![\"Manhattan](\"http:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2017\/04\/4-12-17-social-1.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free? We\u2019re not kidding! <\/i><\/b>Check out our upcoming courses here<\/i><\/b><\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n <\/i><\/b>One of the most common mistakes many students make on the Quant section of the GRE is to misread percent questions, especially ones that ask you to calculate percent change (i.e. increase, decrease, more, less, greater, discount, or profit). You can fix this issue with a bit of practice, but it requires some careful reading on your part. <\/span><\/p>\n Even with easy numbers, GRE percent change questions can get pretty tricky. Given two numbers, 6 and 8, you might be faced with many questions, all related, but with very different answers. <\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>6 is what fraction of 8? To get a clear mental picture of these questions, picture two stacks of bricks, one with 6 bricks and one with 8 bricks. <\/span><\/p>\n How are they related to each other? Which one is shorter? Taller? What\u2019s the difference between them? With a quick glance at your mental image, you can see that the 8 is bigger and there\u2019s a difference of 2 bricks. That\u2019s no problem.<\/span><\/p>\n When faced with \u201cfraction of\u201d or \u201cpercent of\u201d questions, whatever method you\u2019re comfortable with will probably work here. You might have learned \u201cis\/of\u201d or \u201cpart\/whole,\u201d and as long as you keep track of which one is bigger, you should be okay.<\/p>\n – <\/span>6 is what fraction of 8?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n 6\/8 = \u00be<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>8 is what fraction of 6?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n 8\/6 = 4\/3 or 1 \u2153<\/p>\n For \u201cpercent of\u201d questions, my preferred method is \u201ctranslation,\u201d in which you turn English words into math symbols:<\/p>\n Is: = – <\/span>6 is what percent of 8?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Translate: 6 = x\/100 * 8 and solve: x = 75 – <\/span>8 is what percent of 6?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Translate: 8 = x\/100 * 6 and solve: x = 133 \u2153% NOW, SLOW DOWN! Here\u2019s where the GRE can get tricky! Pay attention to what the question is asking. If the GRE asks you to calculate the \u201cpercent change,\u201d you have to alter your approach.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>8 is what percent more than 6?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Think about the difference between the two. Which one is more? 8 is 2 more than 6, or:<\/span><\/p>\n 6 + 2 = 8<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n The GRE is asking you about that <\/span>difference<\/span><\/i>! SO if the question asks \u201cpercent more than 6,\u201d the question is asking, \u201cWhat part of 6 is the difference (2)?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Confused? Don\u2019t be. Just repeat the following mantra: \u201cPut the change over the original\u201d or:<\/span><\/p>\n So in this case, to get from 6 to 8: the change (difference) is 2 and the original is 6. (When you increase, the original was smaller). So:<\/span><\/p>\n 2\/6 = 1\/3 or 33 \u2153%<\/span><\/p>\n If you\u2019re having trouble figuring out which one is the \u201coriginal,\u201d you can make yourself a flashcard.<\/span><\/p>\n Percent increase = change\/smaller – <\/span>6 is what percent less than 8?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Once again, the difference is 2, but the original is now the <\/span>bigger<\/span><\/i> of the two numbers. So:<\/span><\/p>\n Change\/Original = 2\/8 or \u00bc or .25 or 25%<\/span><\/p>\n One more flashcard: <\/span><\/p>\n Percent less = change\/bigger For questions that ask you to calculate GRE percent change, all you really need to do is memorize \u201cchange over original\u201d and think twice about which one is the original. Note: \u201cpercent more\u201d and \u201cpercent less\u201d are two different questions with two different answers!<\/span><\/p>\n % Change = change\/original Try this one on your own!<\/span><\/p>\n A clothing store purchased a dress wholesale for $80 and sold it for $200. What was the store\u2019s percent profit on the wholesale price of the dress? (A) 40% Faced with a \u201cpercent change\u201d question, remember your mantra, \u201cChange over original\u201d and get to work.<\/p>\n The change from 80 to 200 is 120. The original price was 80. <\/span><\/p>\n In your calculator, put 120\/80 and you\u2019ll get 1.5 or 150%. So the answer is D!<\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s certainly more to percents than this, but learning how to handle \u201cpercent change\u201d questions can help you throughout the test, especially on those tricky \u201cData Interpretation\u201d questions (the charts and graphs). For more on percents, check out our <\/span>\u201cFractions, Decimals, and Percents\u201d<\/span><\/a> GRE Strategy Guide or <\/span>sign up for one of our classes<\/span><\/a>! ?<\/span><\/p>\n Want more guidance from our GRE gurus? You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free! We\u2019re not kidding. <\/i><\/b>Check out our upcoming courses here<\/i><\/b><\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free? We\u2019re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here. One of the most common mistakes many students make on the Quant section of the GRE is to misread percent questions, especially ones that ask […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,474284,921840,421,6,7,9,733445],"tags":[1362393,1362394],"yst_prominent_words":[1362712,1363677,1363680,1362713,1362708,1362716,1363679,1363678,1362627,1362710,1362711,1362706,1363675,1362715,1362709,1362705,1363681,1363676,1362751,1363674],"class_list":["post-10229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-challenge-problems","category-current-studiers","category-gre-prep-2","category-gre-quant-2","category-gre-strategies","category-how-to-study","category-math-gre-strategies","category-study-tips-2","tag-gre-percent-change","tag-percent-change-questions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10229"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10252,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10229\/revisions\/10252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10229"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=10229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
\n<\/span><\/i>– <\/span>8 is what fraction of 6?
\n<\/span><\/i>– <\/span>6 is what percent of 8?
\n<\/span><\/i>– <\/span>8 is what percent of 6?
\n<\/span><\/i>– <\/span>8 is what percent more than 6?
\n<\/span><\/i>– <\/span>6 is what percent less than 8?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\nFraction Of<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Percent Of<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n<\/span>Of: * (multiply)
\n<\/span>What: x, z, q (any variable)
\n<\/span>Percent: \/100 <\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/span>Or, just do 6\/8 = .75 or 75%<\/span><\/p>\n
\nOr, use is\/of = 8\/6 = 1.3333 (repeating) so 133 \u2153%<\/span><\/p>\nPercent Change<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"Manhattan](\"http:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2017\/04\/nt-11.png\")
<\/p>\n
\n<\/span>(Or percent more, greater, profit)<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/span>(Or percent decrease, loss, discount, etc.)<\/span><\/p>\nSumming Up<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n<\/span>% Increase = change\/smaller (original is smaller)
\n<\/span>% Decrease = change\/bigger (original is bigger)<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/span><\/i>(Or: by what percent did the store increase the price of the dress?)<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/span>(B) 66 \u2154%
\n<\/span>(C) 60%
\n<\/span>(D) 150%
\n<\/span>(E) 250%<\/span><\/p>\n
\n
\n![\"Neil](\"https:\/\/d27gmszdzgfpo3.cloudfront.net\/gre\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2016\/06\/neil-thornton-150x150.png\")
<\/a><\/i><\/b>When not onstage telling jokes, Neil Thornton<\/a> loves teaching you to beat the GRE and GMAT.<\/strong> Since 1991, he\u2019s coached thousands of students through the GRE, GMAT, LSAT, MCAT, and SAT, and trained instructors all over the United States. He scored 780 on the GMAT, a perfect 170Q\/170V on the GRE, and a 99th-percentile score on the LSAT. Check out Neil\u2019s upcoming GRE course offerings here<\/a>\u00a0or join him for a free online study session twice monthly in\u00a0Mondays with Neil<\/a>.<\/em><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"