Quick guide to case math skills

Everything you need to know for the math portions of the case you most likely learned by 5th grade. If things seem too complicated, there’s probably a simpler approach or
estimation that can be used
▪ Understand what you are really trying to solve
▪ Develop a complete approach to solving the math problem before diving in
▪ Identify the numbers you will plug into your approach
▪ Solve the problem
▪ Do a quick common sense check of your solution
▪ Most importantly, draw a conclusion from what the solution reveals about the overall problem. Consultants don’t just solve math problems, they solve math problems to gain
insights into their client’s problems

Addition ▪ Group together numbers that add to multiples of 10

– 4+6+11+9+13+7+18 is: (10)+(20)+(20)+(18) equals 68

Subtraction ▪ When subtracting from numbers with 1 followed by zeros (e.g. 100, 1000, 10,000) simplify by 999+1
– 1000 minus 436 is: 999- 436+1 (=564)
▪ Break numbers into smaller parts
– 15*8 is: 10x8 (=80) plus 5x8 (=40) 54 Remember
▪ Ignore zeros and add back later 365 this??
Multiplication – 12*50 million is: 12x5 equals 60, with 7 zeros (600 million)
▪ Flip numbers with percentages to make calculations easier x 80
– 40 times 37% is: 40% times 37 29200

▪ Break numbers into 10s or halves 215

– 40% of 150 is: 10% of 150 (=15) times 4 8 1720 Or this??
– 75% of 60 is: half of 60 (=30) plus half of 30 (=15) - 16
▪ Convert into fractions 12
Division
– 25% of 800 is: (1/4)*800 - 8
▪ Remember reciprocals 40
– 234/5 is: 234 * (1/5), which is 234 * 0.2 - 40
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Simple math drills
Problem Solution
▪ 7 + 13 + 56 + 4 +4 + 2 + 2 + 12 + 3 = ▪ 103
▪ $0.45bn + $700mm + $121mm + $0.03tn = ▪ $31,271m
▪ 10,000 units – 4,365 units = ▪ 5,635
▪ 98,966 - 10,909 = ▪ 88,057
▪ 112 x 17 = ▪ 1,904
▪ 85% of 21 = ▪ 17.85
▪ 0.7 + 7/10th of 10.7 = ▪ 8.19
▪ 35 x 50,000 = ▪ 1,750,000
▪ 720,000,000 * 250 = ▪ 180,000,000,000
▪ 38% of 20 = ▪ 7.6
▪ 6,500mm / 13 = ▪ 500mm
▪ $2.6m increased by 12% = ▪ $2.912m
▪ $128m / 60 = ▪ $2.133m
▪ 17,500,000,0000 / 2.5m = ▪ 7,000
▪ 550 -123 - 17 - 123 - 33 -15 - 35 = ▪ 204
▪ 1.8 * 195m = ▪ 351m
▪ 11.4 decreased by 1/5th = ▪ 9.12
▪ 2,500,000 increased by 40% = ▪ 3,500,000
▪ 2bn decreased by 2% = ▪ 1.96bn
▪ 1/8th of $125m = ▪ $15.625m
▪ 1.45 increased by 150% = ▪ 3.625
▪ 60% of 3,200 = ▪ 1,920
▪ 8% of $75bn = ▪ $6bn
▪ 8,291 – 5,938 = ▪ 2,353
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