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

Redeem

collection of tough problems from G PREP - 29

This topic has expert replies
Post new topic Post Reply
Previous Topic Next Topic
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 379
Joined: Tue Sep 30, 2008 7:17 am
Location: NY
Thanked: 28 times
Followed by:11 members

collection of tough problems from G PREP - 29

by abhasjha » Mon Feb 08, 2010 3:17 am
Last year the avg. salary of the 10 employees of Company X was $42,800. What is the avg. salary of the same 10 employees this year?

1) For 8 of the 10 employees, this year's salary is 15 percent greater than last year's salary.

2) For 2 of the 10 employees, this year's salary is the same as last year's salary
Top
Source: — Data Sufficiency |
User avatar
Legendary Member
Posts: 1022
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2009 11:49 pm
Location: Gandhinagar
Thanked: 41 times
Followed by:2 members

by shashank.ism » Mon Feb 08, 2010 4:03 am
abhasjha wrote:Last year the avg. salary of the 10 employees of Company X was $42,800. What is the avg. salary of the same 10 employees this year?

1) For 8 of the 10 employees, this year's salary is 15 percent greater than last year's salary.

2) For 2 of the 10 employees, this year's salary is the same as last year's salary
st 1: we don't know status of other 2 employees --- insufficient
st 2: we don't know status of other 8 employees --- insufficient

combining st1 and st2 : total salary = 8x1.15x42800 + 2x42800
av salary = 479360/10 = 47936
Ans is C
My Websites:
www.mba.webmaggu.com - India's social Network for MBA Aspirants

www.deal.webmaggu.com -India's online discount, coupon, free stuff informer.

www.dictionary.webmaggu.com - A compact free online dictionary with images.

Nothing is Impossible, even Impossible says I'm possible.
Top
User avatar
Legendary Member
Posts: 1275
Joined: Thu Sep 21, 2006 11:13 pm
Location: Arabian Sea
Thanked: 125 times
Followed by:2 members

by ajith » Tue Feb 09, 2010 3:27 am
abhasjha wrote:Last year the avg. salary of the 10 employees of Company X was $42,800. What is the avg. salary of the same 10 employees this year?

1) For 8 of the 10 employees, this year's salary is 15 percent greater than last year's salary.

2) For 2 of the 10 employees, this year's salary is the same as last year's salary
1. Insufficient
2. Insufficient

Combined also insufficient since we do not know the contribution of these two employees to total salary
Always borrow money from a pessimist, he doesn't expect to be paid back.
Top
User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 3650
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:27 am
Location: India
Thanked: 267 times
Followed by:80 members
GMAT Score:760

by sanju09 » Tue Feb 09, 2010 3:39 am
abhasjha wrote:Last year the avg. salary of the 10 employees of Company X was $42,800. What is the avg. salary of the same 10 employees this year?

1) For 8 of the 10 employees, this year's salary is 15 percent greater than last year's salary.

2) For 2 of the 10 employees, this year's salary is the same as last year's salary
(1) If this year's salary is 15 percent greater than last year's salary for 8 of the 10 employees, then the same would be the increase in the average salary of those 8 particular employees. What about the other two? Insufficient

(2) If this year's salary is the same as last year's salary for 2 of the 10 employees, then the average salary of those 2 particular employees would remain same. What about the other eight? Insufficient

Taken together

It's lucid that the 8 employees cited in (1) are different to the 2 employees cited in (2). Sufficient

[spoiler]C[/spoiler]
The mind is everything. What you think you become. -Lord Buddha



Sanjeev K Saxena
Quantitative Instructor
The Princeton Review - Manya Abroad
Lucknow-226001

www.manyagroup.com
Top
User avatar
Legendary Member
Posts: 1275
Joined: Thu Sep 21, 2006 11:13 pm
Location: Arabian Sea
Thanked: 125 times
Followed by:2 members

by ajith » Tue Feb 09, 2010 4:23 am
sanju09 wrote:
abhasjha wrote:Last year the avg. salary of the 10 employees of Company X was $42,800. What is the avg. salary of the same 10 employees this year?

1) For 8 of the 10 employees, this year's salary is 15 percent greater than last year's salary.

2) For 2 of the 10 employees, this year's salary is the same as last year's salary
(1) If this year's salary is 15 percent greater than last year's salary for 8 of the 10 employees, then the same would be the increase in the average salary of those 8 particular employees. What about the other two? Insufficient

(2) If this year's salary is the same as last year's salary for 2 of the 10 employees, then the average salary of those 2 particular employees would remain same. What about the other eight? Insufficient

Taken together

It's lucid that the 8 employees cited in (1) are different to the 2 employees cited in (2). Sufficient

[spoiler]C[/spoiler]
lets take a hypothetical case where all the 8 employees have a salary of 0
and rest of the two has a salary of 5*42800

The overall salary change is 0
eventhough 15% hike is given to 8 employees


My point is until and unless we know about the composition of salaries we cannot take a call on how much the total change in salary is
Always borrow money from a pessimist, he doesn't expect to be paid back.
Top
User avatar
Legendary Member
Posts: 1275
Joined: Thu Sep 21, 2006 11:13 pm
Location: Arabian Sea
Thanked: 125 times
Followed by:2 members

by ajith » Tue Feb 09, 2010 4:24 am
shashank.ism wrote:
st 1: we don't know status of other 2 employees --- insufficient
st 2: we don't know status of other 8 employees --- insufficient

combining st1 and st2 : total salary = 8x1.15x42800 + 2x42800
av salary = 479360/10 = 47936
Ans is C
Who said avg salary of those two employees is 42800 - we do not know this!
Always borrow money from a pessimist, he doesn't expect to be paid back.
Top
User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 3650
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:27 am
Location: India
Thanked: 267 times
Followed by:80 members
GMAT Score:760

by sanju09 » Tue Feb 09, 2010 4:41 am
ajith wrote:
sanju09 wrote:
abhasjha wrote:Last year the avg. salary of the 10 employees of Company X was $42,800. What is the avg. salary of the same 10 employees this year?

1) For 8 of the 10 employees, this year's salary is 15 percent greater than last year's salary.

2) For 2 of the 10 employees, this year's salary is the same as last year's salary
(1) If this year's salary is 15 percent greater than last year's salary for 8 of the 10 employees, then the same would be the increase in the average salary of those 8 particular employees. What about the other two? Insufficient

(2) If this year's salary is the same as last year's salary for 2 of the 10 employees, then the average salary of those 2 particular employees would remain same. What about the other eight? Insufficient

Taken together

It's lucid that the 8 employees cited in (1) are different to the 2 employees cited in (2). Sufficient

[spoiler]C[/spoiler]
lets take a hypothetical case where all the 8 employees have a salary of 0
and rest of the two has a salary of 5*42800

The overall salary change is 0
eventhough 15% hike is given to 8 employees


My point is until and unless we know about the composition of salaries we cannot take a call on how much the total change in salary is
Please note this thing once and for all that on the real GMAT DS if this turn of phrase ever appears that x is 15 percent greater than y, then they certainly mean that x > y > 0 without an admonition.
The mind is everything. What you think you become. -Lord Buddha



Sanjeev K Saxena
Quantitative Instructor
The Princeton Review - Manya Abroad
Lucknow-226001

www.manyagroup.com
Top
User avatar
Legendary Member
Posts: 1275
Joined: Thu Sep 21, 2006 11:13 pm
Location: Arabian Sea
Thanked: 125 times
Followed by:2 members

by ajith » Tue Feb 09, 2010 5:38 am
sanju09 wrote: Please note this thing once and for all that on the real GMAT DS if this turn of phrase ever appears that x is 15 percent greater than y, then they certainly mean that x > y > 0 without an admonition.
I did not get the argument - what does it mean to common man?
Always borrow money from a pessimist, he doesn't expect to be paid back.
Top
User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 3650
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:27 am
Location: India
Thanked: 267 times
Followed by:80 members
GMAT Score:760

by sanju09 » Tue Feb 09, 2010 6:27 am
ajith wrote:
sanju09 wrote: Please note this thing once and for all that on the real GMAT DS if this turn of phrase ever appears that x is 15 percent greater than y, then they certainly mean that x > y > 0 without an admonition.
I did not get the argument - what does it mean to common man?
Common man must know no ambiguity on GMAT or must not know GMAT.
The mind is everything. What you think you become. -Lord Buddha



Sanjeev K Saxena
Quantitative Instructor
The Princeton Review - Manya Abroad
Lucknow-226001

www.manyagroup.com
Top
User avatar
Legendary Member
Posts: 1275
Joined: Thu Sep 21, 2006 11:13 pm
Location: Arabian Sea
Thanked: 125 times
Followed by:2 members

by ajith » Tue Feb 09, 2010 7:22 am
sanju09 wrote:
Common man must know no ambiguity on GMAT or must not know GMAT.
Well, what is the answer according to you then? Let us not digress
Always borrow money from a pessimist, he doesn't expect to be paid back.
Top
Legendary Member
Posts: 941
Joined: Sun Dec 27, 2009 12:28 am
Thanked: 20 times
Followed by:1 members

by bhumika.k.shah » Tue Feb 09, 2010 8:16 am
Statement I and II both are clearly insufficient.

Both statements together are also insufficient because we donot know the break up of either of the employees . in this case atleast 2 employees.

IMO E

Is it possible to assume that those 2 employees are forming a part of the 8 employees group ? Can we assume them to be not different ?

If thats the case then the answer will be C
Top

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 2623
Joined: Mon Jun 02, 2008 3:17 am
Location: Montreal
Thanked: 1090 times
Followed by:355 members
GMAT Score:780

by Ian Stewart » Tue Feb 09, 2010 10:05 am
Just to clear up any confusion, ajith's answer is correct here. We know the average salary was $42,800; that does not mean that every employee earned $42,800. We might have that the 8 employees who got a raise earned $1000 each last year, and that the other 2 employees earned $210,000 last year, in which case this year we have 8 employees earning $1150 each and 2 employees earning $210,000 each, for an average of $42920. Alternatively we might have that the 8 employees who received a raise earned $50,000 each last year, and that the 2 employees who did not receive a raise earned $14,000 each last year, in which case this year we have 8 employees earning $57,500 each and 2 earning $14,000 each for an average of $48,800. There are, of course, many other possibilities (indeed there is no reason anyone needs to earn the same amount). The answer is E.
For online GMAT math tutoring, or to buy my higher-level Quant books and problem sets, contact me at ianstewartgmat at gmail.com

ianstewartgmat.com
Top
User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 3650
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:27 am
Location: India
Thanked: 267 times
Followed by:80 members
GMAT Score:760

by sanju09 » Wed Feb 10, 2010 11:15 pm
bhumika.k.shah wrote:Statement I and II both are clearly insufficient.

Both statements together are also insufficient because we donot know the break up of either of the employees . in this case atleast 2 employees.

IMO E

Is it possible to assume that those 2 employees are forming a part of the 8 employees group ? Can we assume them to be not different ?

If thats the case then the answer will be C
Sorry for joining so late...

I would still maintain that it's lucid that the 8 employees cited in (1) are different to the 2 employees cited in (2), simply because an employee getting a 15 percent hike in salary cannot be the same employee getting no hike as such, but this should certainly not have enticed a test taker to choose C so unmindfully, as everybody here is right at it that we neither have any means to keep apart the salaries nor we have a chance to apply average to one and all.

[spoiler]Me2E[/spoiler]
The mind is everything. What you think you become. -Lord Buddha



Sanjeev K Saxena
Quantitative Instructor
The Princeton Review - Manya Abroad
Lucknow-226001

www.manyagroup.com
Top
Post new topic Post Reply
• Page 1 of 1