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?

Hahahaha

Which would be marked as wrong if the examiner knew what they were about.

That’s what it does not say. It asks for the % increase 🤦🏼‍♀️

I tried that but that answer (350%) wasn’t available anyway.

Thank you thank you thank you 🙏 I am not alone and a maths graduate who also agrees it is 450% is a glimmer of hope that I am not a total maths loser.

Everyone is calling me stupid because I want to go away from the wording interpretation and pick the answer that fits the maths from the drop-down.

Maths grad? Really?

Skipping posts is fine, but I do suggest you refer to the OP and the actual question, maths graduate or not 😂

Plus the 100% you also have giving 225 as percentage of what you had.

Isn’t that the percentage increase from start y1 not end y1?

😳 oops my maths is fine but I had better put on my reading glasses. Ouch! Now I can see 225% ha ha .

this is why I am not in the civil service 😂

No it isn’t. From the end of year 1 takes into account year 1’s increase. From the start of year 2 ignores year 1’s increase.

You need to re-read the question. 225% is an answer, just not to the question asked. The question doesn’t ask for an answer as a percentage of the starting lint. It asks for the percentage increase. Which is 125% :)

On the off chance you are not trolling, I posted this diagrammatic solution. I hope it helps.

Oh god I could weep 😂

I am skeptical thar poster is a maths graduate l.

If Year 3 is 450
And the year before that (Year 2) was 600
Then the year before that (Year 1) was 200

The poster is not successfully countering to 3.

And, to find the increase between 2 figures, you subtract one from the other.

450-200 = a 250 increase

Which, as a % of year 1, is 125%.

It’s 125%

Yeah - starting to assume the recent ‘math graduates’ who’ve joined are trolling- if not, and they’re of an age to have paid fees, I think they should be requesting a refund!

No, the PERCENTAGE increase is 125%.

You are just multiplying and not finding the percentage increase.

Yes, maths. Not English!

Totally! It's staggering! I'm feeling second-hand embarrassment for them. But yeah, I think you're right - must be some trolling going on.

I hope so as I only have a B in O level maths so I can't see how they could get basic percentages wrong.

As a CS, I am looking forward to seeing if anyone shares this thread on our Slack channels on Monday.

No. Both of you have ignored the fact that they are asking for the increase from end of Year 1, so the doubling from the beginning to the end of Y1 is irrelevant. The increase, using your figures, is from £200 to £450. That’s an increase of £250, which is a 125% increase from our starting figure of £200.

I assume you agree that if the sales had doubled in that time, that would have been an increase of 100%. In fact it was a bit better than doubling - not just the same again (doubling) but an increase of one-and-a-quarter times the starting figure, i.e. 125%.

@Samscaff 125% is not an answer on the drop-down. If you had to pick one answer from the drop down what would it be?

If you all forget about the obsession with taking the end of year 1 as the base figure and use the actual base figure the only answer in the drop down that fits the maths is 450%.

This is logical to me and a maths graduate agrees.

Why would poster lie? Nothing to gain, so almost certainly IS Math graduate. Maths is different from the basic arithmetic covered by the question. Quite possible to be a Whizz Kid at Calculus etc and still be caught out arithmetically. Besides, the disagreement on this thread seems to be about interpretation of question rather than numeracy.