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percentage

by hey_thr67 » Mon Jun 25, 2012 9:44 am
A candy wholesaler needs to quickly sell some candy bars that are nearing their expiration date, so he reduced the price of the candy bars. By what percent did he reduce the price of the candy bars?

(1) The price of a candy bar was reduced by 36 cents.

(2) If a candy retailer purchases a case of 144 candy bars from the wholesaler, she will save $51.84 as a result of the price reduction.


OA is E

Not able to decode what statement 1 means. Complicated language.
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by eagleeye » Mon Jun 25, 2012 10:12 am
hey_thr67 wrote:A candy wholesaler needs to quickly sell some candy bars that are nearing their expiration date, so he reduced the price of the candy bars. By what percent did he reduce the price of the candy bars?

(1) The price of a candy bar was reduced by 36 cents.

(2) If a candy retailer purchases a case of 144 candy bars from the wholesaler, she will save $51.84 as a result of the price reduction.


OA is E

Not able to decode what statement 1 means. Complicated language.
Hi:

The problem asks us the find percentage reduction in the price of one candy bar. That means we need to find two things, the original and the final price of one candy bar.

Let A be the original price and B be the final price. Then the percentage reduction will be 100*(A-B)/A. So we need to find both B and A.

Let's look at the statements.

1. This tells us that to get rid of the candy, the wholesaler decreased the price of the candy bar by 36 cents. Which means we know that A-B=36 cents. Since we don't know what A is, this is insufficient.

2. We are told that if some retailer buys 144 candy bars from the wholesaler, the retailer will save $51.84. In other words 144*(A-B) = 5184 cents , which gives us A-B = 36 cents. This is the same information as above, and we still don't know what A is. Hence B is insufficient. At this point, since A and B are essentially the same statement, and they are insufficient, taken together, the information is insufficient as well. Hence E.

Let me know if this helps :)
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by tpr-becky » Mon Jun 25, 2012 6:19 pm
For questions such as these it is important to think about what information would solve the problem and then determine if the statements provide the information.

the question asks for percent change in the candy bar price - percent change is obtained by dividing the actual difference by the original price - so you need the difference and the original price.

1) does not give any information about original price so it cannot be the answer.

2) again, it gives you info about the discount price but doing the actual math would be a waste of time if you can't get all of your pieces. This statement will never tell you the original price, just the discount so it cannot be sufficient.

Together both statements are missing the information about original price so the answer must be E.
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by hey_thr67 » Tue Jun 26, 2012 7:16 am
It might be foolish to say but till this moment, I didn't get that it is "cent" and not "percent". In the exam, at-times it is hard to concentrate and nervousness can make any easy question hard.Even at the time of posting, I had was confidant that it is percent and didn't bother to check it again. A lesson hard learned.
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by Gaurav 2013-fall » Thu Jun 28, 2012 7:33 am
This habit of careful reading will pay you dividends not only in CR and DS but overall when you join any corporation after the MBA. Sometimes I think, GMAT is all about Reading comprehension.
After all, great managers are careful yet fast readers.
Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done. Now, if you know what you're worth, then go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hit, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you are because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain't you. You're better than that! (Rocky VI)
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