MH Police Bharti · Bite-size lessons

Simplification

About 5 min · Mathematics · English

Time worked out from the lesson's 285 words at 150 words a minute, plus a minute for each question.

Simplification is the backbone of the Mathematics section in Maharashtra Police Bharti exams. The skill is essential for solving Percentage, Profit-Loss, SI/CI and other applied topics quickly.

Key ideas

• BODMAS Rule — The universal order of operations: Brackets → Of (meaning "of" or multiplication) → Division → Multiplication → Addition → Subtraction. Division and Multiplication have equal priority (solve left to right), as do Addition and Subtraction.
• Brackets Hierarchy — Solve innermost first: Vinculum (bar) → Round ( ) → Curly { } → Square [ ].
• "Of" means Multiplication — "Half of 40" = ½ × 40. Treat "of" as × but solve it before normal ÷ and ×.
• Division and Multiplication — Left to Right — When both appear without brackets, process whichever comes first from left to right; same rule for Addition and Subtraction.
• Fraction to Decimal Conversions — Memorise common values (see Quick Reference) to avoid repeated division during the exam.

Quick reference

• BODMAS sequence: Brackets → Of → Division → Multiplication → Addition → Subtraction
• Brackets order: Vinculum (¯) → ( ) → { } → [ ]
• Key fractions: ½ = 0.5, ¼ = 0.25, ⅓ ≈ 0.333, ⅔ ≈ 0.667, ¾ = 0.75, ⅕ = 0.2
• Squaring shortcut (ending in 5): 45² → 4×5 = 20, append 25 → 2025
• Multiplying by 11: For two-digit ab → a, (a+b), b. Example: 34 × 11 = 3, 7, 4 = 374

Check yourself: 3 questions

This lesson is cut from the topic's note, not rewritten. Fact-checked on 21 Oct 2026: an AI-assisted check of this note against cited sources; the errors it found were corrected that day. Some errors may remain. The questions are from Shishya's validated question bank.

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