Here’s and example of a SMART MATH problem for PERCENTAGES.
Problem
1 lb of sweets is marked at $100. Due to festival; a discount of 10% is given. Even after this discount, the shopkeeper earns 35% profit. What loss or gain would the shopkeeper make, if the sweets are sold for $30 less than the marked price?
- 5% loss
- 8% loss
- 5% gain
- 8% gain
- 3.33% gain
The Usual Method
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The marked price of sweets = $100
Selling price = $90 ( 10% discount was given)
Let the cost price be $‘x’.
Hence selling price with 35% profit = 1.35x = $90
Hence cost price =
Now, if the sweets are sold at $30 less than the marked price i.e. at $70, the profit or loss =
Hence profit% = 5%
(Ans: 3)
Estimated Time to arrive at the answer = 60 seconds.
Using Technique
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Since the marked price is $100 discount of $30 is equivalent to discount of 30%. In the earlier discount of 10%, the profit was 35%, Hence, in the new discount of 30%, there will be some profit. However, this profit will be very little. Hence choose the least profit from the options.
(Note: This method may not work always. For e.g. if there is an option of 2% gain and if you mark that using this logic, you will get a wrong answer. However, this method does help to reduce the number of choices.)
(Ans: 3)
Estimated Time to arrive at the answer =10 seconds.
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