Arithmetic

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John fran kennedi: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 26; Joined: Tue Feb 02, 2016 10:25 am; Thanked: 1 times

by John fran kennedi » Sat Mar 12, 2016 7:50 pm

Guys , I was really shocked when I knew that the right answer was B, because I did think that that would NOT have been B.
I thought so , because since there are 3 shirts and the most expensive price > $30, whereas the least expensive price > $ 20. So the other price(the middle price) would be greater than the least price and less than the highest price . That's why I think that the answer would have been C to the determine whether the sum exceed $60 or not.

Here is the question

80. Did the sum of the prices of three shirts exceed $60?
1. The price of the most expensive of the shirts exceeded $30
2. The price of the least expensive of the shirts exceeded $20

Guys, please help me understand this. Thanks in advance

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Data Sufficiency | Sat Mar 12, 2016 7:50 pm

GMATGuruNY: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 15539; Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 12:04 pmFollowed by: 1906 members; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 13060 times; GMAT Score:790

by GMATGuruNY » Sat Mar 12, 2016 8:20 pm

John fran kennedi wrote:Did the sum of the prices of three shirts exceed $60?
1. The price of the most expensive of the shirts exceeded $30
2. The price of the least expensive of the shirts exceeded $20

Statement 1:
It's possible that the 3 prices are $31, $30 and $30, for a total of $91.
In this case, the sum is GREATER THAN $60, so the answer to the question stem is YES.
It's possible that the 3 prices are $31, $1 and $1, for a total of $33.
In this case, the sum is LESS THAN $60, so the answer to the question stem is NO.
Since the answer is YES in the first case but NO in the second case, INSUFFICIENT.

Statement 2:
Since the price of the LEAST expensive shirt is greater than $20, the prices of the two MOST expensive shirts must also be greater than $20.
Thus, the sum of the 3 prices = (more than $20) + (more than $20) + (more than $20) = more than $60, implying that the answer to the question stem is YES.
SUFFICIENT.

The correct answer is B.

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John fran kennedi: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 26; Joined: Tue Feb 02, 2016 10:25 am; Thanked: 1 times

by John fran kennedi » Sat Mar 12, 2016 9:19 pm

Thank you so much.

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Brent@GMATPrepNow: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 16207; Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2008 6:26 pmFollowed by: 1268 members; Location: Vancouver, BC; Thanked: 5254 times; GMAT Score:770

Re: Arithmetic

by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Thu Nov 12, 2020 4:19 pm

John fran kennedi wrote: ↑
Sat Mar 12, 2016 7:50 pm
. Did the sum of the prices of three shirts exceed $60?
1. The price of the most expensive of the shirts exceeded $30
2. The price of the least expensive of the shirts exceeded $20

Kudos for a correct solution.[/quote]

Target question: Did the sum of the prices of three shirts exceed $60?

Statement 1: The price of the most expensive of the shirts exceeded $30
This statement doesn't FEEL sufficient, so I'll TEST some values.
Case a: the shirt prices are $31, $32 and $33, in which case the sum of the 3 prices EXCEEDS $60
Case b: the shirt prices are $11, $12 and $33, in which case the sum of the 3 prices DOES NOT exceed $60
Since we cannot answer the target question with certainty, statement 1 is NOT SUFFICIENT

Aside: For more on this idea of plugging in values when a statement doesn't feel sufficient, you can read my article: https://www.gmatprepnow.com/articles/dat ... lug-values

Statement 2: The price of the least expensive of the shirts exceeded $20
If the least expensive shirt costs 20+ dollars, then the other 2 shirts also cost 20+ dollars each
(20+ dollars) + (20+ dollars) + (20+ dollars) = 60+ dollars
So, we can conclude that the sum of the 3 prices EXCEEDS $60
Since we can answer the target question with certainty, statement 2 is SUFFICIENT

Answer = B

Cheers,
Brent

Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com

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