Hi everyone, Are there any tips for calculating pourcentages??

Hi

I always use a very simple method.

Take 10% as your anchor, if needed 1% as second anchor

I give you a couple of examples

- 157/533  then you calculate the 10% of 533=53. Then from 53 to 157 you aprox multiply by 3 -> then 30%

- 12/327  then you calculate the 10% of 327=33. But 33 higher than 12, so I take the second anchor (1%) 1% is 3.3. Now to get from 3.3 to 12 I multiply by a bit less than 4. So the percentage should be around 3.5%

Practice and it becomes easy!!

Cheers

Carlos

Hi,

I have some students who struggle with this, usualy it is because they need help visualising the question. I like to bring money into examples (they become more real).

Think of $100 as 100% of your savings. Your friend is asking you for 50% or half = so 100/50=2, that means you need to divide $100/2 to get 50%. 

If your friend is less greedy and only wants 10%, same principle = 100/10=10; $100/10 =$10 dollars. I draw a little matrix when I do calcs with that same formula and try to visualise, what are they asking from me, what am I calculating etc. 

If you can visualise the problem, it becomes less complex.

Hope this helps.