Interview Soon - Need Help with Math Question

I've been told I could be asked to walk through a paper LBO. Doing some practice ones online, where if you have to take CapEx as % of Sales, you end up having to do things like 121m*.15

Call me stupid, but 121 * 15 feels intimidating to do in my head under pressure. Is it acceptable to take a few seconds to work it out on scrap paper? Any tricks to help out with the mental math? Much appreciated - thank you!!

6 Comments
 

Speak the steps out loud, the more you do the quicker it goes:

15% of 121 ok so,

10% of 121 is 12.1,

5% is half of 12.1 which is 6.05

12.1 + 6.05 = 18 + .15, which equals 18.15

Sure there’s probably quicker ways to do this in less steps but I always found the rounding up and subtracting harder to keep track of. And if you do this quickly enough nobody is gonna care you took an extra few steps.

 

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