22 questions on percentage change, reverse percentages, simple and compound interest, and depreciation.
💷 Percentages and compound interest
Percentages appear on all three papers and in more contexts than any other single topic — prices, wages, interest, VAT, population, depreciation. This sheet covers the whole of it in order. It begins with percentage of an amount and percentage change, including finding the percentage rather than applying it; moves to multipliers, which make everything after this easier; then to reverse percentages, where you are given the value after the change and asked for the original, and where subtracting instead of dividing is the commonest error in the topic; then to simple interest, compound interest and depreciation, where the multiplier is raised to a power rather than multiplied by the number of years. The last few questions mix the types without labelling them, because on the paper they are not labelled either.
- 1.A car is bought for £9000. Its value decreases by 8% each year. Work out its value after 2 years.
- 2.Write 3/4 as a percentage.
- 3.A company had 8000 employees. The number of employees decreased by 5% in the first year, and then increased by 5% in the second year. Work out the number of employees at the end of the second year, to the nearest whole number.
- 4.Work out 8% of £250.
- 5.£5000 is invested in an account paying 4% compound interest each year. Work out the total interest earned after 3 years.
- 6.A company's profit this year is 130% of last year's profit. Last year's profit was £40,000. Work out this year's profit.
- 7.£3000 is invested in a savings account that pays 4% compound interest each year. Work out the value of the investment after 2 years.
- 8.A sponsored walk is 36 km long. Aisha has completed 8/12 of the walk. Work out how far she has walked.
- 9.The price of a games console is reduced by 10%. In a later sale the reduced price is reduced by 10% again. Work out the overall percentage decrease.
- 10.In a class, 1/3 of the pupils are girls. There are 12 girls in the class. Work out how many pupils are in the class.
- 11.Work out 50% of 60.
- 12.A sofa costs £800. Its price is increased by 25%. Work out the new price of the sofa.
- 13.Work out 2/5 of 45.
- 14.A jumper is reduced by 15% in a sale to a price of £42.50. Work out the original price.
- 15.A savings account pays 3.5% compound interest each year. Bilal invests £1200. Work out how much interest, in total, he earns after 2 years, to the nearest penny.
- 16.Aisha invests £3200 in Account A, which pays 5% compound interest each year. She also invests £3200 in Account B, which pays 3% simple interest each year. Work out how much more Account A is worth than Account B after 2 years.
- 17.Maya buys a vintage car for £15000. Its value is expected to increase by 4% each year for 2 years. She then plans to sell the car and use £2000 of the money from the sale to buy a trailer. Work out how much money she will have left after selling the car and buying the trailer.
- 18.After a 20% discount, a jacket costs £48. Work out the original price of the jacket.
- 19.A box holds 140 pens. 25% of the pens are red. Work out how many of the pens are red.
- 20.A box holds 80 chocolates. 75% of them are milk chocolates. Work out how many milk chocolates are in the box.
- 21.A quiz has 50 questions. Freya answers 10% of them incorrectly. Work out how many questions she answers incorrectly.
- 22.A cinema has 250 seats. 12% of the seats are reserved. Work out how many of the seats are reserved.
What is on this worksheet?
The sheet holds 22 questions drawn from the MathsUK bank — the content areas covered: Ratio, proportion and rates of change, Number (statements R9, R16, N12). It is pitched at GCSE Foundation and takes about 40 minutes to work through in full. It is built for independent practice, with full answers at the end for self-marking.
How to use the sheet well
- Print it or open it on screen — both work. Printing is A4; the screen view fits phones and tablets.
- Do all 22 questions before checking — about 40 minutes is the guide, but there is no time pressure.
- Check the answers — press “Show answers” or print the answer page separately.
- Redo the questions you got wrong — twice as effective as doing 22 fresh ones.
- “New questions” — builds a fresh sheet on the same statements, so you can practise again without repeats.
Why this sheet helps
MathsUK worksheets use questions graded by difficulty and a fair spread of correct-answer positions (the answer is not always (a)) — so the student really has to think about each question rather than guess a pattern. Every question is tagged to a DfE content statement and checked before it enters the bank. The answers come with a step-by-step explanation, not just a value — so a wrong answer becomes a lesson.
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