year was 200, end of third year was 450. The increase was 250, but as a % of of 200, this is 125.

I am so relieved to learn that primary school kids are actually learning this. Might come in useful in a slave trading career.

I'm hoping your average 10 year old doesn't know why people buy children.

I am standing with 450% at this point. Final answer 😂

Good lord.

Absolutely!

It is quite shocking to be honest. How do people make sense of the world as percentage change is used to explain many financial and non-financial changes around us?

It doesn't help that the media gets maths/percentages/percentage points wrong a lot of the time too.

Another similar issue that people get confused about is reverse percentages, and percentage points. There was a lot in the media a while back when VAT was raised from 17.5% to 20%, and media sources saying that the prices you pay would rise by 2.5%, and then actually giving examples of this based on finding 2.5% of the price on the tag and showing illustrations of what the new price would be! (E.g., something priced on the price tag currently at £94, wouldn't go to £96.35 [94x1.025], but rather just to £96 [1.2 x 94/1.175]). Not wrong by a lot of money in the sorts of low-value examples they were showing, but wrong in the principle of it. (And wrong by large amounts of money if you looked at something very high-value!). There were lots of people trying to explain why it was wrong, but it continued to be shown like that.

You are taking a test to work for the Civil Service.

Understand what that really means.
The type of person that works for the Civil Service

The correct answer is in this case is 225%

Anything else makes you incorrect and unsuitable for the Civil Service.

Wrong. You have missed a step. To get the percentage INCREASE, that is to say the amount of extra newspapers you are selling, you must subtract the original number from the final number.
225-100=125
You then express that as a percentage of the original,
125/100 X 100 =125%

(450/200)*100=225
450 end value
200 initial value

You have left out the “increase” bit - the difference between the original and the end amount.

They don’t understand what they’re being told. Mind you, "official" figures are often carefully phrased to put the best spin on them.

Many years ago I spent a long time trying to explain to a member of a sales team that if the price of the product increased from £2 to £3 that was a 50% rise and not, as she maintained, a 33.3% rise. She finally reluctantly accepted that I was right, but then couldn't see why, if we reduced the price back to £2, that wasn’t then simply a 50% decrease…

It's 225. 200 x 2.25= 450

It is, of course, highly likely that this test was procured from the private sector.