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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 ## After her birthday, Fiona had D dollars in gift money. tagged by: VJesus12 ##### This topic has 4 expert replies and 0 member replies ### Top Member ## After her birthday, Fiona had D dollars in gift money. ## Timer 00:00 ## Your Answer A B C D E ## Global Stats Difficult After her birthday, Fiona had D dollars in gift money. She spent 3/5 of this on an electric skateboard. The next day, she spent 1/3 of what was left on a movie passcard, and then finally put the last$80 in the bank. If she made no other purchases with that money, then what was the value of D?

A. $240 B.$300
C. $320 D.$360
E. $480 OA=B Source: Magoosh ### GMAT/MBA Expert GMAT Instructor Joined 08 Dec 2008 Posted: 12827 messages Followed by: 1247 members Upvotes: 5254 GMAT Score: 770 VJesus12 wrote: After her birthday, Fiona had D dollars in gift money. She spent 3/5 of this on an electric skateboard. The next day, she spent 1/3 of what was left on a movie passcard, and then finally put the last$80 in the bank. If she made no other purchases with that money, then what was the value of D?

A. $240 B.$300
C. $320 D.$360
E. $480 One option is to WORK BACKWARDS The next day, she spent 1/3 of what was left on a movie passcard, and then finally put the last$80 in the bank.
If she spent 1/3 of her money on a movie passcard, then 2/3 of her money remained (which she put in the bank).
This means 2/3 of her money = $80 We can also say that 1/3 of her money =$40
So, she spent $40 on a movie passcard and saved$80
In other words, at the beginning of that day, she had $120 After her birthday, Fiona had D dollars in gift money. She spent 3/5 of this on an electric skateboard. If she spent 3/5 of her money (on a skateboard), then 2/5 of her money remained (to be spent on a movie passcard the following day). In other words, 2/5 of D =$120
Or we can write: (2/5)D = $120 Multiply both sides by 5 to get: 2D =$600
Divide both sides by 2 to get: D = $300 Answer: B Cheers, Brent _________________ Brent Hanneson â€“ Creator of GMATPrepNow.com Use our video course along with Sign up for our free Question of the Day emails And check out all of our free resources GMAT Prep Now's comprehensive video course can be used in conjunction with Beat The GMATâ€™s FREE 60-Day Study Guide and reach your target score in 2 months! ### GMAT/MBA Expert GMAT Instructor Joined 08 Dec 2008 Posted: 12827 messages Followed by: 1247 members Upvotes: 5254 GMAT Score: 770 VJesus12 wrote: After her birthday, Fiona had D dollars in gift money. She spent 3/5 of this on an electric skateboard. The next day, she spent 1/3 of what was left on a movie passcard, and then finally put the last$80 in the bank. If she made no other purchases with that money, then what was the value of D?

A. $240 B.$300
C. $320 D.$360
E. $480 Another approach is to use algebra. After her birthday, Fiona had D dollars in gift money. She spent 3/5 of this on an electric skateboard. If Fiona SPENT 3/5 of D dollars, then 2/5 of D dollars REMAINED In other words, the amount remaining at the end of the day = 2D/5 dollars The next day, she spent 1/3 of what was left on a movie passcard, and then finally put the last$80 in the bank.
If Fiona SPENT 1/3 of her remaining 2D/5 dollars, then she must have SAVED 2/3 of 2D/5 dollars
2/3 of 2D/5 = (2/3)(4D/5) = 4D/15
So, after spending 1/3 of her money that day, 4D/15 dollars remained (which she put in the bank)
In other words, 4D/15 = $80 What was the value of D? Take: 4D/15 =$80
Multiply both sides by 15 to get: 4D = 1200
Divide both sides by 4 to get: D = $300 Answer: B Cheers, Brent _________________ Brent Hanneson â€“ Creator of GMATPrepNow.com Use our video course along with Sign up for our free Question of the Day emails And check out all of our free resources GMAT Prep Now's comprehensive video course can be used in conjunction with Beat The GMATâ€™s FREE 60-Day Study Guide and reach your target score in 2 months! ### GMAT/MBA Expert Elite Legendary Member Joined 23 Jun 2013 Posted: 10124 messages Followed by: 494 members Upvotes: 2867 GMAT Score: 800 Hi VJesus12, We're told that after her birthday, Fiona had D dollars in gift money. She spent 3/5 of this on an electric skateboard, then she spent 1/3 of what WAS LEFT on a movie passcard, and then finally put the last$80 in the bank. Assuming she made no other purchases with that money, we're asked for the value of D. This question can be solved in a number of different ways, including by TESTing THE ANSWERS. Based on the given Answers, it looks like Answer B would be the easiest to work with, so let's start there...

Answer B: $300 IF.... D =$300....
Fiona spent (3/5)($300) =$180 on a skateboard, leaving her with $300 -$180 = $120 She then spent (1/3)($120) = $40 on a movie passcard, leaving her with$120 - $40 =$80
This is an exact match for what we were told, so this must be the answer!

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Rich

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VJesus12 wrote:
After her birthday, Fiona had D dollars in gift money. She spent 3/5 of this on an electric skateboard. The next day, she spent 1/3 of what was left on a movie passcard, and then finally put the last $80 in the bank. If she made no other purchases with that money, then what was the value of D? A.$240
B. $300 C.$320
D. $360 E.$480

OA=B

Source: Magoosh
We can create the equation:

3D/5 + 1/3(2D/5) + 80 = D

3D/5 + 2D/15 + 80 = D

Multiplying by 15, we have:

9D + 2D + 1,200 = 15D

1,200 = 4D

300 = D

Alternate Solution:

After spending 3/5 of her money, Fiona had 2/5 of her money left. After spending 1/3 of whatâ€™s left, she had 2/3 of 2/5 of her money; in other words, she had 2/3 x 2/5 = 4/15 of her money left. Since we are given that this amount is equal to 80, she had 80/(4/15) = (80 * 15)/4 = 20 * 15 = 300 dollars to begin with.

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