student first reduced

sanju09 wrote:A student first reduced a certain number by 20 percent, and then increased it again by 20 percent. If the difference between the last number and the original number was 8, then the original number was:
(A) 200
(B) 250
(C) 300
(D) 400
(E) 450

[spoiler]Source: Crack-GMAT
www.crack-GMAT.com[/spoiler]

Perfect question for backsolving!

When we backsolve, we generally start with either B or D. 400 is an easier number with which to work, so let's start there.

Reduce 400 by 20%: 400 - 20%(400) = 400 - 80 = 320
Increase 320 by 20%: 320 + 20%(320) = 320 + 64 = 384

400 - 384 = 16. Is that what we want? No - eliminate (D).

Using 400 got us double the difference we wanted. Since all we're doing is multiplying, that means that 400 is twice as big as the correct answer - no need to do any more math, choose (A)200.

sanju09 wrote:A student first reduced a certain number by 20 percent, and then increased it again by 20 percent. If the difference between the last number and the original number was 8, then the original number was:
(A) 200
(B) 250
(C) 300
(D) 400
(E) 450

[spoiler]Source: Crack-GMAT
www.crack-GMAT.com[/spoiler]

I feel the most easiest number to deal with in percentages is 100

1) Reduce 100 by 20 (of course that corresponds to 20%).That gives you 80
2) Increase 80 by 20% (or 1/5th of 80). That gives you 96.
3) Difference between original and new number is 4 (100-96)
4) But this is given to be 8. So double the number we have assumed 100*2=200

Answer is (A).

The advantage is that we can solve while reading the problem, that will save a lot of time