gmatbull wrote:
Javier rates his work - readiness on a scale from 0 to 10, with 10 being maximum readiness. He wants his rating to be as high as possible when he arrives at his office and has found that the rating is being affected by how late he sleeps and how long he spends preparing for work. His alarm clock sounds at 6am, at which time he has a work - readiness of 10. He needs to leave for work at exactly 6:40am. During these 40mins, Javier's only activities are sleeping or preparing for work.
If Javier spends more than 25 mins or less than 10 mins to prepare, his rating is reduced by 5 points. To sleep past 6am, however, Javier must use the snooze button on his alarm clock, which delays the alarm by 4 mins. Each press of the snooze button after the third will decrease Javier's efficiency rating by 1 point.
In the following table, select for Rating the greatest work - readiness rating that Java can achieve and select for Snoozes the number of times he must press the snooze button to achieve that rating. Make only 2 selections, one in each column.
We can PLUG IN THE ANSWERS, which represent the number of snoozes and the resulting rating.
The number of snoozes is almost certain to be among the three smallest answer choices, while the greatest possible rating is almost certain to be among the three greatest answer choices.
Perfect rating = 10
For every snooze beyond the third, a loss of 1 point is incurred.
Each snooze reduces the 40-minute preparation window by 4 minutes.
If the time left to prepare is less than 10 minutes or more than 25 minutes, a loss of 5 points is incurred.
Onto the answer choices:
Snoozes = 3 --> 3*4 = 12 extra minutes of sleep --> remaining preparation time = 40-12 = 28 minutes
Point loss because of snoozes beyond the third = 0
Point loss due to preparation time = 5
Resulting rating = 10-0-5 = 5
Snoozes = 4 --> 4*4 = 16 extra minutes of sleep --> remaining preparation time = 40-16 = 24 minutes
Point loss because of snoozes beyond the third = 1
Point loss due to preparation time = 0
Resulting rating = 10-1-0 = 9
9 is the greatest value among the answer choices.
Thus, the greatest possible rating = 9, resulting from 4 snoozes.
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