S, O, A, and P

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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 » Tue Oct 20, 2009 5:32 am

Each packet of SOAP costs $10. Inside each packet is a gift coupon labeled with one of the letters S, O, A, and P. If a customer submits four such coupons that make up the word SOAP, the customer gets a free SOAP packet. Ms. X kept buying packet after packet of SOAP till she could get one set of coupons that formed the word SOAP. How many coupons with label P did she get in the above process?

(1) The last label obtained by her was S and the total amount spent was $210.

(2) The total number of vowels obtained was 18.

OA in the next post.

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Data Sufficiency | Tue Oct 20, 2009 5:32 am

mridula: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 44; Joined: Tue Feb 03, 2009 5:17 am

Re: S, O, A, and P

by mridula » Tue Oct 20, 2009 5:38 am

sanju09 wrote:Each packet of SOAP costs $10. Inside each packet is a gift coupon labeled with one of the letters S, O, A, and P. If a customer submits four such coupons that make up the word SOAP, the customer gets a free SOAP packet. Ms. X kept buying packet after packet of SOAP till she could get one set of coupons that formed the word SOAP. How many coupons with label P did she get in the above process?

(1) The last label obtained by her was S and the total amount spent was $210.

(2) The total number of vowels obtained was 18.

OA in the next post.

I think it should be C.

aakar: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 11; Joined: Wed Sep 02, 2009 6:06 am; Thanked: 1 times

by aakar » Tue Oct 20, 2009 6:28 am

I choose "C"

Statement 1 only tells us she bought 21 soaps ($210/$10). Statement 2 only tells us that there are 18 vowels.

Together these statements tell us that there are 18 O and A's. Thus this leaves us with 3 S, P's.

The last letter is an S, so now we have either 2 P's or an S and P for the other 2 letters. If the last letter is an S, this tells us that the word SOAP is a result of one and only one S, the last S. C it is.

ayashlaha: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 10; Joined: Sun Oct 25, 2009 2:09 pm; Thanked: 2 times

by ayashlaha » Sun Oct 25, 2009 2:51 pm

You are souble counting the last S.

$210 implies 21 bars purchased
A - Cleary insufficient
B - Also insufficient

Take them together
-18 vowels
- 3 soaps remain
- Last is 'S'
- 2 remain => both could be P OR could be an S and a P

Hence both together are insufficient

Answer should be E

satish.nagdev: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 130; Joined: Sat Dec 29, 2007 5:35 am; Location: SGP; Thanked: 5 times

by satish.nagdev » Sun Oct 25, 2009 11:14 pm

aakar wrote:I choose "C"
The last letter is an S, so now we have either 2 P's or an S and P for the other 2 letters. If the last letter is an S, this tells us that the word SOAP is a result of one and only one S, the last S. C it is.

E for me, question doesn't mention that one SOAP word has been formed or so.

whats oa

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neonite: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 34; Joined: Mon Oct 19, 2009 1:19 am; Location: India

Its C

by neonite » Sun Oct 25, 2009 11:56 pm

I agree with aakar.

Since S is the last picked letter, that means the customer was waiting for S to complete his/her SOAP.O,A and P only had arrived by the 20th pick.

Therefore putting together 1 & 2, we get P was picked 2 times exactly

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