Welcome to Day-3 of the Quantitative Aptitude, Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation Prep Plan.

Focus Topic: A useful Trick/Shortcut for Percentage Questions

Today, we are going to learn one tip that is going to simplify life you and make sure you are able to use a shortcut that is going to drastically cut down the amount of time you spend on percentage problems.

One simple question for you:  “What is the value of 71.4% of 119?”

Now what comes to your mind? Is this complex figure ‘71.4%’ blocking your mind?

But surprisingly, this is not a difficult figure if you know the fraction and percentage conversion table. While solving the questions on percentages, we deal with the complex fractions which can be converted into the simple fractions and then directly into the percentages. You do not require to go into the lengthy calculations.

CAT percentages to fractions table

Refer to the chart given above. If you check the table closely, you can see that 71.4% is nothing else but 5/7.
Therefore, our calculation simply reduces to the following:
71.4% of 119 = (5/7) x 119 = 85

Well, it is easier said than done, right? There is some hard work involved in this trick. You need to go through the above table and make sure you remember it. This will require you to put in some extra work but do remember that effort is going to be totally worth it. After all, this is going to improve your speed of calculations and make sure you are ready to handle complex calculations in the exam.

In today’s preparation plan, we focus on two key things. One, we have a comprehensive article and exercise for Percentages, Fractions and Ratios. Make sure you go through this resource and are fully prepared for this topic. Along with this, we have an article and an exercise that highlights the various types of problems that are based on the concepts of percentages. These question types are vital in terms of helping you understand the variety of questions types that are asked in various exams. Make sure you go through these and understand the different question types you can are going to encounter in competitive exams.

Percentage: Concepts and Exercises
Percentages, Fractions and Ratios
Percentages: Types of Problems/Questions-1
Percentages: Practice Exercise-1
Percentages: Practice Exercise-2
Percentage: Topic Tests
Arithmetic: Percentage Test -5
Arithmetic: Percentage Test -6

Additional Mathematics Resources:
Arithmetic Level-wise Test: Level-1 Test-3
Basic Maths:Test-3

Data Interpretation:DI Level-1: Set 3
Logical Reasoning:LR Level-1: Set 3
Puzzle: Puzzle-3

CAT Question a day

Quantitative Aptitude Question of the day

Question: A shopkeeper charges 8% sales tax on each item he sells. On one day, he had Rs.11160 in the cash register. At the end of the day he had Rs. 29790 in the register. How much money he collected as the sales tax?

1. Rs. 1380
2. Rs. 1490
3. Rs. 1468
4. Rs. 1345.5

Answer and Explanation

Answer: 1


The total cash collected = 29790 – 11160 = Rs 18630

The sales tax is 8%. It means that a Rs 100 item will become Rs 108

So, if the cash value is Rs 108, the sales tax collected = Rs 8

If the cash value is Rs 18630, the sales tax collected = [(8/108) x18630] = Rs. 1380