Mathematics (General Culture, Literary Track)
Core concepts
The literary-track paper emphasizes numerical and algebraic fluency, functions and graphs, percentages and proportional reasoning, basic statistics and probability, and logical/quantitative reasoning applied to real situations (finance, demography, data reading).
Traps
- Percentage change confusion: a 20% increase followed by a 20% decrease does not return to the original value.
- Unit mismatch in rates (per month vs per year) - convert before computing.
- Reading a graph's axis scale incorrectly; a steep-looking line may represent a small change.
- Confusing mean with median when data contain outliers.
- Sign errors when solving inequalities - multiplying by a negative reverses the inequality.
Rule of thumb
Write the formula first, substitute second, compute third. For any percentage problem, set the original value as 100 and track the multiplier (e.g., +20% → ×1.2; −20% → ×0.8).
Worked example
A price of 500 rises 20% then falls 20%. Multipliers: 500 × 1.2 = 600; 600 × 0.8 = 480. The net change is −4%, not 0%, because the second percentage applies to the larger base.