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Algebra is a common question topic in the GRE and if you include word problems
which are really just algebra problems in disguise then even more of GRE
quantitative questions are algebra problems. For many of these word problems the
most difficult part of the question is understanding exactly what they are telling you
and what you need to find out.
This tutorial will assume that you have already worked through our 'Fractions' and
'Exponents, ratios and percents' tutorials. It will also assume that you a fair
knowledge of algebra. For example you should be able to solve the following
equation to find a.
=
2a + 3
11
a =? solution at the bottom of this page
Solve this problem by finding the value for a. This tutorial will begin by giving you
two methods for making sense of and solving word problems. Then we will revise the
solution of quadratic equations and finally look at substitution techniques which will
help when you do not know how to find the solution to a question.
Solution: a = 4
Carl has twice as much money invested in stocks as in bonds. Stocks earn 10%
interest per year and bonds 5% per year. If Carl earned a total of $800 dollars
from his stocks and bonds last year how much money did he have invested in
stocks?
A $9,600
B $8,000
C $6,400
D $4,000
E $3,200
If you feel brave you can have a go at it now. My advice would be to follow these
guidelines.
o Identify answer i.e. write down exactly what you are looking for.
• Solve: find the solution for the equstions you have written down.
If you have had a go at the question then check your answer. If not then we will
answer the question together.
S = 2B
Note: many people get confused with the phrase 'twice as much' and write 2S = B.
This is a very common mistake and must be avoided. If you find that you get
confused writing the equation try replacing the variables with numbers and then read
the sentence again to see if it makes sense. For example in this case if S = 2B, then
if B = 1, S = 2. This makes sense because stocks are '2' which is twice as much as
bonds which are '1'.
'Stocks earn 10% interest per year and bonds 5% per year. If Carl earned a total of
$800 dollars from his stocks and bonds last year...'
Stocks earned 10% of S and bonds earned 5% of B and this totaled $800 so,
( 10% × S ) + ( 5% × B ) = 800
It is also important to write down what you are trying to find. It is all to easy to do
the correct working and get to a related or intermediate answer which you find in the
list of answers A-E and to choose it in your haste to finish the question.
'...how much money did he have invested in stocks?'
You are trying to find the amount in stocks so write down
S=?
To summarize we have:
S = 2B
( 10% × S ) + ( 5% × B ) = 800
S =?
Solving equations
We have already done much of the work in solving this problem by changing it from
the word problem
'Carl has twice as much money invested in stocks as in bonds. Stocks earn 10%
interest per year and bonds 5% per year. If Carl earned a total of $800 dollars from
his stocks and bonds last year how much money did he have invested in stocks?'
to the algebraic problem
S = 2B
( 10% × S ) + ( 5% × B ) = 800</FONT<< td>
S =?
To solve the system of equations you want to reduce the problem from two variables
in two equations to one variable in one equation. Usually the easiest way to do this is
by substitution i.e. replacing one of the variables by the other.
Careful at this point not to assume that you have finished. You have found the
amount of money invested in bonds, no you need to use the equation S = 2B and
calculate the amount invested in stocks.
S = 2B
S = 2 × 3200
S = 6400
Returning to the question.
Carl has twice as much money invested in stocks as in bonds. Stocks earn 10%
interest per year and bonds 5% per year. If Carl earned a total of $800 dollars
from his stocks and bonds last year how much money did he have invested in
stocks?
A $9,600
B $8,000
C $6,400
D $4,000
E $3,200
At a football game 50% of the seats are sold to season ticket holders who pay
$11 each and 10% are sold to children who pay $5 each. All the remaining
tickets are sold to non-members at $15 each. What proportion of the total gate
receipts for the game is contributed by non-members?
A 60%
B 52%
C 50%
D 40%
E 5%
If you would like to try the question now then follow these guidelines.
• Summarize:
o Identify answer i.e. mark on the table exactly what you are looking
for.
• Solve: Keep calculating more elements in the table until you arrive at the
answer you need.
If you have had a go at the question then check your answer. If not then we will
answer the question together.
club-members
children
non-members
children 10% $5
non-members
'All the remaining tickets are sold to non-members at $15 each. What proportion of
the total gate receipts for the game is contributed by non-members?''
% tickets sold price % total income
children 10% $5
non-members $15 ?
children 10% $5
non-members $15 ?
We will add a totals row because we are working with percentages and an income
column so that we can later work out the percentages for the income. We can fill in
100% for the totals of the percentages.
children 10% $5
non-members $15 ?
In this case we know the % tickets sold will sum to 100% so the percentage sold to
club members will be
children 10% $5
Now we will work out the amount of income from each group. The income from each
group will be the number of tickets sold multiplied by the price of each ticket. Since
we do not know the total number of tickets sold we can assume that there were 100
tickets because this will make the mathematics easier
Now that we have the total income and the income from non-members we can find
the percentage we need.
At a football game 50% of the seats are sold to season ticket holders who pay
$11 each and 10% are sold to children who pay $5 each. All the remaining
tickets are sold to non-members at $15 each. What proportion of the total gate
receipts for the game is contributed by non-members?
A 60%
B 52%
C 50%
D 40%
E 5%
Quadratic equations
Quadratic equations are of the form ax2 + bx + c = 0 where a, b and c are real
numbers and, more specifically, in the GRE they will be integers. For example
x2 + 5x - 6 = 0
To solve an equation like this you will have to find the values of x for which the
equation holds true. Normally there will be two such values.
A quick method
We can condense this method of solving a quadratic equation into 3 steps if the
equation is in the form x2 + bx + c = 0.
3. Reverse the signs of the two numbers you have found and these will be the
solutions for the equation
An example
-2 and -5.
3. Reversing the signs, we find 2 and 5 which are the solutions to this quadratic
equation.
So the solution is x = 2 or 5
Solving by substitution
If you do not know how to do an algebra question then you can often use the fact
that the GRE is a multiple choice test to your advantage. You can substitute the
value of your choice for the variable in the algebraic expression and then evaluate
the answer choices to see which one is equal to the original expression.
Example
If you followed 'solving quadratic equations' carefully you should be able to see how
to answer this question using factorization but let us assume, for now, that you do
not know.
Substitute the number of your choice into the equations to replace x and evaluate
them all. Pick a number which will make your calculations easy for example 0.
If x = 0
then,
= =3
A: x - 3 = 0 - 3 = -3
B: x - 2 = 0 - 2 = -2
C: x + 1 = 0 + 1 = 1
D: x + 2 = 0 + 2 = 2
E: x + 3 = 0 + 3 = 3
Both the expression and answer E have a value of 3, therefore E is the correct
answer.
• Summarize:
• Solve:
o Keep working even if you are not sure exactly what to do.
o When using equations, keep eliminating variables until you have only
the one you need to find.
o With tables, keep calculating more elements in the table until you
arrive at the answer you need.
...and algebra.
• Quadratic equations: x2 + bx + c = 0.
o Reverse the signs of the two numbers you have found and these will
be the solutions for the equation
• Substitution: