Quantitative Aptitude: Speed With Numbers
Quantitative Aptitude in the MP Apex Bank exam rewards numerical fluency rather than long algebra. Expect a simplification or number-series block, one or two data-interpretation sets (table, bar, pie or caselet), and arithmetic word problems drawn from a fixed cluster of chapters.
The chapters that actually appear
- Percentage, ratio-proportion, average, partnership and ages.
- Profit-loss, discount, simple and compound interest.
- Time-work, pipes-cistern, time-speed-distance, trains, boats and streams.
- Mixtures and alligation, mensuration, elementary probability and permutations.
Worked example
A can finish a reconciliation in 12 days, B in 18 days. Working together, how long? One day's work is 1/12 + 1/18 = 3/36 + 2/36 = 5/36 of the job, so the job takes 36/5 = 7.2 days, that is about 7 days and 4 hours 48 minutes. The shortcut for two workers is xy/(x+y) = (12 x 18)/30 = 7.2. Learn the formula, but also know why it works, because the exam rephrases it as 'A works 3 days alone, then B joins' and the formula alone will not save you.
Traps that cost marks
- Percentage change on a changed base: successive discounts of 10% and 20% give 28%, not 30%.
- Using the simple-interest formula when the question says compounded half-yearly - halve the rate and double the period.
- Data interpretation asking for a ratio or percentage difference when you calculated the absolute difference.
- Approximation items where options are close: round at most two numbers, and check whether the question asks for 'approximately'.
- Unit mismatches in time-speed-distance: convert minutes to hours before dividing.