Percentage Points vs Percent: What Is the Difference?
A rate rising from 4% to 5% is a one percentage point rise but a 25% increase. Here is how to tell the two apart, with examples from…
Guides
Plain-English guides to percentages, grades, interest and everyday maths, each with worked examples and a calculator to check your own numbers.
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How to Calculate Percentages in Excel and Google Sheets
The formulas for percent of a total, percentage change, adding or removing a percentage, and percentage of a column total in Excel and Google Sheets, with the formatting…
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How to Work Out Percentages in Your Head: 8 Shortcuts
Mental maths tricks for 10%, 5%, 1%, 15%, 20% and 25%, the swap trick that turns 8% of 50 into 50% of 8, and how to sanity-check any…
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How to Calculate SGPA and CGPA from Credits and Grade Points
SGPA and CGPA are credit-weighted averages. A step-by-step method with a worked semester, the mistakes that give the wrong CGPA, and how it relates to converting CGPA to…
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Why a 50% Loss Needs a 100% Gain: Percentage Changes Do Not Cancel Out
A 20% rise followed by a 20% fall leaves you 4% down. Why percentage changes compound instead of adding, how to combine several changes correctly, and where this…
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Simple vs Compound Interest: Formulas and Worked Examples
How simple and compound interest are calculated, how compounding frequency changes the result, what APR and effective annual rate mean, and how loan interest fits in.