Please help with reminder

This topic has expert replies
Legendary Member
Posts: 712
Joined: Fri Sep 25, 2015 4:39 am
Thanked: 14 times
Followed by:5 members

Please help with reminder

by Mo2men » Tue Nov 22, 2016 4:01 am
For positive integers m and n, when n is divided by 7, the quotient is m and the remainder is 2. What is the remainder when m is divided by 11?

(1) When n is divided by 11, the remainder is 2.
(2) When m is divided by 13, the remainder is 0.

User avatar
Legendary Member
Posts: 2663
Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2015 8:25 am
Location: Boston, MA
Thanked: 1153 times
Followed by:128 members
GMAT Score:770

by DavidG@VeritasPrep » Tue Nov 22, 2016 4:33 am
Mo2men wrote:For positive integers m and n, when n is divided by 7, the quotient is m and the remainder is 2. What is the remainder when m is divided by 11?

(1) When n is divided by 11, the remainder is 2.
(2) When m is divided by 13, the remainder is 0.
Initially, we're told that n = 7m + 2
We want the remainder when m is divided by 11


1) Now we know 2 things about n. When n is divided by 7 the remainder is 2 and now we know that when n is divided by 11 the remainder is 2. This means that when n is divided by a common multiple of 7 and 11, or 77, the remainder will be 2. Possible values for n: 2, 79, 156... (We're just adding '2' to multiples of 77 here)

Case 1: n = 2. If n = 2, then m = 0, (0 would be the quotient when 2 is divided by 7). 0/11 gives a remainder of 0

Case 2: n = 79. Now m = 11. (11 would be the quotient when 79 is divided by 7.) 11/11 gives a remainder of 0. Interesting

Case 3: n = 156. Now m = 22. (22 would be the quotient when 156 is divided by 7.) 22/11 gives a remainder of 0.

The remainder will always by 0. Sufficient. (This makes sense. The quotient for n is 77 in each case. When we divide this quotient by 7, we'll keep getting multiples of 11 for m.)

2) We can see pretty quickly that this won't be sufficient.

Case 1: m = 13. 13/11 gives a remainder of 2
Case 2: m = 26. 26 /11 gives a remainder of 4.

The answer is A
Veritas Prep | GMAT Instructor

Veritas Prep Reviews
Save $100 off any live Veritas Prep GMAT Course

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 16207
Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2008 6:26 pm
Location: Vancouver, BC
Thanked: 5254 times
Followed by:1268 members
GMAT Score:770

by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Tue Nov 22, 2016 5:55 am
Mo2men wrote:For positive integers m and n, when n is divided by 7, the quotient is m and the remainder is 2. What is the remainder when m is divided by 11?

(1) When n is divided by 11, the remainder is 2.
(2) When m is divided by 13, the remainder is 0.
Target question: What is the remainder when m is divided by 11?

Given: When n is divided by 7, the quotient is m and the remainder is 2
There's a nice rule that say, "If N divided by D equals Q with remainder R, then N = DQ + R"
For example, since 17 divided by 5 equals 3 with remainder 2, then we can write 17 = (5)(3) + 2
Likewise, since 53 divided by 10 equals 5 with remainder 3, then we can write 53 = (10)(5) + 3

So, with the given information, we can write: n = 7m + 2

Statement 1: When n is divided by 11, the remainder is 2.
In other words, n divided by 11 equals some unstated integer (say k) with remainder 2.
Applying the above rule, we can write: n = 11k + 2 (where k is some integer)
Since we already know that n = 7m + 2, we write the following equation:
7m + 2 = 11k + 2
Subtract 2 from both sides to get: 7m = 11k
Divide both sides by 7 to get: m = 11k/7
Or we can say m = (11)(k/7)
What does this tell us?
First, it tells us that, since m is an integer, it MUST be true that k is divisible by 7.
It also tells us that m is divisible by 11
If m is divisible by 11, then when m is divided by 11, the remainder will be 0
Since we can answer the target question with certainty, statement 1 is SUFFICIENT

Statement 2: When m is divided by 13, the remainder is 0
Applying the above rule, we can write: m = 13j (where j is some integer)
We already know that n = 7m + 2, but that doesn't help us much this time.
We COULD take n = 7m + 2 and replace m with 13j to get n = 7(13j) + 2. However, this doesn't get us very far, since the target question is all about what happens when we divide m by 11, and our new equation doesn't even include m.
At this point, I suggest that we start TESTING VALUES.
There are several values of m that satisfy statement 2. Here are two:
Case a: m = 13, in which case m divided by 11 gives us a remainder of 2
Case b: m = 26, in which case m divided by 11 gives us a remainder of 4
Since we cannot answer the target question with certainty, statement 2 is NOT SUFFICIENT

Answer = A

RELATED VIDEO
- Introduction to Remainders: https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gmat ... /video/842
Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com
Image