MPESB Group · Bite-size lessons
Profit and Loss
About 6 min · Mathematics · English
Time worked out from the lesson's 386 words at 150 words a minute, plus a minute for each question.
Profit and Loss is a core topic in MPESB Group 1/2/3 mathematics. It forms the foundation for understanding commercial arithmetic and directly connects to everyday transactions. Questions typically range from basic profit/loss percentage calculations to complex problems involving marked price, successive discounts, and dishonest dealings.
Key ideas
- Cost Price (CP) is the price at which an article is purchased or manufactured; it includes all expenses incurred to bring the goods to a saleable condition.
- Selling Price (SP) is the price at which an article is sold to the customer; profit occurs when SP > CP, loss occurs when SP < CP.
- Marked Price (MP) is the price tagged or listed on the article before any discount; it is always calculated on CP, and discount is always calculated on MP.
- Discount is the reduction given on Marked Price to arrive at Selling Price; successive discounts are applied one after another on reduced prices, not on original MP.
- Profit or Loss percentage is always calculated on Cost Price unless explicitly stated otherwise.
Watch out for
- Calculating percentage on SP instead of CP: Profit% and Loss% are always computed on Cost Price. Students often divide profit by SP, leading to wrong answers.
- Adding successive discounts directly: Two discounts of 20% and 10% do NOT equal 30%. Apply them sequentially or use the equivalent discount formula.
- Confusing Marked Price with Selling Price: MP is the listed price; SP is what the customer actually pays after discount. Discount is always on MP, profit is always on CP.
Quick reference
- Profit% = (SP − CP)/CP × 100; always on CP
- MP is for discount calculation; CP is for profit calculation
- Successive discounts a% and b% = (a + b − ab/100)%
- Dishonest dealer profit% = (Error/False measure) × 100
- CP of m = SP of n → Profit% = (m−n)/n × 100
Check yourself: 3 questions
1. A shopkeeper bought a fan for Rs 1200 and sold it for Rs 1440. What is his profit percentage?
2. A trader marks his goods 30% above the cost price and allows a discount of 10%. What is his gain percentage?
3. A dealer sells an article at a loss of 8%. Had he sold it for Rs 169 more, he would have gained 12%. What is the cost price of the article?
This lesson is cut from the topic's note, not rewritten. Fact-checked on 17 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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