Articles published in Challenge Problem

Challenge Problem Showdown – October 15th, 2012

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challenge problem
We invite you to test your GMAT knowledge for a chance to win! Each week, we will post a new Challenge Problem for you to attempt. If you submit the correct answer, you will be entered into that week’s drawing for a free Manhattan GMAT Prep item. Tell your friends to get out their scrap paper and start solving!
Here is this week’s problem:

The function F(n) is defined as the product of all the consecutive positive integers between 1 and n2, inclusive, whereas the function G(n) is defined as the product of the squares of all the consecutive positive integers between 1 and n, inclusive. The exponent on 2 in the prime factorization of F(3)/G(3) is

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Challenge Problem Showdown – September 24th, 2012

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challenge problem
We invite you to test your GMAT knowledge for a chance to win! Each week, we will post a new Challenge Problem for you to attempt. If you submit the correct answer, you will be entered into that week’s drawing for a free Manhattan GMAT Prep item. Tell your friends to get out their scrap paper and start solving!
Here is this week’s problem:

Different breeds of dogs get older at different rates in dog years. Livonian wolfhounds age 7 times as fast as humans, whereas Khazarian terriers age 5 times as fast and Akkadian retrievers age 4 times as fast. If Dan bought a newborn Akkadian on January 1, 2010, a newborn Khazarian 1 year later, and a newborn Livonian 1 year after that, in what year will the sum of the dog-year ages of the Akkadian and the Khazarian first be exceeded by twice the age of the Livonian in dog years, rounding all ages down to the nearest integer?

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Challenge Problem Showdown – September 17th, 2012

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challenge problem
We invite you to test your GMAT knowledge for a chance to win! Each week, we will post a new Challenge Problem for you to attempt. If you submit the correct answer, you will be entered into that week’s drawing for a free Manhattan GMAT Prep item. Tell your friends to get out their scrap paper and start solving!
Here is this week’s problem:

On January 1, 2010, Dave invests 70% of his retirement savings in Antarctic largecap stocks, 20% in Antarctic midcaps, and 10% in Antarctic smallcaps. In 2010, largecaps rise 5%, midcaps rise 10%, and smallcaps rise 15% in the Antarctic stock market; however, in 2011, largecaps fall 10% and midcaps fall 20%, while smallcaps rise x% in Antarctica. If, on January 1, 2012, Dave has the same total amount of retirement savings as he did two years before, then x is between

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Quadrophenia Challenge Problem Showdown Solution

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gmat challenge problem solutionThere was a lot of confusion and anxiety regarding last week’s Challenge Problem Showdown. And for good reason; it was a difficult problem! In fact, only 15% of submitted answers were correct, making this the most difficult Challenge Problem Showdown in several years (by the way, you can purchase our complete Challenge Problem Showdown Archive here).

With this in mind, here is the solution to the Challenge Problem.

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Challenge Problem Showdown – September 10th, 2012

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challenge problem

We invite you to test your GMAT knowledge for a chance to win! Each week, we will post a new Challenge Problem for you to attempt. If you submit the correct answer, you will be entered into that week’s drawing for a free Manhattan GMAT Prep item. Tell your friends to get out their scrap paper and start solving!
Here is this week’s problem:

Given that a, b, c, and d all lie between 0 and “1 on the number line, and |a “ d| > |a “ c| > |a “ b|, does c lie between b and d on the number line?

(1) ab < ad < cd
(2) ac < bc < bd

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Challenge Problem Showdown – September 3rd, 2012

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challenge problem

We invite you to test your GMAT knowledge for a chance to win! Each week, we will post a new Challenge Problem for you to attempt. If you submit the correct answer, you will be entered into that week’s drawing for a free Manhattan GMAT Prep item. Tell your friends to get out their scrap paper and start solving!

Here is this week’s problem:

In quadrilateral ABCD, sides AB and BC each have length √2, while side CD has length 2. What is the area of quadrilateral ABCD?

(1) The length of side AD is 2.
(2) The angle between side AB and side BC is 90°.

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Challenge Problem Showdown – August 27th, 2012

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challenge problem

We invite you to test your GMAT knowledge for a chance to win! Each week, we will post a new Challenge Problem for you to attempt. If you submit the correct answer, you will be entered into that week’s drawing for a free Manhattan GMAT Prep item. Tell your friends to get out their scrap paper and start solving!
Here is this week’s problem:

Harold plays a game in which he starts with $2. Each game has 2 rounds; in each round, the amount of money he starts the round with is randomly either added to or multiplied by a number, which is randomly either 1 or 0. The choice of arithmetic operation and of number are independent of each other and from round to round. If Harold plays the two-round game repeatedly, the long-run average amount of money he is left with at the end of the game, per game, is between

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Challenge Problem Showdown – August 20, 2012

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challenge problem

We invite you to test your GMAT knowledge for a chance to win! Each week, we will post a new Challenge Problem for you to attempt. If you submit the correct answer, you will be entered into that week’s drawing for a free Manhattan GMAT Prep item. Tell your friends to get out their scrap paper and start solving!

Here is this week’s problem:

The symbol $ is defined by the formula a$b = a2 + b2. If 35$x = 372 and ((3$4)½$x)½$n = 852, then |n| =

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Challenge Problem Showdown – August 13, 2012

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challenge problem

We invite you to test your GMAT knowledge for a chance to win! Each week, we will post a new Challenge Problem for you to attempt. If you submit the correct answer, you will be entered into that week’s drawing for a free Manhattan GMAT Prep item. Tell your friends to get out their scrap paper and start solving!

Here is this week’s problem:

Rounded to four decimal places, the square root of the square root of 0.9984 is approximately…

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Challenge Problem Showdown – August 6, 2012

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challenge problem

We invite you to test your GMAT knowledge for a chance to win! Each week, we will post a new Challenge Problem for you to attempt. If you submit the correct answer, you will be entered into that week’s drawing for a free Manhattan GMAT Prep item. Tell your friends to get out their scrap paper and start solving!

Here is this week’s problem:

Jean puts N identical cubes, the sides of which are 1 inch long, inside a rectangular box, each side of which is longer than 1 inch, such that the box is completely filled with no gaps and no cubes left over. What is N?

(1) 56 < N < 63 (2) N is a multiple of 3.

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