If xerox paper costs 5 cents a sheet and a buyer. . .

BREAKING: Target Test Prep releases Brand New 2026 On Demand GMAT prep course

Redeem

This topic has expert replies

Post new topic Post Reply

Previous Topic Next Topic

Vincen: Legendary Member; Posts: 2898; Joined: Thu Sep 07, 2017 2:49 pm; Thanked: 6 times; Followed by:5 members

If xerox paper costs 5 cents a sheet and a buyer. . .

by Vincen » Fri Sep 22, 2017 10:19 am

If xerox paper costs 5 cents a sheet and a buyer gets 10% discount on all xerox paper one buys after the first 2000 papers and 20% discount after first 10000 papers, how much will it cost to buy 25000 sheets of xerox paper?

A. $1250
B. $1060
C. $1350
D. $900
E. $1000

The OA is B.

I got confused here. I need some help. Experts can you tell me how to solve it?

Quote

Source: Beat The GMAT — Problem Solving | Fri Sep 22, 2017 10:19 am

GMAT/MBA Expert

[email protected]: Elite Legendary Member; Posts: 10392; Joined: Sun Jun 23, 2013 6:38 pm; Location: Palo Alto, CA; Thanked: 2867 times; Followed by:511 members; GMAT Score:800

by [email protected] » Sat Sep 23, 2017 10:01 am

Hi Vincen,

To start, the GMAT almost always lists the answer choices 'in order' (often from least to greatest although sometimes in decreasing order). You can sometimes take strategic advantage of that information, so it's important to make sure that you're using practice questions that follow that design pattern. That all having been said, to answer this question, we need to break the calculation down in to 'pieces' (based on the cost/discount of each piece):

The cost of the first 2,000 sheets
The cost of the next 8,000 sheets
The cost of the final 15,000 sheets

At $0.05 per sheet, the first 2,000 sheets would cost (2,000)($0.05) = $100

Since a 10% discount is applied to the TOTAL cost of the next 8,000 sheets, that cost would be....
(8,000)($0.05) = $400 - (.1)($400) = $360

A 20% discount is applied to the TOTAL cost of the final 15,000 sheets....
(15,000)($0.05) = $750 - (.2)($750) = $600

Total Cost = $100 + $360 + $600 = $1060

Final Answer: B

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

Contact Rich at [email protected]

Quote

Jeff@TargetTestPrep: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 1462; Joined: Thu Apr 09, 2015 9:34 am; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 39 times; Followed by:22 members

by Jeff@TargetTestPrep » Mon Dec 18, 2017 11:29 am

Vincen wrote:If xerox paper costs 5 cents a sheet and a buyer gets 10% discount on all xerox paper one buys after the first 2000 papers and 20% discount after first 10000 papers, how much will it cost to buy 25000 sheets of xerox paper?

A. $1250
B. $1060
C. $1350
D. $900
E. $1000

The first 2,000 sheets cost 2,000 x 5 = 10,000 cents = 100 dollars.

The next 8,000 sheets cost 8,000 x 5 x 0.9 = 36,000 cents = 360 dollars.

The last 15,000 sheets cost 15,000 x 5 x 0.8 = 60,000 cents = 600 dollars.

Thus, the total for 25,000 sheets is 100 + 360 + 600 = 1,060 dollars.

Answer: B

Jeffrey Miller
Head of GMAT Instruction
[email protected]