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A store sold 6 bicycles with an average sale price of $1,000. What was the price of the most expensive bicycle?

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by BTGmoderatorDC » Thu Aug 20, 2020 5:06 pm

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A store sold 6 bicycles with an average sale price of $1,000. What was the price of the most expensive bicycle?

(1) The median price was $1,000.
(2) The range of prices was $600.



OA E

Source: Veritas Prep
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Source: — Data Sufficiency |

BTGmoderatorDC wrote:
Thu Aug 20, 2020 5:06 pm
A store sold 6 bicycles with an average sale price of $1,000. What was the price of the most expensive bicycle?

(1) The median price was $1,000.
(2) The range of prices was $600.
OA E

Source: Veritas Prep
Target question: What was the price of the most expensive bicycle?

Given: The store sold 6 bicycles with an average sale price of $1,000.
This means the SUM of the 6 bikes = $6000 (since $6000/6 bikes = $1000 average)

Statement 1: The median price was $1,000.
This statement doesn't FEEL sufficient, so I'll TEST some values.
There are several scenarios that satisfy statement 1. Here are two:
Case a: the prices are {1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000} in which case the most expensive bike is $1000
Case b: the prices are {900, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1100} in which case the most expensive bike is $1100
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 range of prices was $600
This statement doesn't FEEL sufficient, so I'll TEST some values.
There are several scenarios that satisfy statement 2. Here are two:
Case a: the prices are {700, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1300} in which case the most expensive bike is $1300
Case b: the prices are {600, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1200, 1200} in which case the most expensive bike is $1200
Since we cannot answer the target question with certainty, statement 2 is NOT SUFFICIENT

Statements 1 and 2 combined
There are STILL several scenarios that satisfy BOTH statements. Here are two:
Case a: the prices are {700, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1300} in which case the most expensive bike is $1300
Case b: the prices are {600, 1000, 1000, 1000, 1200, 1200} in which case the most expensive bike is $1200

Since we cannot answer the target question with certainty, the combined statements are NOT SUFFICIENT

Answer: E

Cheers,
Brent
Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com
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