Renewal Fee

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Renewal Fee

by rahulvsd » Tue Mar 20, 2012 9:30 am
A health club charges an annual $10 renewal fee for all memberships that are not renewed at least 30 days before they would expire. If Eileen renewed her membership 7 days ago, was she charged the renewal fee?

(1) If Eileen had renewed her membership 14 days later, she would have paid the renewal fee.
(2) If Eileen had renewed her membership 3 days later, she would not have paid the renewal fee.

[spoiler]OA:B[/spoiler]
Source: — Data Sufficiency |

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by Mike@Magoosh » Tue Mar 20, 2012 10:40 am
Hi, there. I'm happy to help with this. :)

This one has confusing wording, but the question itself is getting at a very simple idea.

Prompt: A health club charges an annual $10 renewal fee for all memberships that are not renewed at least 30 days before they would expire. If Eileen renewed her membership 7 days ago, was she charged the renewal fee?

So, when someone is a member, they can renew without a fee up until a certain day (that day is 30 days before the membership would expire). Before that day, no fee. After that day, pay a fee. We want to know, where did the day Eileen paid land in with respect to this line?

Statement #1: If Eileen had renewed her membership 14 days later, she would have paid the renewal fee.

In the diagrams I have drawn, the E represents the day Eileen paid, the F represents the day the fee began, green days have no fee, and red days have a fee.

scenario #1: 14 days after[/i ]Eileen paid there was a fee, but Eileen paid no fee
E_ _ _ _ _ _ F _ _ _ _ _ _

scenario #2: Eileen paid a fee, and 14 days after her was still a fee
_ _ _ F _ _ E _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Because we can construct both these scenarios, this statement doesn't allow us to answer the question of whether Eileen paid a fee or not. Statement #1, by itself, is insufficient.

Statement #2: If Eileen had renewed her membership 3 days later, she would not have paid the renewal fee.

Here, the day 3 day after Eileen renews has no fee, so it must be before the beginning of the fee period. So:

(Eileen renews) is before (3 days later) is before (fees begin)

Therefore, by "transitivity of before-ness" :), Eileen must have renewed before the fee began, so she paid no renewal fee. Statements #2, by itself, is sufficient to answer the question.

Answer = B

Does this make sense? Please let me know if you have any further questions on this.

Mike :)
Magoosh GMAT Instructor
https://gmat.magoosh.com/