Baten80 wrote:
If x and y are positive integers, what is the value of (x+y)²
(1) x = y - 3
(2) x and y are prime numbers.
Target question: What is the value of (x+y)²? Given: x and y are positive integers Statement 1: x = y - 3 This statement doesn't FEEL sufficient, so I'll TEST some values.
There are several values of x and y that satisfy statement 1. Here are two:
Case a: x = 1 and y = 4, in which case
(x+y)² = (1+4)² = 5² = 25Case b: x = 2 and y = 5, in which case
(x+y)² = (2+5)² = 7² = 49Since we cannot answer the
target question with certainty, statement 1 is NOT SUFFICIENT
Aside: For more on this idea of plugging in values when a statement doesn't feel sufficient, you can read my article: http://www.gmatprepnow.com/articles/dat ... lug-values Statement 2: x and y are prime numbers This statement doesn't FEEL sufficient either, so I'll TEST some values.
There are several values of x and y that satisfy statement 2. Here are two:
Case a: x = 2 and y = 2, in which case
(x+y)² = (2+2)² = 4² = 16Case b: x = 2 and y = 3, in which case
(x+y)² = (2+3)² = 5² = 25Since we cannot answer the
target question with certainty, statement 2 is NOT SUFFICIENT
Statements 1 and 2 combined Statement 1 tells us that x = y - 3
In other words, x + 3 = y
Or we can say that x + ODD = y
This means that one of the two values (x or y) is EVEN and one is ODD
Statement 2 tells us that x and y are prime numbers
If one of the values is EVEN and also PRIME, then one value must equal 2.
Since x is smaller than y, we can conclude that x = 2, which means y = 5
Now that we know the values of x and y, we can see that
(x+y)² = (2+5)² = 7² = 49Since we can answer the
target question with certainty, the combined statements are SUFFICIENT
Answer = C
Cheers,
Brent
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72% (01:26) correct 
