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alex.gellatly: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 435; Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2011 7:27 amFollowed by: 16 members; Thanked: 48 times

by alex.gellatly » Tue Jul 17, 2012 9:52 pm

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Company P had 15 percent more employees in December than it had in January. If Company P had 460 employees in December, how many employees did it have in January?

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Problem Solving | Tue Jul 17, 2012 9:52 pm

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Anurag@Gurome: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3835; Joined: Fri Apr 02, 2010 10:00 pmFollowed by: 523 members; Location: Milpitas, CA; Thanked: 1854 times; GMAT Score:770

by Anurag@Gurome » Tue Jul 17, 2012 10:07 pm

alex.gellatly wrote:Company P had 15 percent more employees in December than it had in January. If Company P had 460 employees in December, how many employees did it have in January?

Say, number of employees in January = J
Hence, number of employees in December = (J + 15% of J) = (1.15)*J

Therefore, (1.15)*J = 460 ---> J = 460/(1.15) = 400

The correct answer is B.

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GMATGuruNY: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 15539; Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 12:04 pmFollowed by: 1906 members; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 13060 times; GMAT Score:790

by GMATGuruNY » Wed Jul 18, 2012 1:58 am

alex.gellatly wrote:Company P had 15 percent more employees in December than it had in January. If Company P had 460 employees in December, how many employees did it have in January?

391
400
410
423
445

ALWAYS LOOK AT THE ANSWER CHOICES.
15% of the correct answer must yield an integer value.
Only answer choice B is viable.

The correct answer is B.

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Scott@TargetTestPrep: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 8136; Joined: Sat Apr 25, 2015 10:56 amFollowed by: 29 members; Location: Los Angeles, CA; Thanked: 43 times

by Scott@TargetTestPrep » Tue Jun 30, 2015 11:42 am

alex.gellatly wrote:Company P had 15 percent more employees in December than it had in January. If Company P had 460 employees in December, how many employees did it have in January?

391
400
410
423
445

Solution:

There are two methods we can use to solve a problem like this. The first is to create a simple word translation. We are given that Company P had 15 percent more employees in December than it had in January and that it had 460 employees in December.

So we can say:

D = number of employees in December

J = number of employees in January

J x 1.15 = D

J x 1.15 = 460

J = 460/1.15

J = 46,000/115 = 400

Alternately, we could have looked at our answer choices and used divisibility and a little logic. We know that the answer choices represent the number of employees in January.

Thus we can say the following:

(Answer Choice)(1.15) = 460

Answer Choice x 115/100 = 460

Right away we can see that answer choice B stands out because it is divisible by 100. If we do the arithmetic, we see that:

400 x 115/100 = 400/100 x 115 = 4 x 115 = 460.

Answer: B

Scott Woodbury-Stewart
Founder and CEO
[email protected]

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[email protected]: Elite Legendary Member; Posts: 10392; Joined: Sun Jun 23, 2013 6:38 pmFollowed by: 511 members; Location: Palo Alto, CA; Thanked: 2867 times; GMAT Score:800

by [email protected] » Sat Jun 16, 2018 3:16 pm

Hi All,

We're told that Company P had 15 percent MORE employees in December than it had in January and that Company P had 460 employees in December. We're asked for the number of employees it had in January. This question can be solved rather easily by TESTing THE ANSWERS (as Mitch has shown). It can also be solved with a bit of 'brute force' arithmetic.

To start, since 15% of 100 = 15, if we increase 100 by 15%, we end up with a total of 115. With every increase of 100 employees, that increase of 15% will lead to another 15 employees added to the total. This means that....
if we increase 200 by 15%, we end up with a total of 230
if we increase 300 by 15%, we end up with a total of 345
if we increase 400 by 15%, we end up with a total of 460

That last example is an exact match for what we were told, so that must be the answer!

Final Answer: B

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Contact Rich at [email protected]

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