Data InsightsTwo-Part Analysis

Free GMAT Two-Part Analysis Practice Question

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Two food vendors rotate into a weekly farmers market on fixed schedules. Both vendors appeared in week 1. After that, the first vendor appears every 5 weeks (so in week 6, week 11, week 16, and so on), and the second vendor appears every 7 weeks (so in week 8, week 15, week 22, and so on). Using the schedules, identify two separate weeks. For the first column, select the first week after week 1 in which both vendors appear together. For the second column, select the first week after week 1 in which the second vendor appears but the first vendor does not. Make only two selections, one in each column.

First week after week 1 with both vendors together: . First week after week 1 with the second vendor but not the first: .

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Answer & Explanation

Correct answer

1: 36 · 2: 8

Read the two schedules as two separate filters, because the two columns ask completely different things. The first vendor appears in weeks 1, 6, 11, 16, and so on, which are the weeks one more than a multiple of 5. The second vendor appears in weeks 1, 8, 15, 22, and so on, which are the weeks one more than a multiple of 7. The first selection wants the weeks that pass BOTH filters; the second selection wants a week that passes only the second filter. Solving one tells you nothing about the other, so each needs its own scan.

First column. Both vendors appear together exactly when the week is one more than a multiple of both 5 and 7, that is, one more than a multiple of 35. The first such week after week 1 is 1 + 35 = 36, the entry in the sixth row. A common slip is to report 35, the gap between coincidence weeks, instead of the week number itself, which lands on the fifth row, 35. Another slip picks 6, the first week the first vendor alone reappears, or 8, the first week the second vendor alone reappears; neither is a week both attend.

Second column. Walk the second vendor's weeks after week 1: 8, 15, 22, and so on. Test the first one, week 8, against the first vendor: 8 is not one more than a multiple of 5, since 8 leaves a remainder of 3 when divided by 5, so the first vendor is absent in week 8. Week 8 is therefore the answer, the entry in the second row. The value 15 is the second week where only the second vendor appears, so picking it means skipping the first qualifying week, 8. The value 6 is the first week where only the first vendor appears, which is the same idea with the vendors swapped. The value 13 comes from advancing both schedules once from week 1, that is 1 + 5 + 7, but 13 is not even one of the second vendor's weeks. The value 36 is the both-together week from the first selection, chosen by a solver who answered the wrong column.

The answer to the first column is 36 and the answer to the second column is 8.