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

Redeem

Target Test Prep · GMAT

Choose how you want to prepare

Learn live with an expert or move at your own pace. Every option includes the complete TTP study system.

★★★★★5.0559 reviews
Vote for Target Test Prep, Newsweek Readers’ Choice Awards 2026
NEWSWEEK READERS’ CHOICE 2026

BIG NEWS! Target Test Prep has been nominated, and they’d love your vote!

TTP has worked incredibly hard to build the best test prep experience possible, and winning Newsweek’s 2026 Readers’ Choice Award for Best Test Prep would mean a lot to them. If TTP has helped you, they’d be incredibly grateful for your vote. You can vote once each day through September 9.

Vote for TTP
GMATLiveTeach 7 seats left
Chris Peckover
NEXT LIVE COHORT

Oct 13 to Jan 7, 2027

with Chris Peckover

Schedule
Tue, Thu · 8:00 to 10:00 PM ET
Included
40 live hours + 6 months of GMAT OnDemand
  • Live instruction and real-time questions
  • Class recordings and assigned practice
View class & enroll
Limited cohort · enrollment openTarget Test Prep
EALiveTeach 5 seats left
Logan Thompson
EXECUTIVE ASSESSMENT

Sep 6 to Dec 6, 2026

with Logan Thompson

Schedule
Sun · 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM ET
Included
40 hours of live online classes plus six months of access to the complete TTP EA OnDemand course.
  • 165+ EA Score Guarantee
  • 4,100+ Quant, Verbal, and Integrated Reasoning practice questions
  • 400+ hours of in-depth video lessons
  • 3,000+ step-by-step video solutions
View EA class & enroll
Limited cohort · enrollment openTarget Test Prep
GMATOnDemand Start anytime
SELF-PACED MASTERCLASS

Target Test Prep GMAT OnDemand

Complete access from day one. Study on your schedule.

715+ score guarantee
$0to start then $127/mo
  • Personalized study plan and analytics
  • Thousands of lessons and practice questions

Compare the format, schedule, and included access before enrolling. Prices and seat counts shown reflect the supplied offer details.

DS: For every integer m, (m+n)!/(m – 1)!

Expert replies
Source: — Data Sufficiency |

by DanaJ » Mon Aug 24, 2009 1:08 pm
Ugh, toughie. Actually, tough to explain. I'll try to give as many examples as possible.

1. P = (m + n)!/(m - 1)! will be P = m*(m + 1)*(m + 2)*...*(m + n). As you can probably guess, there are (n + 1) elements in this product (which I've noted as P for brevity). If you have trouble understanding this, let me give you an example:
(3 + 5)!/(3 - 1)! = 8!/2! = 3*4*5*6*7*8

n = 5 and you end up with 6 CONSECUTIVE elements in the product. Note that the first element in the product will always be m. In the above case, m = 3.

For P to be divisible by 16, your best bet is to see that 16 = 2^4, so you need at least 4 2's in your product. Now comes the hard part, which I hope I can explain to you in such a way that makes sense.

Every two numbers, you get an even number, i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. So you'd think you need four even numbers for your product, right? Actually, you'll only need three at most. This happens because EVERY TWO EVEN NUMBERS, one of these two even numbers is divisible by 4 (this makes sense if you write a list of numbers as I did above with the even numbers). So you'll need three even numbers tops, since they'd all be divisible by 2 (three times 2), but one of the three will always be divisible by 4 (another 2).

Look at the example above. It's basically the worst case scenario, when the string of numbers starts with an odd integers. You need all 6 numbers to get the "at least four 2's", so n = 6 - 1 = 5. There are other more favorable cases, i.e. if you start with an even number:

4*5*6*7*8 - in this case you get two 2's from 4, one 2 from 6 and three 2's from 8. As you can see, here you only need 5 elements to get the "at least four 2's". Since the number of elements = n + 1, in this example n = 5 - 1 = 4. In this case, m = 4 (since it's the first element of the product).

BUT

Since n is devised in such a way that no matter what m is, P will be divisible by 16, n must be AT LEAST 5 (since 5 is our worst case scenario). However, as you might have guessed, there are more than one possible values for n, since n >= 5. As long as you get 6 numbers in your product, everything's cool, no matter m. So since 1 yields more than one value for n (actually, an infinity: every integer greater than or equal to 5), 1 is insufficient.


2. n^2 - 9n + 20 = (n - 5)(n - 4) = 0. This quadratic has two solutions: n = 4 and n = 5. Since you get two options, 2 is insufficient as well.

But put both statements together to get:
1. n > = 5
2. n = 4 or n = 5

As you can see, there's only one value that fits and that's 5. Since you get a single value for n, C is the correct answer.

Man I sure hope this makes sense to you. I know 1 seems pretty convoluted, but trust me: it's the examples that make it big. If you have enough practice to know what to look for, then I guarantee it's easier.
Join the discussion