Hi Anaira Mitch,
We're told that the MEDIAN price of 5 homes is $200,000. We're asked if the RANGE of all 5 prices is greater than $80,000. This is a YES/NO question and we can solve it with a bit of logic and by TESTing VALUES.
Since the MEDIAN price is $200,000, we can start by organizing our information visually:
_ _ $200,000 _ _
1) The AVERAGE price of the five homes is $240,000.
With an AVERAGE price of $240,000, the SUM of the 5 prices is (Sum)/5 = $240,000..... Sum = $1,200,000
IF....
The 5 prices are .....
$200,000 $200,000 $200,000 $200,000 $400,000 then the Range = $200,000 and the answer to the question is YES.
To DECREASE the range, we would need to decrease the LARGEST price and 'compensate' by raising one (or more) of the other prices. However, since the MEDIAN is $200,000, we've already made the 3 'lowest' values as big as they can be. Since those 3 values would total $600,000 at MOST, the remaining two values would have to account for the remaining $600,000 of the total. The 'closest' we could make those last two values would be $300,000 and $300,000 - and under that situation, the Range = $100,000 and the answer to the question is still YES.
The Range will ALWAYS be greater than $80,000 and the answer to the quesiton is ALWAYS YES.
Fact 1 is SUFFICIENT
2) Three of five homes have the SAME price.
With the information in Fact 2, we know that three of the prices would be $200,000... but we don't know the value of the OTHER TWO prices, so there's no way to determine whether the Range is greater than $80,000 or not.
Fact 2 is INSUFFICIENT
Final Answer: A
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
