Simple & Compound Interest, Growth & Decay (AQA GCSE Maths)

Exam Questions

3 hours37 questions
1
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2 marks

Toby invested £7500 for 2 years in a savings account.
He was paid 4% per annum compound interest.

How much money did Toby have in his savings account at the end of 2 years?

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2
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3 marks

Liam invests £6200 for 3 years in a savings account.
He gets 2.5% per annum compound interest.

How much money will Liam have in his savings account at the end of 3 years?

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3
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4 marks

Peter has £20 000 to invest in a savings account for 2 years.

He finds information about two savings accounts.

q3-1-6-easy-edexcel-gcse-maths

Peter wants to have as much money as possible in his savings account at the end of 2 years.

Which of these savings accounts should he choose?

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4
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4 marks

This notice was in a car magazine.

Most new cars lose more than half of their value in the first three years


Paul bought a new car.
The value of the car was £15 000

In the first year, the value of the car depreciated by 23%.
After the first year, the value of the car depreciated by 18% each year.

Work out if Paul's car lost more than half of its value by the end of three years.

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5a
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3 marks

Derek buys a house for £150 000
  He sells the house for £154 500

Work out Derek's percentage profit.

5b
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3 marks

Derek invests £154 500 for 2 years at 4% per year compound interest.

Work out the value of the investment at the end of 2 years.

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6
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3 marks

Anil wants to invest £25 000 for 3 years in a bank.

q6-1-6-easy-edexcel-gcse-maths
Which bank will give Anil the most interest at the end of 3 years?

You must show all your working.

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7a
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2 marks

A virus on a computer is causing errors.
An antivirus program is run to remove these errors.

An estimate for the number of errors at the end of t hours is 10 to the power of 6 space cross times space 2 to the power of negative t end exponent

Work out an estimate for the number of errors on the computer at the end of 8 hours.

7b
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1 mark

Explain whether the number of errors on this computer ever reaches zero.

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8
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3 marks

Katy invests £200 000 in a savings account for 4 years.
The account pays compound interest at a rate of 1.5 % per annum.

Calculate the total amount of interest Katy will get at the end of 4 years.

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9
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3 marks

A marathon takes place each year.
In 2020 there were 6500 runners.

Prediction
For each of the next 3 years the number of runners will increase by 5%

Does this predict that in 2023 there will be more than 7500 runners?
You must show your working.

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10
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4 marks

The value of a house is £120 000
The value is expected to increase by 5% each year.

Work out the expected value after 4 years.
Give your answer to 2 significant figures.
You must show your working.

£..............................

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11
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3 marks

Zhi bought a house on 1st January 2017
When she bought the house, its value was 120 000 yuan.

The value of the house increased by 1.8% per year.

Work out the value of Zhi’s house on 1st January 2020
Give your answer correct to 3 significant figures.

....................................................... yuan 

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12
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4 marks

Ali and Badia each have 25000 dollars to invest.

Cyclone Bank Tornado Bank

Invest 25 000 dollars
4.5% compound interest per year
for 3 years

Invest 25 000 dollars
Receive 1150 dollars interest each year
for 3 years

Ali invests in the Cyclone Bank for 3 years.
Badia invests in the Tornado Bank for 3 years.

By the end of the 3 years, Ali will have received more interest than Badia.

How much more?
Show your working clearly.
Give your answer correct to the nearest dollar.

....................................................... dollars

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13
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3 marks

Hamish buys a new car for $20 000
The car depreciates in value by 19% each year.

Work out the value of the car at the end of 3 years.
Give your answer to the nearest $.

$ .....................

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14a
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4 marks

The price, £P, of a car is £20 000 in 2019.
The price is expected to decrease by 5% each year after 2019.

Jasmine says

This means the price in 2021 is expected to be £18 000.

She is incorrect.
Explain her error and work out the correct answer.

Her error is .........................................................

The correct answer is £ ........................................................... 

14b
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2 marks

Write a formula for P in terms of n, where n is the number of years after 2019.

P equals.............................

14c
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1 mark

Circle the graph that best represents the price, £P, of the car n years after 2019.

q12b-ii-paper5-nov2020-ocr-gcse-maths

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15a
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1 mark

The value of a house, £H, is given by the formula

H = 165 000 × 1.03t

where t is the number of years after 1st January 2010.

Write down the value of the house on 1st January 2010.

£ ........................................................

15b
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1 mark

Write down the annual percentage increase in the value of the house.

...................................................... % 

15c
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1 mark

Show that the value of the house is over £200000 on 1st January 2017.

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16
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6 marks

Kay invests £1500 in an account paying 3% compound interest per year.
Neil invests £1500 in an account paying r% simple interest per year.

At the end of the 5th year, Kay and Neil’s accounts both contain the same amount of money.

Calculate r.
Give your answer correct to 1 decimal place.

r = .....................................................

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1
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4 marks

Viv wants to invest £2000 for 2 years in the same bank.

q1-1-6-hard-edexcel-gcse-maths

At the end of 2 years, Viv wants to have as much money as possible.
Which bank should she invest her £2000 in?

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2a
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3 marks

The population of a city increased by 5.2% for the year 2014

At the beginning of 2015 the population of the city was 1 560 000

Lin assumes that the population will continue to Increase at a constant rate of 5.2% each year.

Use Lin's assumption to estimate the population of the city at the beginning of 2017
Give your answer correct to 3 significant figures.

2b
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3 marks

i)  Use Lin's assumption to work out the year in which the population of the city will reach 2000000

[2]

ii) If Lin's assumption about the rate of increase of the population is too low, how might this affect your answer to (b)(i)?

[1]

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3a
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3 marks

Katie invests £200 in a savings account for 2 years.

The account pays compound interest at an annual rate of

3.3% for the first year
1.5% for the second year

Work out the total amount of money in Katie's account at the end of 2 years.

3b
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3 marks

Katie travels to work by train.
The cost of her weekly train ticket increases by 12.5% to £225

Katie's weekly pay increases by 5% to £535.50

Compare the increase in the amount of money Katie has to pay for her weekly train ticket with the increase in her weekly pay.

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4
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4 marks

Jack has £15 000 to invest in a savings account for 3 years.

He finds information about two savings accounts.
q4-1-6-hard-edexcel-gcse-maths
Jack wants to have as much money as possible in his savings account at the end of the 3 years.

Which of these two savings accounts should he choose?

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5a
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3 marks

Ian invested an amount of money at 3% per annum compound interest.
At the end of 2 years the value of the investment was £2652.25

Work out the amount of money Ian invested.

5b
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2 marks

Noah has an amount of money to invest for five years.
q6-1-6-hard-edexcel-gcse-maths
Noah wants to get the most interest possible.

Which account is best?
You must show how you got your answer.

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6a
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2 marks

At the beginning of 2009, Mr Veale bought a company.
The value of the company was £50 000

Each year the value of the company increased by 2%.

Calculate the value of the company at the beginning of 2017
Give your answer correct to the nearest £100

6b
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3 marks

At the beginning of 2009 the value of a different company was £250 000
In 6 years the value of this company increased to £325 000

This is equivalent to an increase of x percent sign each year.

Find the value of x.
Give your answer correct to 2 significant figures.

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7
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3 marks

Mia wants to borrow £6000 and repay it, with interest, after two years.

She sees two offers for loans.

q10-paper-3h-june-2019-aqa-gcse-maths

Mia says,

“I will pay back the same amount because the average of 1% and 5% is 3%”

Is she correct?
You must show your working.

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8
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4 marks

Investment  A
 

Save £150 per month for 2 years.

2.5% interest is added to the total amount saved.

Investment B

Invest £3500

Compound interest is added at 3% per year.

After 2 years, how much more is investment B worth than investment A?

£........................

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9
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3 marks

Mirek invests £6000 at a compound interest rate of 1.5% per year.

He wants to earn more than £1000 interest.

Work out the least time, in whole years, that this will take.

.......................years

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10
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3 marks

The value of a new car is £18 000
The value of the car decreases by

25% in the first year
12% in each of the next 4 years.

Work out the value of the car after 5 years.

£..........................

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11
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3 marks

Max invests $6000 in a savings account for 3 years.
The account pays compound interest at a rate of 1.5% per year for the first 2 years.

The compound interest rate changes for the third year.
At the end of 3 years, there is a total of $6311.16 in the account.

Work out the compound interest rate for the third year.
Give your answer correct to 1 decimal place.

.....................%

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12
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3 marks

Jan invests $ 8000 in a savings account.
The account pays compound interest at a rate of x percent sign per year.

At the end of 6 years, there is a total of $ 8877.62 in the account.

Work out the value of x.
Give your answer correct to 2 decimal places.

x space equals............................................... 

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13a
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2 marks

Amelia buys a new car.
The expected future value of this car, £ V, is given by

V space equals space 16 space 000 space cross times 0 space.75 to the power of t

where t is the age of the car in complete years.

i)
Write down the value of the car when new.

£ ..................... [1]

ii)
Write down the annual percentage decrease in the expected value of the car.

 [1]

13b
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2 marks

Show that the expected value of the car when 2 years old is £9000.

13c
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1 mark

Amelia sketches a graph to show the expected value of her car as it gets older.

q11b-paper5-nov2017-ocr-gcse-maths

Explain how you know that Amelia’s graph is incorrect.

13d
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1 mark

Amelia assumes that her car will have no value at all after 20 years.

Explain why her assumption is mathematically incorrect.

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14a
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1 mark

On 1st November 2015 there were 4200 trees planted in a wood.
On 1st November 2016, only 3948 of these trees were still alive.

It is assumed that the number of trees still alive is given by

begin mathsize 16px style N equals a r to the power of t end style

where N  is the number of trees still alive t years after 1st November 2015.

Write down the value of a.

14b
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2 marks

Show that r is 0.94.

14c
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3 marks

Show that on 1st November 2030 the number of trees still alive is predicted to have decreased by over 60% compared with 1st November 2015.

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15a
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5 marks

Here are the interest rates for two accounts.

Account A

Interest:
3% per year compound
interest.

 

Account B

Interest:
4% for the first year,
3% for the second year
and
2% for the third year.

No withdrawals until the
end of three years.
  Withdrawals allowed at
any time.

Derrick has £10000 he wants to invest.

Calculate which account would give him most money if he invests his money for 3 years.
Give the difference in the interest to the nearest penny.

Account ................... by ................... p 

15b
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1 mark

Explain why he might not want to use Account A.

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1
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3 marks

Naoby invests £6000 for 5 years.
The investment gets compound interest of x percent sign per annum.

At the end of 5 years the investment is worth £8029.35

Work out the value of x.

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2
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4 marks

Jean invests £ 12 space 000 in an account paying compound interest for 2 years.

In the first year the rate of interest is x percent sign
At the end of the first year the value of Jean's investment is £ 12336

In the second year the rate of interest is x over 2percent sign

What is the value of Jean's investment at the end of 2 years?

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3a
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2 marks

Jack bought a new boat for £ 12 space 500

The value, £ V, of Jack's boat at the end of n years is given by the formula

V space equals space 12500 space cross times space open parentheses 0.85 close parentheses to the power of n

At the end of how many years was the value of Jack's boat first less than 50 percent sign of the value of the boat when it was new?

3b
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3 marks

A savings account pays interest at a rate of R percent sign per year.
Jack invests £5500 in the account for one year.

At the end of the year, Jack pays tax on the interest at a rate of 40%.
After paying tax, he gets £79.20

Work out the value of R.

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4a
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4 marks

Katy invests £ 2000 in a savings account for 3 years.

The account pays compound interest at an annual rate of

2.5 percent sign for the first year
x percent sign for the second year
x percent sign for the third year

There is a total amount of £ 2124.46 in the savings account at the end of 3 years.

Work out the rate of interest in the second year.

4b
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4 marks

Katy goes to work by train.

The cost of her weekly train ticket increases by 12.5% to £225

Work out the cost of her weekly train ticket before this increase.

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5
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3 marks

Himari invests 200 000 yen for 3 years in a savings account paying compound interest.
The rate of interest is 1.8% for the first year and x percent sign for each of the second year and the third year.

The value of the investment at the end of the third year is 209 754 yen.

Work out the value of x
Give your answer correct to one decimal place.



x space equals ...................................................... 

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6a
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1 mark

At the start of 2018, the population of a town was 17150.
At the start of 2019, the population of the town was 16807.

It is assumed that the population of the town is given by the formula

      P equals a r to the power of t

where P is the population of the town t years after the start of 2018.

Write down the value of a.

6b
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1 mark

Show that r = 0 98.

6c
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2 marks

Show that the population is predicted to be less than 16 000 at the start of 2022.

6d
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2 marks

Use the formula to work out what the population might have been at the start of 2017.

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