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100 points for $49 worth of Veritas practice GMATs FREE VERITAS PRACTICE GMAT EXAMS Earn 10 Points Per Post Earn 10 Points Per Thanks Earn 10 Points Per Upvote ## A large research project was scheduled over the course... tagged by: BTGmoderatorLU ##### This topic has 2 expert replies and 0 member replies ### Top Member ## A large research project was scheduled over the course... A large reaserch project was scheduled over the course of 28-month period, and a budget of$84,000 was alloted for the course of the entire project. After seven months, the project had spent $19,800. Was the project at this point over budget or under budget, and by how many? A. under,$4200
B. under, $1200 C. under,$700
D. over, $1800 E. over,$5800

The OA is B.

I'm really confused with this PS question. Experts, any suggestion how can I solve it? Thanks in advance.

### GMAT/MBA Expert

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Hi LUANDATO,

We're told that a reaserch project was scheduled over the course of a 28-month period and a budget of $84,000 was alloted for the course of the entire project. After SEVEN months, the project had spent$19,800. We're asked if the project at this point was over budget or under budget and by how much money.

While you can certainly calculate the 'per month' budget of this project, the prompt gives you a 'shortcut' to help you avoid having to do that math. Notice that the overall time period is 28 months and 7 months have gone by.... that is 1/4 of the time period... which means that 1/4 of the budget should have been spent.

(1/4)($84,000) =$21,000

We're told that only $19,800 was spent (of the$21,000) that was budgeted), so the project was UNDER budget by $1,200 at that point. Final Answer: B GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made, Rich _________________ Contact Rich at Rich.C@empowergmat.com ### GMAT/MBA Expert GMAT Instructor Joined 04 Oct 2017 Posted: 551 messages Followed by: 11 members Upvotes: 180 Top Reply Hello LUANDATO. Let's take a look at your question. A large reaserch project was scheduled over the course of 28-month period, and a budget of$84,000 was alloted for the course of the entire project , it implies that $$\frac{84000}{28}=3000\ \ \text{dollars}\ \text{per}\ \text{month}.$$ Now after seven months, the project had spent $19,800, so they have spent less than 3000 per month. It implies that they are under budget by 21000-19800=1200$.

So, the correct answer is the option B.

Feel free to ask me again if you have a doubt.

Regards.

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