duahsolo wrote:
Erica receives an annual salary of $38,000 plus a commission of 20 percent on sales she makes in excess of $90,000 while Carla receives an annual salary of $24,000 plus a 10 percent commission on her total annual sales only if they exceed $150,000. If Erica earned twice as much as Carla, and both realized equal sales for their company, what must the total annual sales made by each?
A) 95
B) 120
C) 140
D) 160
E) 180
Dear
duahsolo,
I'm happy to respond.
I am not sure what the source is for this question, but this has some flaws and it is not very GMAT like.
First of all, the prompt should make clear that the number in the answer choices are total annual sales in
thousands of dollars. This is implied, but not stated explicitly, as it would be on the GMAT. That's a bit sloppy.
If one sets up equations, using S as the amount of sales that both achieved, and sets the total salary for Erica equal to twice the total salary for Carla, one gets an inconsistent equation, an equation in which the variables all cancel and the remaining numerical statement is untrue. This implies that there is no value at which they are both earning a commission and have equal sales and Erica's salary would be twice Carla's.
What's devious about the question is that the OA, (C), is a value in which Erica's commissions don't kick in. Erica's salary, with commission, equals twice of Carla's base salary. There is something duplicitous about this, in a way that is not at all GMAT like. This is a frustrating problem, rather than a genuinely clever and challenging problem.
If you got this from a book, I would recommend soaking that book in gasoline and setting it on fire. It will not prepare you well for the GMAT.
Does all this make sense?
Mike
_________________
Mike McGarry
Magoosh Test PrepEducation is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. — William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939)