Easy But Tricky

Question

A vendor sells 60 percent of apples he had and throws away 15 percent of the remainder. Next
day he sells 50 percent of the remainder and throws away the rest. What percent of his apples
does the vendor throw?

(A) 17 
(B) 23
(C) 77 
(D) None of these
(E) 75

vinay.kaipra · Answer

Easy if you start with value 100. Only thing to note is that you have to add all the apples thrown away to get the percent. Good one. But should be easy for the guys who look carefully at the question I guess.

vageesh · Answer

Only trick is that you must not forget to add 6 apples that vendor has thrown earlier

jpr200012 · Answer

A, then I reread it and B.

jpr200012 · Answer

Also, "easy but tricky" could describe 90% of the problems on the GMAT!

TomB · Answer

the answer should be B (23%)

jakolik · Answer

Exactly, it is a very easy problem but at the same time one can easily fall in the trap...

mustdoit · Answer

Take a number that is common to all figures given in the quesn (60, 15 and 50) and easy for calculations......I will take 300

Step 1 sells 60% = 300-180 = 120 throws away 15% = 120-18 = 102

Step 2 sells 50% = 102/2 = 51 so balance thrown away = 51

total apple thrown = (51+18) = 69
% of total apples = 69/300 = 23 answer (b)

kjs · Answer

Ans : B

I believe that the best way to tackle percentage problems is by considering a dummy value - 100.
In this case : Let's assume vendor has 100 apples in all.
1: 60 apples are sold. Remainder: 40 apples
2: 15% of 40 =  6  are thrown away; Remainder: 34 apples
3: 50% of 34 = 17 are sold and rest  (17)  are thrown away; Remainder = 0

From (2) & (3), Total no. of apples thrown away = 6 + 17 = 23

To sum it all up, based on our assumption of 100 apples, 23 are sold, i.e 23 %

Easy But Tricky

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards