gmat prep1

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gmat prep1

by jainrahul1985 » Sun Aug 15, 2010 9:15 am
During a sale, for each shirt that Mark purchased at the regular price, he also purchased a shirt at half the regular price. How many shirts did Mark purchase during the sale?

(1) The regular price of each of the shirts that Mark purchased during the sale was $21.50.

(2) The total of the prices for all the shirts that Mark purchased during the sale was $129.00
OA C

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by 4GMAT_Mumbai » Sun Aug 15, 2010 9:30 am
Hi,

Statement 1:

He could have bought 2 regular shirts (1 at $21.5 and the other at $10.75)

He could have also bought 4 regular shirts (2 at the rate of $21.5 and the other 2 at the rate of $10.75).

We have no clue how much money he spent.

Statement 2:

The total amount is given. He could have just purchased two shirts at $86 and $43. He could have purchased four shirts at $43 (two shirts) and $21.5 (other two shirts). We still have no way of deciding between these options. We are also making an unwarranted assumption that the regular price of all pieces of garments are one and the same.

Combining two statements:

We know that the only way for Mark to make the purchase is to buy 4 shirts at regular price ($86) and to buy 4 more shirts at half the regular price ($43). Hence, C

Hope this helps. Thanks.
Naveenan Ramachandran
4GMAT, Dadar(W) & Ghatkopar(W), Mumbai

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by CaptainM » Sat Sep 25, 2010 11:23 am
I could figure out that Option A and B individually are insufficient .On combining (1) and (2) I got an equation
21.5x + 10.25y=129

Now How do I save time to infer that I will get only 1 pair of value for x and y.

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by debmalya_dutta » Sat Sep 25, 2010 11:47 am
CaptainM wrote:I could figure out that Option A and B individually are insufficient .On combining (1) and (2) I got an equation
21.5x + 10.25y=129

Now How do I save time to infer that I will get only 1 pair of value for x and y.
hI ,
think that the question says that he purchases the same number of regular priced shirts and half-priced shirts
"for each shirt that Mark purchased at the regular price, he also purchased a shirt at half the regular price."
21.5x + 10.75x=129
32.25 x = 129
x = 4
So he buys 8 shirts in total
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by clock60 » Sat Sep 25, 2010 11:53 am
CaptainM wrote:I could figure out that Option A and B individually are insufficient .On combining (1) and (2) I got an equation
21.5x + 10.25y=129

Now How do I save time to infer that I will get only 1 pair of value for x and y.
if i catch you idea right x is the number of shirts at regular price and y is the number purchased at reduced price. according to the problem for every 1 regular he is given 1 reduced so they are 1:1 ratio and it happens that x=y

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by CaptainM » Tue Sep 28, 2010 5:52 am
Yeah!! I got that!!
Thanks debmalya_dutta and clock60 :)

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by lunarpower » Thu Sep 30, 2010 3:39 am
CaptainM wrote:I could figure out that Option A and B individually are insufficient .On combining (1) and (2) I got an equation
21.5x + 10.25y=129

Now How do I save time to infer that I will get only 1 pair of value for x and y.
well, you've got that equation incorrect -- it should be 21.5x + 10.25x. there is no reason to introduce the second variable here, since both values must be the same -- the question prompt makes it clear that the number of full-price shirts is the same as the number of half-price shirts ("For each ... he also purchased a ...").

so, in this particular problem, you've got one linear equation in one variable, so it should be pretty clear that you are going to get a solution.

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however, yes, there will be cases in which you'll have such equations with two variables.
(here's one such question: https://www.beatthegmat.com/gmat-prep-qu ... t2465.html)

on such equations, the answer to "how can i shortcut the process?" is ... "you can't".
if you have a linear equation to which the solution must be in whole numbers, the ONLY way to be sure that you are correct about its sufficiency/insufficiency is to TEST NUMBERS.

you shouldn't worry about trying to come up with any sort of clever shortcut method to avoid such testing. if you're not convinced, consider the following two equations, in terms of whole number solutions:
5x + 7y = 48
5x + 7y = 47

the first of these has only one whole-number solution (x = 4, y = 4). the second, however, has two of them (x = 1, y = 6, and x = 8, y = 1).

in any case, it's not as though the number testing really takes a lot of time -- if it does, then this probably just means that Excel has killed your ability to do arithmetic by hand, and so you should probably practice arithmetic until you can do it more efficiently.
the gmat is not going to give you one of these problems with obnoxiously large numbers, so you won't have to worry about situations in which number testing is unreasonable in the given timeframe.
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

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