riding in the carpool lane

Expert replies

sanju09: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3650; Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:27 amFollowed by: 80 members; Location: India; Thanked: 267 times; GMAT Score:760

by sanju09 » Thu Mar 19, 2009 5:57 am

The fine for a driver riding in the carpool lane without any passengers is $133. A driver is issued a bench warrant for $2,294.25, which includes a 15% fee for late charges and court costs. How many tickets has the driver not paid?
A. 10
B. 12
C. 13
D. 14
E. 15

OA E

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

Like this post

Source: Beat The GMAT — Problem Solving | Thu Mar 19, 2009 5:57 am

truplayer256: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 392; Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2009 12:52 pm; Location: New Jersey; Thanked: 76 times

by truplayer256 » Thu Mar 19, 2009 12:19 pm

The $2294.25 that the driver is charged for fines also includes the 15% late charge. So, in order to find out how much the driver was actually charged for ticket fines, we can do the following:
x=Amount driver was charged for ticket fines.
1.15x=2294.25
x=1995

1995/133= The total amount of tickets received= 15

Like this post

Stuart@KaplanGMAT: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3225; Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2008 2:40 pmFollowed by: 614 members; Location: Toronto; Thanked: 1710 times; GMAT Score:800

Re: riding in the carpool lane

by Stuart@KaplanGMAT » Thu Mar 19, 2009 4:09 pm

sanju09 wrote:The fine for a driver riding in the carpool lane without any passengers is $133. A driver is issued a bench warrant for $2,294.25, which includes a 15% fee for late charges and court costs. How many tickets has the driver not paid?
A. 10
B. 12
C. 13
D. 14
E. 15

Very ambiguously worded question (how do we know that the bench warrant is only for this specific type of ticket?), but let's ignore that for the moment.

We could do some wild and wacky calculations to solve, but backsolving is going to be MUCH faster (if we work forwards, we're going to have to do some ugly division, whereas if we work backwards we'll do multiplication, which most people find a lot simpler).

When we backsolve, we generally start with (B) or (D). Just estimating, 12*133 seems way too small, so let's try (D) first.

If we got 14 tickets, then our cost would be 14*133*1.15

14*133 = 1862. 15% of 1862 is certainly less than 400, so there's no way that 14 tickets are going to give us a total cost of 2294.25.

Since 14 tickets was below what we want, we can eliminate 10, 12, 13 and 14, leaving us with only (e) 15.

Stuart Kovinsky | Kaplan GMAT Faculty | Toronto

Kaplan Exclusive: The Official Test Day Experience | Ready to Take a Free Practice Test? | Kaplan/Beat the GMAT Member Discount
BTG100 for $100 off a full course

Like this post

sanju09: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3650; Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:27 amFollowed by: 80 members; Location: India; Thanked: 267 times; GMAT Score:760

by sanju09 » Fri Mar 20, 2009 2:49 am

Thanks for blotching and ignoring the bench warrant, Stuart! Yours have been a wonderful and always working approach. Pay heed to this aspirants, please!

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

Like this post

Goal to 800: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 15; Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2009 3:29 pm

Re: riding in the carpool lane

by Goal to 800 » Fri Mar 20, 2009 3:56 pm

Stuart Kovinsky wrote:
sanju09 wrote:The fine for a driver riding in the carpool lane without any passengers is $133. A driver is issued a bench warrant for $2,294.25, which includes a 15% fee for late charges and court costs. How many tickets has the driver not paid?
A. 10
B. 12
C. 13
D. 14
E. 15
Very ambiguously worded question (how do we know that the bench warrant is only for this specific type of ticket?), but let's ignore that for the moment.

We could do some wild and wacky calculations to solve, but backsolving is going to be MUCH faster (if we work forwards, we're going to have to do some ugly division, whereas if we work backwards we'll do multiplication, which most people find a lot simpler).

When we backsolve, we generally start with (B) or (D). Just estimating, 12*133 seems way too small, so let's try (D) first.

If we got 14 tickets, then our cost would be 14*133*1.15

14*133 = 1862. 15% of 1862 is certainly less than 400, so there's no way that 14 tickets are going to give us a total cost of 2294.25.

Since 14 tickets was below what we want, we can eliminate 10, 12, 13 and 14, leaving us with only (e) 15.

Agreed. Achieved the answer by plugging in 15 to begin. Luckily, it worked because 15 is a great number to work with.

Great method for this type of complicated division.

Thanks for all your solutions. You are a tremendous asset to the GMAT/MBA Community.

Like this post

m&m: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 134; Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 7:44 pm; Thanked: 14 times

by m&m » Sat Mar 21, 2009 10:50 am

Numbers worked out quite nicely working backwards.

2294 ~ 2300 and 1.15 = 115/100 = 23/20 so

2300 * 20/23 = 100 * 20 = 2000 and 133*10 is 1330 and 50% of that is 665. Adding the 2 (10+5 = 15) is close enough to 2000. So must be E

Like this post

brianwalter: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 1; Joined: Wed Jun 04, 2014 2:57 am

by brianwalter » Wed Jun 04, 2014 3:02 am

Thanks for this post. HOV lanes, or carpool lanes, allow automobiles with more than one occupant to skirt busy traffic. It is a benefit for saving fuel and polluting less. A new program in California permits motorists of so-called green cars the same opportunity, even if they are driving alone. I hope that there's big possibility that this program will be passed into law.

Like this post

GMAT/MBA Expert

Scott@TargetTestPrep: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 8157; Joined: Sat Apr 25, 2015 10:56 amFollowed by: 29 members; Location: Los Angeles, CA; Thanked: 43 times

by Scott@TargetTestPrep » Sun Aug 11, 2019 6:41 pm

sanju09 wrote:The fine for a driver riding in the carpool lane without any passengers is $133. A driver is issued a bench warrant for $2,294.25, which includes a 15% fee for late charges and court costs. How many tickets has the driver not paid?
A. 10
B. 12
C. 13
D. 14
E. 15

OA E

If x is the total charge of all the tickets without any fees, we can create the equation:

1.15x = 2,294.25

x = 2,294.25/1.15 = 1995

So the driver was charged $1995 without any fees, and therefore,the driver was issued 1995 / 133 = 15 tickets.

Answer: E

Scott Woodbury-Stewart
Founder and CEO
[email protected]

See why Target Test Prep is rated 5 out of 5 stars on BEAT the GMAT. Read our reviews

Like this post

Post new topic Post Reply

• Page 1 of 1

GMAT Course Reviews

560 reviews

1168 reviews

431 reviews

359 reviews

147 reviews

5/5

5 Star (560 Reviews)

"Target Test Prep is the closest to the official version of the GMAT exam, about 99% accuracy in terms of the quality and quantity of information. The course has excellently created singular sets of focused lessons and tests for every possible topic that one could come across in the official GMAT exam."

"The TTP course maximizes the efficiency of the time you spend studying. It will take time and effort but I could almost guarantee that if you complete the course exactly as it is laid out you will get an amazing score. They also have a very responsive team willing to help with any questions you might have."

"TTP has two things that I think no other test prep company offers: A teaching approach that reinforces understanding and an attitude that will give you the mental preparedness needed to succeed on the test. TTP gives you a deep understanding of the concept you need to know while teaching you how to think."

Write a Review