Walkabout wrote:
A store reported total sales of $385 million for February of this year. If the total sales for the same month last year was $320 million, approximately what was the percent increase in sales?
(A) 2%
(B) 17%
(C) 20%
(D) 65%
(E) 83%
The problem is testing us on using the percent change formula:
(New Value – Old Value)/Old Value x 100
We are given:
February sales this year = 385 million
February sales last year = 320 million
We need to determine the percent increase between sales from last year to sales this year.
Thus, the new value = 385 million and the old value = 320 million. Let’s plug them into our percent change formula.
(New Value – Old Value)/Old Value x 100
[(385 – 320)/320] x 100
65/320 x 100
13/64 x 100 ≈ 13/65 x 100 ≈ 1/5 x 100 ≈ 20%.
The answer is C.
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Jeffery Miller
Head of GMAT Instruction
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