In June 1990, a small academic press published an initial run of 2,500

Question

In June 1990, a small academic press published an initial run of 2,500 copies of linguist Chloe Vermeulen’s first book,  Speech and Speaking . Because the first run was selling well, a second, larger run was produced in June 1995. Total sales for the period from June 1995–June 2000 represented an increase of 52 percent over total sales for the preceding five years; by June 2000, Vermeulen’s book had sold a total of 3,843 copies. In 2000,  Speech and Speaking  was cited in an influential paper; subsequently, for the period June 2000–June 2005, sales of Vermeulen’s book were double the sales for the previous five-year period.

In the table, identify the number of books that most closely approximates the total sales of  Speech and Speaking  for each of the five-year periods June 1990–June 1995 and June 2000–June 2005, based on the information given. Make only two selections, one in each column.

GMATtracted · Accepted Answer

Hi,
This is how I arrived at the answers:-
Let the sales for the period 1990-95 be 'x'
Therefore, the sales for the period 1995-2000 is '1.52x'
Now, total sales for the period is 'x+1.52x=2.52x=3843'
Solving we get x=1525.
Since the question asks for the closest approximation we can approximate the value of x to 1530.
Therefore, sales for the period 1990-95 is 1530 (after closest approximation)
and, sales for the period 1995-2000 is 2318.
Hence, the sales for the period 2000-05 is 2x2318=4636 which after approximation would be 4640.
hope it helps.

farful · Answer

There seems to be a lot of useless information here to throw you off guard.

Let's say x books were sold between 1990-1995.

It says in the text "Total sales for the period from 1995-2000 represented an increase of 52 percent over total sales for the preceding five years."

So, 1.52*x books were sold between 1995-2000.

It then also says "For the period of 2000-2005, sales were double the sales for the previous five-year period."

This means, between 2000-2005, 2*(1.52*x) books were sold. (or 3.04*x)

Now look at the answer choices. We need to find x and 3.04x.
If we let x = 1320, then 3.04x should be around 4013, but there's no answer choice around 4013.
Next, let x = 1530. Then 3.04x should be around 4651. Aha! There's a choice for 4640, but let's just make sure there's nothing closer.
If we let x = 2530 (or more) then 3.04x = 7691 (or more), so we can eliminate the rest of the choices.

Thus your answer is 1530 and 4640.

Hope that helped.

mayer87 · Answer

here is how i did it:
let X be sales between 1990-1995, so 1.52x represents sales between 1995-2000.

since by 2000, sales =3843, that means x+1.52x=3843, solve for x =1525

1.52*1525=2318, and double 2318 we get 4636

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi All,

This prompt is more about organization and basic arithmetic than anything else. You do NOT need the calculator as long as you take good notes, make some reasonable estimates and do some multiplication.

From the information in the prompt, we can make a little table of data (based around three 5-year 'blocks' of time):

'90-'95: 2500 books published; X books sold
'95-'00: >2500 published; 1.52X books sold

Total books sold '90-'00 = 3843 = 2.52X

From here, you should quickly note that X MUST be > 1,000. A reasonable estimate would be X = 1500 (try multiplying 2.5 by 1500 and you'll see).

'00-'05: 2(1.52X) books sold = 3.04X books sold

The question asks for TOTAL BOOKS SOLD from '90 - '95 and from '00-'05

Using X = 1500 as an estimate....
'90-'95 = X = 1500 books sold

'00-'05 = 3.04X = about 4500 books sold

From the given values in the table, the only answers that are close are:  1530 and 4640

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

aakashbaweja · Answer

There is no use to do tedious calculations, The GMAT way is to approximations.

let the sale done in 1990-95 period be x

Since the sales for period 1995-2000 increased by 52% over the previous 5 year period, then we can approximate it as 50% increase.

Therefore, x+1.5x= 4000 ( approximating 3843 to 4000)

2.5x= 4000

x= 4000/2.5 = 1600

The number closest to 1600 is 1530, so that's the correct answer.

Also 1.5x = 2400( from above)

Sales for 2005-05 period is doubled over previous period

Therefore sales for 2000-05 period = 2 * 2400 = 4800

4640 is the option closest to 4800, hence that is the correct ans.

You can easily do all this calculations in your head in matter of 2 minutes but only if you approximate.

hassan233 · Answer

I took a bit of a different approach.
It said that in 1990 it made 2500 books and did not make any more until 1995.
So this means, in 1990-1995, they could have sold at most 2,500 books.
This means that for the first column, the answer MUST be 1320 OR 1530

I first tried 1320, to get the value in 1995-2000, I did 1320 * 1.52 = 2006
Then to get the 2000-2005 value, I did 2 * 2006 = 4012.
3960 is not an answer choice for the second column, I now drop my answer of 1320 for column 1

I then tried 1530, to get the value in 1995-2000, I did 1530 * 1.52 = 2326
Then to get the 2000-2005 value, I did 2 * 2326 = 4651
Yay, 4651 matches an answer in column 2

This means the answer is 1530 and 4640

WARNING: this worked because we were able to rule out one of the 2 possibilities. It is possible that GMAT creates 2 pairs that work in proportion but NOT in true value (that is, having 2 pairs that work through the workflow I went through).

Apeksha2101 · Answer

Why are we adding x+1.52x=2.52x=3843, as in the question it says that in 2000 it is 3843 sales, i.e 1995-2000 it came with 3843, so 1.52x = 3843
Let me know where I am wrong

Aryan19852 · Answer

In 1990 it also sold 2500 books right why won't we take that into equation yes answer will be wrong but I didn't understood that thing so my equation was 2500+x+1.52x= 3843 why my logic is wrong

chetan2u · Answer

The question says:  by June 2000 , Vermeulen’s book had sold a total of 3,843 copies.

By june 2000 would mean all the sales till Jun 2000, be it in period 1990-95 or 1995-2000. So, x+1.52x = 3843

chetan2u · Answer

2500 were published in 1990 and not necessarly sold. In 1995 greater than 2500 were published, we do not know the exact number.

However by 2000, 3843 were sold, so why would we add 2500 to it.

Dooperman · Answer

For the first period Sales = X
Second period sales = 1.5 X
Third period sales = 3 X

1530 and 4690 make a 1:3 pair in options.

inciduntveniam · Answer

Why are we not considering the initial information of 2500 copies? Like I considered 2500 to be the number of copies sold from '90 to '95.

egmat · Answer

Hi inciduntveniam,

I can see exactly where this snagged you, and it's a really natural read of that first sentence. But there's one word doing all the work:  "published."

The passage says the press  published an initial run of 2,500 copies  - that's how many were  printed , not how many were  sold . Printing  2,500  copies tells you nothing about how many readers actually bought them. Some could have sold fast, some could have sat on shelves. So we can't say " 2,500  were sold from June 1990-June 1995."

What we're actually told about sales

The only hard  sales  number in the passage is this:  by June 2000, the book had sold a total of 3,843 copies.  That "total... by June 2000" already covers  both  early periods combined - June 1990-June 1995  and  June 1995-June 2000.

So the correct setup keys off that  3,843 :

- Let  x  = copies sold in June 1990-June 1995
- June 1995-June 2000 = a  52%  increase =  1.52x 
- Together they equal the total sold by 2000:  x + 1.52x = 3,843

That gives  x ≈ 1,525 , closest to  1,530  for the June 1990-June 1995 column.

If you instead used  2,500  as the sales figure for the first period, you'd be treating  printed  copies as  sold  copies - and you'd also be  double-counting , because the  3,843  already includes whatever sold in that first stretch.

Lock in the print-vs-sell distinction

Think of it this way: a bakery  bakes100  loaves in the morning but the receipt total at close says it  sold240  loaves for the whole day. You'd never add the  100  baked to the  240  sold - the  240  is already the full sales count, and "baked" isn't "sold" at all.

Same trap here. Anchor every equation to the word  "sold,"  and the  2,500  simply drops out as background detail.

Answer: Column 1 = 1,530; Column 2 = 4,640

June 1990-June 1995	June 2000-June 2005	Total sales for the period (number of books)
		1,320
		1,530
		2,530
		2,640
		3,800
		4,640

In June 1990, a small academic press published an initial run of 2,500

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GMAT Two-part Analysis (TPA) Questions

In June 1990, a small academic press published an initial run of 2,500

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