factor26 wrote:Thanks all!!
@gmatguruny -- is it ok to use simple numbers, #1 for the value of X?
I thought one should steer clear of using the number 1 when plugging solving such questions like this.
When a PS question has variables in the answer choices, we should avoid plugging in 1.
The reason is that plugging in 1 increases the odds that more than one answer choice will work.
To illustrate:
Let's say that, in response to a given PS problem, we plug in x=1 and get a target of 5.
Consider the following answer choices:
5/x
5/x²
5x
5x²
5^x
When x=1, every answer choice is equal to 5.
The result: we have to plug in a different value for x and repeat the whole process.
DS problems don't have 5 answer choices, each containing a variable.
Instead, we're evaluating the 2 statements, so our concern here is different.
We need to be mindful that the result yielded by x=1 might not be the same as the result that would be yielded by another value.
In the DS problem above, plugging in x=1 makes the math SO much more manageable that the benefits seem to outweigh the risk.
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