Clinton bought two tickets to a Rock Band Concert, a concompany ticket

Did you get that by estimating or calculation? It took me 3 minutes to arrive at a loss of 7.

Hi,

If you want to do this Q in less than 2 minutes you could approach it the following way:-

Firstly, the HIGHER priced is sold at loss and loss & gain % are same, Overall there will be LOSS..
So you have to look choices with loss, you can eliminate 3 choices.

Now what is the loss...
25% of (185-156) or 28...
25% is nothing but 1/4 so 28*1/4=7...
So a loss of 7

It may be helpful to know following%
12.5%=1/8
16.67%=1/6
25%=1/4
33.33%=1/3
40%=2/5
50%=1/2
60%=3/5
66.67%=2/3
75%=3/4
80%=4/5

When given percents, it is easier if you remember these proportions
If an item must be sold at a net profit of 25%
CP ------ Profit ------ SP
100 -------25 ------ 125
4 ------- 1 ------- 5(Proportion)

Similarly if the item is to be sold at a net loss of 25%
CP ------ Loss ------ SP
75 -------25 ------ 100
3 ------- 1 ------- 4

These proportions have been done
considering 100 as CP for Profit questions
and 100 as SP for Loss questions.

Using this proportions we can come back to the question in hand.
He buys a concompany ticket for $156(sells at a profit of 25%)
and a mezzanine ticket for $184(sells at a loss of 25%)

So 156 is 4 parts, 1 part(profit) is +39
and 184 is 4 parts, 1 part(loss) is -46

Net profit or loss = +39 -46 = -7(Option B)

P.S if you memorize these proportions for the basic profits like 10,20,25,50 and loss,
it will make things a lot easier. However it not as difficult to deduce at that time also.

chetan2u has given a very good explanation,,,,

cheers

25% gain= Number + Number/4 (gain) , so 156/4 = 39 = 156 +39----------------------------1
25% gain = number - Number/4(loss) , so 184 / 4 = 46 = 184 - 47 = 184 -39 - 7 --------------------2

From 1 and 2 we can see loss of 7 ..

We are given that Clinton paid $156 for a concompany ticket and $184 for a mezzanine ticket. Thus, he paid 154 + 184 = $340 for the two tickets.

He then sold the concompany ticket for 1.25 x 156 = $195.

He also sold the mezzanine ticket for 0.75 x 184 = $138.

Thus, he sold the two tickets for 195 + 138 = $333.

Since he paid $340 for the two tickets, he had a total loss of 340 - 333 = $7.

Answer: B