Dear Candidate:
FOR WRITTEN EXAM SBI JUNIOR ASSOCIATES (CLERK)/SBI PO.
MANTRA FOR SUCCESS:
“Why do I need to know about maths at all?”
It’s a question that almost every parent has faced at some point, and one that many people have asked themselves too, “Why do I need to know about maths?”
Basic numeracy, or some knowledge of and skill in maths, is a vital part of everyday life.
This post gives some examples of where basic numeracy is a real help and can save hours of time, as well as money.
Sales Taxes
In many places, sales taxes are added to the basic purchase prices of both goods and services.
For example, in the INDIA, value-added tax (VAT) is added to various items. Prices may be shown with or without taxes included, either to make the price look lower, or because some buyers may be able to claim back the tax, and therefore need to know the tax-free cost.
If you want to work out what you will have to pay, you may therefore need to work out sales tax quickly, and you may not have a calculator to hand. The tax is usually a percentage so, for more about calculating percentages, see our page on Percentages.
Your first step is to do your homework in advance, and find out what the rate of sales tax on your planned purchase is in your location. For example, in the INDIA VAT on most goods is 20%, but only 5% on certain other items.
The situation may be more complicated in the US and varies from state to state, but the information is readily available online.
There is a fairly simple trick that you can use for the calculation, which is to adopt 10% as a standard.
Why? Because 10% of something is simply the number divided by 10 and dividing by 10 is easy because you just move the decimal point one place to the left.
For VAT in the india, then, 10% is half of 20%, and twice 5%. So that’s easy to work out in your head. Here is an example:
What is the full price of something marked “Rs2.56 excl VAT”? Where VAT is 20%.
You can easily work out 10% of Rs2.56 as Rs0.256, so 20% is twice that, which is Rs0.512.
Rs2.56 + Rs0.512 = Rs3.072 = Rs3.07.
Warning!
Never round until the very end, to avoid any rounding errors.
You can use the ‘10% rule’ even for quite complicated amounts like 17.5% (the old standard rate of VAT in the INDIA). 17.5% is 10% + 5% + 2.5%. 10% is easy to work out, as before. 5% is half of it, and 2.5% is half that.
All you have to do is add 10%, half of that and then half again of that, and you will have the tax. But what about if your tax is a funny number, such as 11%? 10% + 1% (and 1% is just moving the decimal point again)—or you could just decide that ‘around 10%’ is near enough for your purposes.
Adding percentages quickly is also useful when leaving a tip for service, in a restaurant for example. If your bill was Rs54.40 and you wanted to leave a 15% tip then you can use the same process as described above. 10% of 54.40 is Rs5.44 and 5% is therefore half of Rs5.44, Rs2.72. The total tip is therefore 5.44 + 2.72 = Rs8.16. In reality you may decide to round this down to Rs8 or up to Rs10.
The other trick which is helpful is to round up the price to the nearest whole rupee. For example, if you round up Rs4.99 to Rs5, it’s much easier to work out any percentage.
Comparing Prices
Supermarkets are expected to provide information that will allow you to compare prices quickly and easily. However, you will probably have noticed that although the information is there, it’s still not that easy to compare prices.
Here are some of the different ways that supermarkets provide information that can make it harder:
- Displaying information for two adjacent products in a different form, for example, one giving price per 100g and the other price per kg, or price per unit compared to price per weight.
- Not displaying price per 100g under any offers, for example, 3 for 2, or ‘buy one get one free’.
- Selling in certain units, but offering price comparisons in a different size, for example, yoghurts are often sold in 125g pots, but the price comparison will be per 100g. Cheese is often sold in 300g packets, but prices are per kg.
- Providing offers with ‘funny numbers’ that make it harder to divide and see what you’re getting for your money. Examples of this include ‘3 for Rs20’.
- Selling similar products in packs of different numbers of items or in different sizes, so that you can’t just compare the prices of the two packets. For example, supermarket own-brand cereal may come in a smaller box than a named brand, making a difference of a few pence in the price look much bigger.
It’s fair to say that most people won’t be whipping out their calculator, or even their phones, to compare prices. After all, an offer’s always better value, isn’t it? But what about when you have two competing offers?
Using techniques like reducing fractions and estimating will help:
Reduce the price down to a ‘base unit’, either one of an item, or 100g.
Example:
125g is 5/4 of 100g. To put that another way, 100g is 4/5 of 125g.
To work out the relative costs of 100g, you can divide the cost of 125g by 5 and take that off the price. If something else is given as price per kg, just divide by 10 to get the price for 100g.
'Near enough' is usually good enough in price comparison terms, and likely a lot quicker than strict accuracy.
Example
You can see two offers: ‘5 for Rs20’ and ‘Two packs of six for Rs50’.
You want to know which is better value.
- First, work out what one unit will cost in each case.
- 5 units cost Rs20. In the ‘5 for Rs20’ offer, one unit therefore costs 20 ÷ 5 = Rs4
- Two packs of six means 12 units. 12 units cost Rs50. You would therefore need to divide Rs50 by 12. However, you don’t have to do that, because ‘near enough is good enough’.
- Half of 12 is 6. Half of Rs50 is Rs25. Six units therefore cost Rs25.
- You can now compare this with five units for Rs20. You know the cost of the sixth unit, because that is the difference between the cost of six (Rs25) and the cost of five (Rs20), or Rs5.
- You have already worked out that the first offer’s unit cost is Rs4, so you know that the first offer (5 for Rs20) is better value.
Of course if you need 12 then it may be better to buy the two six packs.
Conclusion
These are only a few examples of the times when a basic understanding of maths can help you avoid being caught out. There are many more.
Whether you want to compare prices in a supermarket, work out what you’re going to have to pay for a product or service, or just avoid being fooled by a pretty graph, a basic understanding of maths is vital.
(Ref: http://www.skillsyouneed.com/)
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KNOW ABOUT MR ANIL AGGARWAL ( P.O. 1982 BATCH):
KNOW ABOUT MR ANIL AGGARWAL ( P.O. 1982 BATCH):
UNDER ABLE GUIDANCE OF MR ANIL AGGARWAL(09811340788), HUNDREDS OF CANDIDATES ARE
ABLE TO GET BANK JOB IN LAST 4 YEARS.
HE IS GUIDING CANDIDATES/ASPIRANTS SINCE DEC 2012. A WELL KNOWN NAME
AMONG ASPIRANTS.
PRESENT:
GUEST FACILITY MEMBER TO VARIOUS BANK TRAINING COLLEGES AND MANAGEMENT INSTITUTES.
PROVING GUIDANCE FOR BANK INTERVIEWS (SBI/SBI GROUP/IBPS/RRB/PVT SECTOR BANKS/FOR P.O./CLERK/ASSISTANT/TECHNICAL OFFICER/ I.T/HRD OFFICER )
PAST:
HE JOINED PUNJAB NATIONAL BANK AS MANAGEMENT TRAINEE ( P.O.) IN 1982.HEWAS ALSO SELECTED AS P.O. IN STATE BANK OF INDIA,BANK OF BARODA AND UNITED BANK OF INDIA IN 1983, BUT CONTINUED WITH PNB.
HE REACHED THE POSITION OF CHIEF MANAGER IN 2005. HE GOT ALL PROMOTIONS UP TO THIS RANK IN ONE GO.
HE SCORED HIGHEST MARKS IN WRITTEN EXAM OF PROMOTION FROM OFFICER CADRE TO MANGER CADRE IN 1991. HIS SCORE REMAINED UNBROKEN RECORD FOR MANY YEARS
HE RESIGNED FROM THE BANK IN 2012 AFTER SERVING 30 YEARS IN VARIOUS CAPACITIES IN PUNJAB NATIONAL BANK.
HE HAS RICH BANKING EXPERIENCE.
HE WAS MEMBER OF VARIOUS INTERVIEW BOARDS MEANT FOR INTERNAL PROMOTIONS.
HE WAS ONE OF THE MOST RENOWNED FACULTY MEMBER OF PUNJAB NATIONAL BANK DURING 1986 TO 1991.
FOR, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF BANKERS, DELHI CHAPTER, HE CONDUCTED CLASSES OF BANKING LAW AND PRACTICE PART TWO OF CAIIB DURING 1988 to 1997.
HE WAS AWARDED BY VARIOUS INSTITUTIONS WE LIST A FEW:
*BEST FACULTY MEMBER AWARD BY BANKER'S TRAINING COLLEGE , RBI- 1986
*BEST FACULTY MEMBER AWARD BY BANKER'S TRAINING COLLEGE , RBI- 1986
*BEST BRANCH MANAGER AWARD BY PUNJAB NATIONAL BANK -1991
*BEST BRANCH MANAGER AWARD BY PUNJAB NATIONAL BANK - 2007
*BEST CHIEF MANAGER MARKETING IN PUNJAB NATIONAL BANK -2007 ,2008,2009 AND 2010.
ACADEMIC & PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATION
M.Sc Physics
CAIIB FROM INDIAN INSTITUTE OF BANKERS
POST DIPLOMA IN BUSINESS MANAGEMENT FROM THE INSTITUTE OF CHARTERED FINANCIAL ANALYSTS OF INDIA
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