Volume

GMAT QUANT WEAKNESSES SERIES

Rate Questions: Work & Time/Distance

Guide to
Perfection
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GMAT QUANT WEAKNESS SERIES: VOL 1

Rate Questions

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Table of Contents
Attacking Distance/Time and Work Problems........................... 1
Questions................................................................................. 4
Answers ................................................................................... 9
 Chapter
Q U A N T W E A K N E S S E S : R A T E

Attacking Distance/Time
and Work Problems
This chapter looks into the related formulas, notes and advices you
need to attack Rate problems on GMAT.

T
his is a very concise chapter and so is the case with most topics on GMAT.
But don’t be fooled by the conciseness of the material covered. The material
and concepts tested on GMAT are not very vast yet how you apply these
concepts is not an easy task.

I C O N K E Y

 Valuable information
 Practice on your own
 Research exercise
 Recommended
Books

The Attack Ammunition Bullets

As soon as you identify a question as a Rate type question, attack it with the following
bullet points:

 Write Down everything neatly and concisely.

 Analyze the situation

 Create Focus Box and write down what is asked in the question so you don’t
lose focus e.g. 5x -1?

1
  If you can solve it using ratios then go for it or else go for d=vt (d=vt also
works for work questions)

 Create the equations

 Write down all the steps

 Arrive at last equation

 Look at answer choices

 Check focus box to make sure you are answering what is asked

Tackling Strategy
Analyze the question very carefully writing algebra equations
Find shortcuts 
Look at algebra equation and see if you can solve it algebraically
If Algebra too long for 2 minutes 
Then go for VIC (putting value from choices)

Memorize these or be a slow solver: Your choice!


Formulas

 D = vt
 V= d/t
 T=d/v

 Machine A does a job in x hrs and B in y hrs ….

Together
1 hr = (x + y) / xy of the job

xy / (x + y ) hr = 1 job (Remember: x, y are hours)

Specific Problem Formulas

Time/Distance
 Upstream speed = v –x , Downstream = v +x
 Upstream time = d / (v-x) Downstream time = d/(v+x)
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 If time is same : d1/d2 = v1/v2

 When the same distance is traveled by 2 different speeds , say x and y
avg speed for trip = 2xy/(x+y)
 If the distance D is fixed: t1/t2 = v2/v1 .Note: if v1/v2 = 2 then t1/t2 =
0.5
 Two objects moving towards or away from each other : v = v1 + v2
 60 mph  convert this to 1 mile per minute …so 40 miles covered in 40
minutes.
 Don’t be afraid to convert hr into minutes or in seconds…it might just
help in the end
 Concentration box: don’t write d,v,t  try to be more explicit
…sometimes what is asked is x + 10 and you will find value of x which is
wrong !
 Moving in the same directions the speeds are subtracted
 If the question doesn’t contain ratios then use algebra with VIC

Work

 If rate is doubled then x becomes x/2

 If rate is halved then x becomes 2x
 If in 1 week a painter paints x houses  he will paint y house ins y/x
weeks
 If two taps are running water with same rate c hrs / tub then the time is
halved = c /2
 Finding out the line number on which a boy will be reading  lets say he
starts with line 1 then based on his speed he will finish 535 pages in 535/x
where x will be his speed
 In Rate questions always write the rates as x hrs -- w work done
 1 hr – w /x work done
 In work questions if time is reduced then you have to increase the workers
or hours  e.g. 5 workers take 96 hours then to do the job in 1 hour you
need 5(96) workers

3
 Chapter

Questions

Q: 1

Edvin is planning to drive from Boston to New Orleans. By what percent would
his travel time be reduced if he decides to split the driving time equally with his
friend George instead of making the trip alone.

(1) Driving distance is 1500 miles.

(2) George driving speed is 1.5 times that of Edvin

Q: 2

On a trip Julio drove x miles at an average rate of 50 miles per hour and the
remaining distance at an average of 60 m/h. How long did it take Julio to drive the
first X miles?

(1) On his trip, Julio drove for a total of 10 hours and drove a total of 530 miles.

(2) On this trip it took Julio 4 more hours to drive the first X miles than to drive
the remaining distance.

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Q: 3

Caroline bikes uphill to work and returns at a pace 30% faster. How long is her
commute to and from work?

(1) She spends 10% of her workday commuting.

(2) She spends 40% of the entire day commuting and working.

Q: 4

A plane takes off from the hill at 750 meters above the sea level and lands some
time later in a town located at 50 meters below the sea level. During the first part
of its flight the plane gained height at a rate of 50 meters per minute but then it
started to descend at a rate of 20 meters per minute. The duration of the first part
of the flight was what percent of the total flight time?

(1) The duration of the descent is known

(2) The total flight time is known

Q: 5

Machine M can produce x units in 3/4 of the time it takes machine N to produce
the same amount of units. Machine N can produce x units in 2/3 the time it takes
machine O to produce that amount of units. If all three machines are working
simultaneously, what fraction of the total output is produced by machine N?

A) 1/2
B) 1/3
C) 4/13
D) 8/29
E) 6/33

5
Q: 6

In a certain bathtub, both the cold-water and the hot-water fixtures leak. The cold-
water leak alone would fill an empty bucket in c hours, and the hot-water leak
alone would fill the same bucket in h hours, where c<h. If both fixtures began to
leak at the same time into the empty bucket at their respective constant rates and
consequently took t hours to fill the bucket, which of the following must be true?

I0<t<h
II c < t < h
III c/2 < t < h/2

A) I
B) II
C) III
D) I and III
E) I, II and III

Q: 7

A paint crew gets a rush order to paint 80 new houses in a new development.
They paint the first y houses at a rate of x houses per week. Realizing that they'll
be late at this rate, they bring in some more painters and paint the rest of the
houses at the rate of 1.25x houses per week. The total time it takes them to paint
all the houses under this scenario is what fraction of the time it would have taken
if they had painted all the houses at their original rate of x houses per week?

A) 0.8(80-y)
B) 0.8+0.0025y
C) 80/y - 1.25
D) 80/1.25y
E) 80-0.25y

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Q: 8

A crew can row a certain course up stream in 84 minutes; they can row the same
course downstream in 9 minutes less than they can row in still water. How long
would they take to row down with the stream?

A) 45 or 23 minutes
B) 63 or 12 minutes
C) 60 minutes
D) 19 minutes

Q: 9

A boat traveled upstream a distance of 90 miles at an average speed of (V-3) miles

per hour and then travelled the same distance downstream at an average speed of
(V+3) miles per hour. If the trip upstream half an hour longer than downstream,
how many hours did it take the boat to travel downstream?

A) 2.5
B) 2.4
C) 2.3
D) 2.2
E) 2.1

Q: 10

Each day a man meets his wife at the train station after work, and then she drives
him home. She always arrives exactly on time to pick him up. One day he catches
an earlier train and arrives at the station an hour early. He immediately begins
walking home along the same route the wife drives. Eventually his wife sees him
on her way to the station and drives him the rest of the way home. When they
arrive home the man notices that they arrived 20 minutes earlier than usual, how

7
much time did the man spend walking?

A) 45 minutes
B) 50 minutes
C) 40 minutes
D) 55 minutes
E) 35 minutes

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Chapter

A: 1
Answer: B

1) Insufficient

2) Sufficient: The times are same. Thus the distances ratio will be 1.5:1  same as
the ratio between velocities. Now we have two distances …one covered by Ervin
and the other by George. We just need to know the time taken to travel George’s
distance by Erwin

----d1------1.5d1-
----t----------t----
----t-------1.5t--

A: 2
Answer: A

If we use the 1st choice only then suppose T is the time taken to travel the first x
miles. So the time taken to travel the last X miles 10-T hrs.

60*(10-T) + 50*T=530

Thus T = 7 hrs. So the choice 1 is alone sufficient to explain the answer

If we use choice 2 then we may not be able to find out the time

9
Suppose the time taken to drive to the first x miles is T hrs then

50/x = 60/y - 4

where y is the distance travelled in the last x miles

Hence the answer is A

A: 3
Answer: C

(1)Commuting = 0.1* Workday

(2)Commuting + workday = 0.4*24 = 9.6

Therefore, using (1) and (2):

Commuting = 0.1*(9.6 – commuting),

1.1*Commuting = 0.96

Commuting = 0.872… hours, or 52 minutes.

Therefore, the answer must be C.

A: 4
Answer: D

(1) y is known. So from this we can find out the height gained by the plane.
Total height h= 20y+750+50

And the height gained is 800-20y. This height was gained at a rate of 50
m/s. This gives us x.
Sufficient

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(2) let height gained be h

tot time of flight is known...let it be K

K = h/50 + h/20 + (750+50)/20

Because
total time= time to ascent to h + time to descent back from h + time to
further decent to 800 m

solve for h....and u can have time of ascent= 50*h

A: 5
Answer: B

N produces x units in‘t’

M produces x units in ¾ t
O produces x units in 3/2t

In 1 minute total units produced by M, N, O working together = 1/t + 4/3t +

2/3t = 3/t
Ratio of work done by N in 1 minute = (1/t) / (3/t) = 1/3
This ratio will be the same no matter how long M, N, O work together.

is is a very concise chapter and so is the case with most topics on GMAT. But don’t be
fooled by the conciseness of the material covered. The material and concepts tested on
GMAT are not very vast yet how you apply these concepts is not an easy task.

A: 6
Answer: D

11
t<c<h
If you assume the volume of the tub to be V,

t*V/c + t*V/h = V
(cold volume+ hot volume=total volume)

From which,
t = hc/(c+h)
Since c < h,
tMax (when c becomes h) = h/2
tMin (when h becomes c) = c/2
Therefore, c/2 < t < h/2

A: 7
Answer: B

Time needed in this circumstance is (y/x)+(80-y)/1.25x=y/x+(320-4y)/5x=

(320+y)/5x

If they do with original rate time needed is =80/x

So ratio is [y/x+(320-4y)/5x]/(80/x)=0.8+0.0025y

hence B

A: 8
Answer: B

let speed of boat be x & stream be y

d/(x-y) =84 ----(1)

d/(x+y) =d/x -9
=> d/x -d/(x+y) =9
=> dy/x(x+y) =9
substituting value of d from (1)

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84y(x-y)/x(x+y) =9
=> 3x^2 -25xy + 28y^2=0
=> 3x^2 -21xy-4xy+28y^2 =0
-> 3x(x-7y) -4y(x-7y)=0
=> 3x=4y or x=7y

we have to find, d/(x+y) = 84(x-y)/(x+y) = 84*6y/8y =63min

84(x-y)/(x+y) = 84 * y/7y =12 min

answer(B)

A: 10
Answer: A

The various algebraic solutions posted all work. We can also solve through a
combination of common sense and back-solving.

We know that r = d/t. With a distance of 90, what time will give us a rate that's
not a crazy complicated number? 90/2.5 = 180/5 is an integer, but none of the
other answers produces an integer for rate. So, 2.5 certainly looks like the best
guess.

If we want to, we can back-solve to make sure:

if t for the return trip is 2.5 hours, then t for trip upstream is 3 hours.

Upstream rate = up distance/up time = 90/3 = 30

downstream rate = down distance/down time = 90/2.5 = 180/5 = 36

According to the original info, the rates should be 6 apart (v-3 vs v+3). Is 36-30 =
6? Yes! Therefore, 2.5 is the correct answer.

A: 10
Answer: B

13
We know that the wife left at the time that she normally leaves, because she had
no idea that the husband had arrived early. We know that the wife and husband
arrived home 20 minutes earlier than usual, even though the wife left home at the
regular time. For them to arrive home 20 minutes early, the wife would have had
to have encountered the husband after he had walked the distance covered by 10
minutes of travel in a car. 20 minutes would be saved because the wife would save
the 10 minutes that would have been required to drive from the point she saw her
husband to the station, as well as the ten minutes back from the station to the
point she saw her husband.

So, let's say the husband usually arrives at 3pm. Today he arrives at 2pm. The wife
leaves 2:30pm to pick him up. She will meet up with the husband at 2::50 pm,
because of the above analysis (by meeting up with him at 2:50, rather than her
normal 3 o'clock meeting, she saves 10 minutes from husband to station, and back
from station to husband, and they arrive home 20 minutes early, as stated in the
facts.

So, husband begins walking at 2pm, and wife meets up with him at 2:50=50
minutes. It does not matter which numbers you plug in for the time, the result is
always the same. If husband arrives usually at 4:30pm, then that means today he
arrived at 3:30 pm. Wife needs to meet up with him at 4:20 pm to save the 20
minutes back and forth. 3:30-4:20=50 minutes.

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