Question

Max scored 8 marks more than what he did in the previous examination in which he scored 30. Maria scored 30 marks more than what she did in the previous examination in which she scored 60. Who showed less improvement?
A). Max
B). Maria
C). Both showed same improvement
D). Data insufficient

Answer 1

Hint: The problem given can be solved by finding the improvement percentage. The improvement percentage can be found by taking the ratio of difference between the marks to the base marks. The person with the least improvement percentage will be the correct answer. So let’s find out.

Complete step-by-step solution:
There are two persons given in the question Max and Maria.
Both have scored some marks in an exam that are compared with the marks they scored in the previous exam.
So we will find the percentage of improvement of both in the examination.
First we will find the score of Max,
Improvement percentage of Max = \[\dfrac{8}{{30}} \times 100 = \dfrac{{80}}{3} = 26.66\% \]
Now that of Maria is given by,
Improvement percentage of Maria = \[\dfrac{{30}}{{60}} \times 100 = \dfrac{1}{2} \times 100 = 50\% \]
Thus we can clearly see that Max showed 26.66% improvement and Maria showed 50% improvement.
Thus Max showed less improvement.
So option A is correct.

Note: Note that, we compared the marks with the marks of previous exams in which Maria scored 60 and Max scored 30, but if we take marks of Max also to 60 the percentage of Max improvement still remains the same. So no need to do that.
Also note that, we cannot directly jump on judgement just by looking at the marks who showed less improvement.
Also don’t subtract the marks obtained this time from the previous marks because they are already given “less than“ words with the marks.