vageesh wrote:
22. A jewelry dealer initially offered a bracelet for sale at an asking price that would give a profit to the dealer of 40 percent of the original cost. What was the original cost of the bracelet?
(1) After reducing this asking price by 10 percent, the jewelry dealer sold the bracelet at a profit of $403.
(2) The jewelry dealer sold the bracelet for $1,953.
i opted for A
The answer here will be (A). I understand the issue raised by people who say (D) is the answer and hopefully, GMAT will not let this ambiguity creep in but you must remember that given the question as it is, you must answer it as (A).
Every DS question is a single question and not two independent questions based on two statements. This means that if you get the answer using one statement, you will get the same answer using the other statement too. e.g. You CANNOT have such a situation.
Question: What is x?
Statement 1: x = 3
Statement 2: x = 4
In this over simplified example, each statement gives you the answer but they give conflicting values of x. This is not a valid
DS question.
For people who say answer is (D)
Statement 1 gives you that original cost is 1550
Statement 2 gives you that original cost is 1395
This cannot be correct.
Also note the wording of the question: "dealer initially offered a bracelet for sale at..."
Considering statement 2 alone, we don't know the profit % after he finally sold it. All we know is that he initially offered it for sale at 40% mark up. Whether he was able to sell at this mark up or not, we do not know. Remember, it is a DS question - you cannot assume anything in it. Hence statement 2 alone is not sufficient.
Answer (A)