Two-Part Analysis: A Strategy
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Got the basics of the new Integrated Reasoning formats, and ready to start with some questions? The new Two-Part Analysis questions are one of the most straight-forward of the new question types. A short paragraph is followed by information in columns and rows. Each column stands for an element of the paragraph, and each row is part of the solution. You’ll be asked to choose one answer from each column since the complete answer will have a two-part solution. Let’s look at a sample Grockit Two-Part Analysis question and look at how we can approach it!
Question 1
Cignature Cigars has two seasonal sales, Spring and Fall. The Spring sale last year sold an average of 200 cigars per week during its four-week push. The current Fall sale is expected to exceed last Spring’s sale by at least 250 cigars during its four-week push, despite only selling 100 cigars in its first week.
Identify a number of cumulative sales for the third week of Fall’s sales drive, and a number of cumulative sales for the third week of the next Spring sales drive, if next Spring’s sale is expected to have a weekly average equal to half of the average of Fall’s last three weeks.
Answer: 734, 477.
STEP 1 – Pull out the given info. You’ll need to read these questions carefully, as you would any word problem, and extract the necessary values and relationships before proceeding. Last Spring sold 200/week for 4 weeks, totaling 800. Fall is expected to exceed this by 250 (1,050), but has only sold 100 and will therefore need to average (950/3 =) 317 per week. Next Spring will be half that, or 159.
STEP 2 – Make a chart, if needed. Much of the relationships in Two Part Analysis are changes in values over time. You may find it helpful to make a chart:
Week Spring 1 Fall 1 Spring 2
1 200 100 159
2 200 317 159
3 200 317 159
4 200 317 159
Total 800 1051 636
Question 2
Cignature Cigars has two seasonal sales, Spring and Fall. The Spring sale last year sold an average of 200 cigars per week during its four-week push. The current Fall sale is expected to exceed last Spring’s sale by at least 250 cigars during its four-week push, despite only selling 100 cigars its first week.
Identify a total number of sales for Fall’s sales drive, and a total number of sales the next Spring sales drive if next Spring’s sale is expected to have a weekly average equal to half of the average of Fall’s last three weeks.
Answer: 1051, 636.
Step 1 – Pull out the given info. Last Spring sold 200/week for 4 weeks, totaling 800. Fall is expected to exceed this by 250 (1,050), but has only sold 100 and will therefore need to average (950/3 =) 317 per week. Next Spring will be half that, or 159.
Step 2 – Make a chart, if needed.
Week Spring 1 Fall 1 Spring 2
1 200 100 159
2 200 317 159
3 200 317 159
4 200 317 159
Total 800 1051 636
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