People mix up “percent” and “percentage points” all the time. Confusing them leads to wrong conclusions in news headlines, exam scores, and investment returns.
The key difference
Percentage points measure an absolute change between two percentages.
Percent change measures growth relative to the starting value.
Example
Interest rises from 4% to 6%. That is a 2 percentage point increase, but a 50% relative increase (2 ÷ 4).
On test scores
Moving from 70% to 80% is a 10 percentage point gain. Relative improvement is about 14.3% (10 ÷ 70). Both descriptions are valid — they answer different questions.