Question: Last year Department Store X had a sales total for December that was 4 times the average (arithmetic mean) of the monthly sales totals for January through November. The sales total for December was what fraction of the sales total for the year?

(A) 1/4
(B) 4/15
(C) 1/3
(D) 4/11
(E) 4/5

Correct Answer: B
Solution and Explanation:
Approach Solution 1:

Assigning values that satisfy the provided information is a simple strategy.

So it's possible that the store made $1 in sales every month from January to November.
This indicates that the monthly average sale was $1.
Thus, the total sales for December were (4)($1) = $4.

Thus, the annual sales total is equal to (11)($1) plus $4, or $15.
Of the $15 in sales, December was responsible for $4.

Therefore, 4/15 of the year's total sales were made in December.

B is the correct answer.

Approach Solution 2:

let x = average sales from January to November (11 months)

11x Equals all sales from January to November
4x Equals December sales

Since total sales are made up of two fractions (11 and 4) and the stem expressly

requests the percentage of the year's total sales that occurred in December,
11x + 4x = 15x = total sales for the year.

So, 4/15 is the solution (B)

Approach Solution 3:

Let x be the average sales per month for the first 11 months,
then the total sales for the whole year would be
(11 months) + (December) = 11x + 4x = 15x.

(December)/(Whole year) = 4x/(15x) = 4/15.

B is the correct answer.

“Last year Department Store X had a sales total for December that was" - is a topic of the GMAT Quantitative reasoning section of GMAT. This question has been borrowed from the book “GMAT Official Guide Quantitative Review”.

To understand GMAT Problem Solving questions, applicants must possess fundamental qualitative skills. Quant tests a candidate's aptitude in reasoning and mathematics. The GMAT Quantitative test's problem-solving phase consists of a question and a list of possible responses. By using mathematics to answer the question, the candidate must select the appropriate response. The problem-solving section of the GMAT Quant topic is made up of very complicated math problems that must be solved by using the right math facts.

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