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# A GMAT aspirant appears for a certain number of tests. His average sco

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VP
Joined: 19 Oct 2018
Posts: 1175
Location: India
A GMAT aspirant appears for a certain number of tests. His average sco  [#permalink]

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04 Jun 2019, 03:08
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Difficulty:

85% (hard)

Question Stats:

43% (02:47) correct 57% (03:15) wrong based on 44 sessions

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A GMAT aspirant appears for a certain number of tests. His average score increases by 10 if the first 10 tests are not considered, and decreases by 10 if the last 10 tests are not considered. If his average scores for the first 10 and the last 10 tests are 600 and 700, respectively, then the total number of tests taken by him is

A. 40
B. 50
C. 60
D. 70
E. 80
Intern
Joined: 06 Dec 2018
Posts: 13
Re: A GMAT aspirant appears for a certain number of tests. His average sco  [#permalink]

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04 Jun 2019, 07:37
Is the OA C?
I am not sure though.
Director
Joined: 16 Jan 2019
Posts: 507
Location: India
Concentration: General Management
WE: Sales (Other)
A GMAT aspirant appears for a certain number of tests. His average sco  [#permalink]

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04 Jun 2019, 07:51
4
$$N$$ = total number of tests
$$x$$ = overall average per test

Sum of scores for $$N$$ tests = $$Nx$$

Sum of scores for first 10 tests = 600*10 = 6000
Sum of scores for last 10 tests = 700*10 = 7000

Therefore, sum of scores for $$(N-20) tests = Nx-(6000+7000) = Nx-13000$$

Average without the last 10 tests $$= \frac{6000+Nx-13000}{(N-10)}=\frac{Nx-7000}{(N-10)}$$

Average without the first 10 tests $$= \frac{7000+Nx-13000}{(N-10)}=\frac{Nx-6000}{(N-10)}$$

We are given that

$$\frac{Nx-7000}{(N-10)}=x-10$$ ----------------- (1)

and

$$\frac{Nx-6000}{(N-10)}=x+10$$ ---------------- (2)

Solving (1) and (2) we get, $$N=60$$

Hit Kudos if this helped!
Intern
Joined: 27 Mar 2018
Posts: 27
Location: India
Schools: German MBA
GMAT 1: 680 Q47 V36
GPA: 1.96
Re: A GMAT aspirant appears for a certain number of tests. His average sco  [#permalink]

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04 Jun 2019, 10:51
nick1816 wrote:
A GMAT aspirant appears for a certain number of tests. His average score increases by 10 if the first 10 tests are not considered, and decreases by 10 if the last 10 tests are not considered. If his average scores for the first 10 and the last 10 tests are 600 and 700, respectively, then the total number of tests taken by him is

A. 40
B. 50
C. 60
D. 70
E. 80
Manhattan Prep Instructor
Joined: 04 Dec 2015
Posts: 856
GMAT 1: 790 Q51 V49
GRE 1: Q170 V170
Re: A GMAT aspirant appears for a certain number of tests. His average sco  [#permalink]

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04 Jun 2019, 11:24
3
nick1816 wrote:
A GMAT aspirant appears for a certain number of tests. His average score increases by 10 if the first 10 tests are not considered, and decreases by 10 if the last 10 tests are not considered. If his average scores for the first 10 and the last 10 tests are 600 and 700, respectively, then the total number of tests taken by him is

A. 40
B. 50
C. 60
D. 70
E. 80

This is a fun and fairly difficult weighted averages problem!

If we ignore the first 10 tests, here's the situation:

10 tests with an average of 700, remaining tests with an unknown average
new average = original average + 10

If we ignore the last 10 tests, here's the situation:

10 tests with an average of 600, remaining tests with an unknown average
new average = original average - 10

In other words, "swapping out" ten tests with an average of 700, for ten tests with an average of 600, effectively reduces the student's average by 20 points: from 10 points above the original value, to 10 points below the original value.

So, reducing the score on the extra 10 tests by 100 points, only reduces the overall average by 20 points. Therefore, the extra 10 tests must only represent 20/100 = 1/5 of the total, since changing their value only changes the overall average by 1/5 as much. That gives us a total of 5(10) = 50 tests.

However, 50 isn't the answer! The answer is actually 50+10 = 60. That's because we're asked about how many tests there were when all of the tests were included. When we did our reasoning, we only thought about what would happen if we removed ten of the tests, and ignored the situation where all of the tests were included at the same time. So, we need to put the remaining 10 tests back in.
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Director
Joined: 24 Nov 2016
Posts: 971
Location: United States
Re: A GMAT aspirant appears for a certain number of tests. His average sco  [#permalink]

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07 Oct 2019, 07:14
nick1816 wrote:
A GMAT aspirant appears for a certain number of tests. His average score increases by 10 if the first 10 tests are not considered, and decreases by 10 if the last 10 tests are not considered. If his average scores for the first 10 and the last 10 tests are 600 and 700, respectively, then the total number of tests taken by him is

A. 40
B. 50
C. 60
D. 70
E. 80

average = sum • num tests

average = a
num tests = n
sum tests = s
sum first ten = x = 600*10 = 6000
sum last ten = y = 700*10 = 7000

sn=a
(sn-x)/(n-10)=a+10
(sn-y)/(n-10)=a-10
sn=(a+10)(n-10)+x
sn=(a-10)(n-10)+y
(a+10)(n-10)+x=(a-10)(n-10)+y
(a+10)(n-10)+6000=(a-10)(n-10)+7000
(a+10)(n-10)=(a-10)(n-10)+1000
an-10a+10n-100=an-10a-10n+100+1000
20n=1200
n=60

Re: A GMAT aspirant appears for a certain number of tests. His average sco   [#permalink] 07 Oct 2019, 07:14
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# A GMAT aspirant appears for a certain number of tests. His average sco

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