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base salary + commission.

by gmat_perfect » Mon Jun 14, 2010 1:55 am
Each week Connie receives a base salary of $500, plus a 20 percent commission on the total amount of her sales that week in excess of $1,500. What was the total amount of Connie's sales last week?
(1) Last week Connie's base salary and commission totaled $1,200.
(2) Last week Connie's commission was $700.

OA: Later.
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Source: — Data Sufficiency |
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by albatross86 » Mon Jun 14, 2010 2:02 am
Let total amount of sales be X

Total earnings = 500 + 0.2*(X-1500)

What is X?


1. We have total earnings = 1200 = 500 + 0.2*(X-1500)
One equation one variable. Sufficient.

2. We have commission = 700 = 0.2*(X-1500)
One equation one variable. Sufficient.

Pick D
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by gmat_perfect » Mon Jun 14, 2010 3:24 am
albatross86 wrote:Let total amount of sales be X

Total earnings = 500 + 0.2*(X-1500)

What is X?


1. We have total earnings = 1200 = 500 + 0.2*(X-1500)
One equation one variable. Sufficient.

2. We have commission = 700 = 0.2*(X-1500)
One equation one variable. Sufficient.

Pick D
Thanks. You are right.
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by outreach » Mon Jun 14, 2010 7:02 pm
F=$500
x be the amount of sales
V = .2*(x-1500) - (1)
total salary=f+v

option 1
f+v=1200
v=700
substitue in eq 1 to get V
700=.2*(x-1500)
3500=x-1500
x=5000

sufficient


option 2
v=700
solving we will get the total amt

sufficient
gmat_perfect wrote:Each week Connie receives a base salary of $500, plus a 20 percent commission on the total amount of her sales that week in excess of $1,500. What was the total amount of Connie's sales last week?
(1) Last week Connie's base salary and commission totaled $1,200.
(2) Last week Connie's commission was $700.

OA: Later.
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by Testluv » Tue Jun 15, 2010 12:12 am
We shouldn't do a bunch of math unless we have to. An important skill in DS is NOT doing math.

Also, long before going to the statements we should focus on the question stem, and determine what information would be needed to answer the question. (Step 1 of the Kaplan method for DS).

Here, the question asks for her sales, and we are told that her commission is 20% of sales in excess of $1,500. So, we should say to ourselves: "Because her commission is 20% of sales in excess of $1,500, if I know her commission I can compute the sales in excess of $1,500...and I would only need to add $1,500 to that to get to total sales. So, if I know her commission, I know her sales."

NOW, go to the statements...then both (1) and (2) are clearly sufficient....don't even need to touch your scratchpaper if you don't want to!

___

Strategy note: we were told the base salary in the question stem. Thus, both statements are giving us the EXACT SAME information. Either that information is or else it is not sufficient. Thus, in this situation, the answer will be either D or E.
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