Percent

The quantitative reasoning section is one of the important segments in the GRE exam. The percentage is a topic that is significant in this section. This article will explain further regarding this topic.

In terms of mathematics, a percentage is defined as a ratio, which has been expressed as a fraction of 100. The sign commonly used for expressing percentage is %, known as percentage sign. The percentage is also expressed using the abbreviation pct. or pc. The percentage is a dimensionless pure number.

Basically, a fraction out of 100 is known as a percentage. Percentage got its name from the Latin word per centum, where centum means 100 meaning per 100. Changing a percentage to decimal is a really easy and straightforward method. But people who have lost practice may be prone to making errors especially if the percentage comes with decimals or if the percentage value is less than 10.

Example – 0.5% percentage means 0.005 or 0.5100, which is less than 1%.

For converting a fraction to a percentage, place the numbers to be converted over 100. To reverse the process, that is, to convert percents to fractions, remove the sign of percent and then place a decimal point two places to the left.

Percent Conversions

48% = {48}/ {100} = 0.48

Convert 0.863 into percent

0.863 = 0.863 times 100% = 86.3%

Convert 3/5 into decimal

{3 times 20}/ {5 times 20} = {60}/ {100} = 60%

Since, you know that % means out of 100, so 300% means {300}/ {100} which is thrice of 100. In general, anything more than 100% of the number will be greater than the number.

Properties of Percents

A percentage is not cumulative in nature: for example, if you start with Rs.100 and then decrease it by 20%, again decrease it by 20%, the result you will get won’t be Rs 60. If you do the proper math, the result you will get is:

Step1. Rs. 100 – Rs 20 = Rs 80

Step2. 20% of Rs 80= Rs. 16

So the final result will be, Rs. 80 – Rs. 16 = Rs. 64.

Multiple percentages are not additive in nature: It is an important tip to remember and can come handy on the D-day. If a question asks for several percent changes in a row, then don’t add it as a simple multiplication, SOLVE IT.

Cheat Sheet for Percentage

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