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allkagupta
Since the question asks the probability of Bob hitting the target, isn't it understood that it's asking for the first attempt ?

Hi allkagupta

That's where the exam gets tricky, you cannot assume anything if NOT given in the question.
GMAT will try to trick you with the wordings.
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Dillesh4096

That's where the exam gets tricky, you cannot assume anything if NOT given in the question.
GMAT will try to trick you with the wordings.

No, that's not the case. GMAT questions are always precisely worded; the exam is never trying to trick you with the wording of a question, and you will never be left guessing, on an official question, what mathematical situation you are meant to investigate. In the problem above, you are left to guess: what happens if Adam misses the target and then Bob misses the target? Clearly if the answer is C, the intention is that they both shoot again until someone hits the target, but I'd never guess that's the intention from the way the question is phrased. As it's written, I'd guess that Adam shoots, and then if he misses, Bob shoots, and that's the end of the shooting. So the question is not worded the way a real GMAT question would be.

You also never need to sum infinite sequences on the GMAT (since calculus is required to be sure infinite sums converge, and calculus is out of the scope of the test) so this is not a realistic problem.
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IanStewart

No, that's not the case. GMAT questions are always precisely worded; the exam is never trying to trick you with the wording of a question, and you will never be left guessing, on an official question, what mathematical situation you are meant to investigate. In the problem above, you are left to guess: what happens if Adam misses the target and then Bob misses the target? Clearly if the answer is C, the intention is that they both shoot again until someone hits the target, but I'd never guess that's the intention from the way the question is phrased. As it's written, I'd guess that Adam shoots, and then if he misses, Bob shoots, and that's the end of the shooting. So the question is not worded the way a real GMAT question would be.

You also never need to sum infinite sequences on the GMAT (since calculus is required to be sure infinite sums converge, and calculus is out of the scope of the test) so this is not a realistic problem.

Hi IanStewart,

Agree with you about the highlighted part, editing the question.
Thanks!
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Dillesh4096

That's where the exam gets tricky, you cannot assume anything if NOT given in the question.
GMAT will try to trick you with the wordings.

No, that's not the case. GMAT questions are always precisely worded; the exam is never trying to trick you with the wording of a question, and you will never be left guessing, on an official question, what mathematical situation you are meant to investigate. In the problem above, you are left to guess: what happens if Adam misses the target and then Bob misses the target? Clearly if the answer is C, the intention is that they both shoot again until someone hits the target, but I'd never guess that's the intention from the way the question is phrased. As it's written, I'd guess that Adam shoots, and then if he misses, Bob shoots, and that's the end of the shooting. So the question is not worded the way a real GMAT question would be.

You also never need to sum infinite sequences on the GMAT (since calculus is required to be sure infinite sums converge, and calculus is out of the scope of the test) so this is not a realistic problem.

Thanks a ton. For a moment I was questioning my entire understanding of questions on the GMAT.
Thanks again to make this point clear
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Probability of Bob hitting the target in
first chance\( = \frac{3}{4}∗\frac{1}{5} = \frac{3}{20} = 0.15\)

third chance\( = \frac{3}{4}∗\frac{4}{5}∗\frac{3}{4}∗\frac{4}{5}∗\frac{3}{4}∗\frac{1}{5}=\frac{3}{20}∗(\frac{3}{5})^2=0.15∗(0.6)^2\)
and so on ..

Bob hits the target is \(= 0.15+0.15∗0.6+0.15∗(0.6)^2+..... \){ infinite GP}

\(= \frac{0.15}{(1−0.6)} = 0.375\)

Option C
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