Lauren wants to assemble a collection of books with fish-themed titles

Question

Lauren wants to assemble a collection of books with fish-themed titles by shopping at her local bookstore. On the bookstore's website, she searched for the keyword fish. The search returned only the results shown in the table. From the copies in stock included in the search results, Lauren purchased a set of books consisting of 5 books with distinct titles from 4 different sections. The total price she paid was the lowest possible for such a set of books.

For each of the following titles, select Yes if it must have been a part of Lauren's purchase. Otherwise, select No.

Title 
 Author 
 Format 
 Section 
 Copies in stock 
 Price ($) 
 
  Curious George
at the Aquarium 
 Rey, Margaret 
 used hardcover 
 children's 
 1 
 3.99 
 
  Curious George
Goes Fishing 
 Rey, A. 
 new hardcover 
 children's 
 3 
 2.98 
 
  Eels 
 Prosek, James 
 new hardcover 
 science 
 1 
 25.99 
 
  Fish 
 Bitbnan, Mark 
 used hardcover 
 cooking 
 2 
 11 
 
  Fish 
 Batman, Mark 
 new paperback 
 cooking 
 4 
 9.98 
 
  Float-fishing
Strategies 
 Streeks, E. Neale 
 new paperback 
 outdoors 
 0 
 19.95 
 
  Salmon 
 Morgan, Diane 
 new paperback 
 cooking 
 2 
 9.98 
 
  Saving Fish
from Drowning 
 Tan, Amy 
 used paperback 
 literature 
 6 
 2.63 
 
  Saving Fish
from Drowning 
 Tan, Amy 
 new paperback  
 literature 
 1 
 7.98

For each of the following titles, select  Yes  if it must have been a part of Lauren's purchase. Otherwise, select  No .

Similar questions:
 Question 1 
 Question 2

iamNihar07 · Accepted Answer

We are given that Lauren bought 5 books from 4 different sections. There are 5 sections given. However, there are 0 copies available under outdoors section. So, she got at least one book from each of the other 4 categories.

Since outdoors is eliminated, Float-fishing strategies is a NO
Within cooking, she has a choice between Fish and Salmon (same cost), so she should could have chosen either one. Note that the question stem asks what 'must have been a part'. Hence, Fish is also a NO.
Eels is the only contender from science category, so it is a YES

egmat · Answer

What makes this question hard?  
What an interesting TA question. Such real world relatable context and hence an easy one from context standpoint. But this question is anything but easy. It provides multiple conditions, which are again easy to understand and assimilate. But the complexity of the question is in how to apply these conditions. All the conditions need to be applied in sync.

What to learn from the video?  
Watch the video and observe the following:
 
 How we decide which columns to look at to start applying the conditions. 
 How we make the decision of selection and rejection of books. 
 How we maintain a tally of the metrics as we select the books. 
 How we make a note of when multiple books can be selected.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Yp6qPXctiw

Why thorough analysis is required before looking at the statements?  
As you watched the solution, you must have realized how we needed to do apply all the conditions to make the selection of these books. And once we did that, answering the questions was a cakewalk.

Junnaruse · Answer

why not fish?

soumyap09 · Answer

The question says "must be a part of her purchase". She could have bought Fish or Salmon from the cooking section since both are priced equally. So it may or may not be a part of the set she bought.

Naonion · Answer

can someone explain this question?
why eels yes, isn't it the most expensive?

chetan2u · Answer

It is a pretty straightforward question. But almost 57% going wrong means that if we are not careful while reading, an easy question can easily be made into a nightmare.

Lauren can choose the books from any 4 of the five sections. Such equation would never satisfy a MUST include question as it could be any four.
But the restrictions further are that they have to be lowest priced and one of the sections ‘outdoors’ does not have any copy for sale.

Thus, one book from each of the remaining sections is a must.

Now let us see options.

Float fishing strategies: It is surely a NO as there are no copies. NO
Fish: The book Fish, which is lower priced is at the same price from same section ‘cooking’. So it could be Fish or Salmon. NO
Eels: This is the only book in the section. So whatever be the price, it has to be picked up. YES

KarishmaB · Answer

First step: Since price required is lowest, sort them in the ascending order of price. Now, she picks 5 books with distinct titles from 4 different sections. Simply go from top to bottom. Screenshot 2024-04-09 at 10.33.23 AM.png She picks, first, second and third (even if both are children's since she has to pick 5 out of 4 sections so she has to pick two books from the same section) She cannot pick 4th because it is literature again. From cooking, she has two options equally priced (Fish and Salmon). Outdoors has 0 copies so she must pick the science book as the 5th book. ANSWER Float fishing strategies - NO Fish - NO (May or may not be picked so "must be a part" is answered as No) Eels - YES

Gemmie · Answer

5 books with distinct titles from 4 different sections

There are 5 sections: children, science, cooking, outdoors, and literature
However, there are 0 copies available fro outdoors.
=> Only 4 left: children, science, cooking, and literature

The total price she paid was the lowest possible for such a set of books.
=> Choose the cheapest of each section

1. Children => Curious George Fishing ($2.98)
2. Cooking => (i) Salmon or (ii) Fish ($9.98)
3. Literature => Saving Drowning (used) ($2.63)
4. Science => Eets (the only 1 availabe)

Float-fishing Strategies => No 
 Fish => No  (Lauren can choose either Salmon or Fish => Fish is NOT a must)
 Eels => Yes

squishyjelly · Answer

I'm confused with "5 books with distinct titles", because doesn't that mean that each book must have it's own "distinct" name, so it can't have the same name as another book? therefore fish must be one of the books that Lauren purchases.

bb · Answer

It would mean that she would not buy 2 copies of the same book. There are 2 copies of the same book (one is a softcover and the other one is a hardcover).

Because Fish costs the same as book named Salmon, it may or may not have been one that was purchased.

squishyjelly · Answer

That makes sense to me -- but doesn't the wording also potentially imply the way that I thought about the problem? Any advice on making sure that I'm understanding the problem the way I'm meant to?

bb · Answer

HarshavardhanR · Answer

Given Conditions:

Lauren bought 5 books ->
(1) From the books actually available (in stock)
(2) Distinct titles
(3) 4 different sections
(4) Lowest possible price

Analysis:

-> Section "outdoors" has only 1 book in the search result and 0 stocks available. So, Lauren could not have bought a book from this section.

-> So, the 4 different sections are: children's, science, cooking, literature.

-> Lauren would have purchased the one book that was cheapest in each of the above sections. 4 Books!

(1) Curious George Goes Fishing (Children's). $2.98
(2) Eels (Science). $25.99 (only book)
(3) Either "Fish" ($9.98) OR "Salmon ($9.98). 
(4) Saving Fish From Drowning ($2.63 version, not the other).

-> Lauren purchased one more book from one of the 4 sections. She maintained lowest possible price. Hence, the fifth book has to be cheapest next available book in these 4 sections.

(5) Curious George at the Aquarium ($3.99)

Choice Analysis: 
(1) Float-fishing Strategies - No. No book from "outdoors" was purchased.
(2) Fish - No. We know for sure that one book from the category "cooking" was purchased. And we know this book would have been the cheapest available.
But this can mean "Fish ($9.98) or Salmon ($9.98). We cannot be 100% sure that "Fish" was purchased.
(3) Eels - Yes. Definitely purchased.

Hope this helps.
Harsha

ShilpiAgnihotrii · Answer

How are people able to do these kind of questions in under 2.3 mins ? 🤔

KarishmaB · Answer

Here is a tip - scan the numerical value column(s) of the table for a 0. That can be a big help. Basically take 10 seconds to look at the data and whether there are any features that pop out.
Here, if you notice at the outset that Outdoors has only 1 book and there are no copies of that available, how long does it take to solve this question? Not long, I would guess.

Aabhash777 · Answer

In another official question, the last part of the questions is modified as the average cost of her purchase is greater than $12 instead of the cost of her purchase is lowest.

https://gmatclub.com/forum/download/file.php?id=80513

Bunuel · Answer

That question is discussed here: https://gmatclub.com/forum/lauren-wants ... 37036.html

Lauren wants to assemble a collection of books with fish-themed titles

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Title	Author	Format	Section	Copies in stock	Price ($)
Curious George at the Aquarium	Rey, Margaret	used hardcover	children's	1	3.99
Curious George Goes Fishing	Rey, A.	new hardcover	children's	3	2.98
Eels	Prosek, James	new hardcover	science	1	25.99
Fish	Bitbnan, Mark	used hardcover	cooking	2	11
Fish	Batman, Mark	new paperback	cooking	4	9.98
Float-fishing Strategies	Streeks, E. Neale	new paperback	outdoors	0	19.95
Salmon	Morgan, Diane	new paperback	cooking	2	9.98
Saving Fish from Drowning	Tan, Amy	used paperback	literature	6	2.63
Saving Fish from Drowning	Tan, Amy	new paperback	literature	1	7.98

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Lauren wants to assemble a collection of books with fish-themed titles

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