BTGmoderatorLU wrote:At the Trenchard Oaks apartment complex, a two-bedroom apartment costs 50% more to rent than a one-bedroom apartment. If Alex were to rent a two-bedroom apartment for x months it would cost him the same amount as it would to rent a one-bedroom for 12 months. What is x?

A. 6
B. 8
C. 9
D. 10
E. 18

A fast and easy approach is to assign a "nice" value to the monthly rent of a ONE-bedroom apartment.
Let's say the rent on a ONE-bedroom apartment is $100 per month

A two-bedroom apartment costs 50% more to rent than a one-bedroom apartment
50% of $100 = $50
So, the rent on a TWO-bedroom unit = $100 + $50 = $150 per month

If Alex were to rent a TWO-bedroom apartment for x months it would cost him the same amount as it would to rent a one-bedroom for 12 months
At $150 per month for x months, the TOTAL rent for a TWO-bedroom apartment = 150x
At $100 per month for 12 months, the TOTAL rent for a ONE-bedroom apartment = 1200 dollars

So, we can write: 150x = 1200
So, x = 1200/15 = 8

Answer: B

Cheers,
Brent

Hi All,

We're told that a two-bedroom apartment costs 50% more to rent than a one-bedroom apartment. If Alex were to rent a two-bedroom apartment for X months it would cost him the same amount as it would to rent a one-bedroom for 12 months. We're asked for the value of X. This question can be solved in a couple of different ways. TESTing VALUES works really well (as Brent has shown); it can also be solved by TESTing THE ANSWERS.

Since a two-bedroom apartment costs 50% more than a one-bedroom apartment, we need to find a value for X that, when increased by 50%, equals 12. Since a 50% increase is NOT the same as DOUBLING a value, we can eliminate Answer A. Let's TEST Answer B first.

Answer B: 8 months
IF... X = 8, then 50% MORE than 8 would be (1.5)(8) = 12
This is an exact match for what we were told, so this must be the answer.

Final Answer: B

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

BTGmoderatorLU wrote:Source: Veritas Prep

At the Trenchard Oaks apartment complex, a two-bedroom apartment costs 50% more to rent than a one-bedroom apartment. If Alex were to rent a two-bedroom apartment for x months it would cost him the same amount as it would to rent a one-bedroom for 12 months. What is x?

A. 6
B. 8
C. 9
D. 10
E. 18

The OA is B.

We can let n = the cost to rent a one-bedroom apartment per month. Therefore, the cost for a two-bedroom apartment per month = 1.5n; thus:

1.5nx = 12n

1.5x = 12

x = 8

Answer: B