A used-car dealer sold one car....

[JimH718]

A used-car dealer sold one car at a profit of 25 percent of the dealer's purchase price for that car and sold another car at a loss of 20 percent of the dealer's purchase price of that car. If the dealer sold each car for $20,000, what was the dealer's total profit or loss, in dollars for the two transactions combined?

A. $1,000 profit
B. $2,000 profit
C. $1,000 loss
D. $2,000 loss
E. $3,334 loss


Answer is C.


Where I struggle: the wording of this question, when under time pressure, is very confusing to me. I end up re-reading the question several times - deadly, I know.

Does anyone have any tips for how to drill in translating problems such as these? How I do get better at deciphering what they want and what they're giving me?

How could I translate "at a profit of 25 percent of the dealer's purchase price" quickly and scale the thought process to similar problems?

When solving this problem, I took the 20% "loss" and 25% "profit" of $20,000, $4K and $5k, respectively, and thought: "well if he lost $4K and profited $5K, then he netted a total of $1K"

Tips for changing and/or improving my behavior with similar problems are welcome! Thank you!

[RonPurewal]

there's no "magic" advice, other than... SLOW DOWN.

if you try to rush through reading the problem statement...
...that's how you'll make all the mistakes,
AND
...you'll actually take LONGER to get through the problem, since you'll have to keep re-reading parts of the problem statement over and over again.

if you are re-reading the question repeatedly, that just means you're trying to go through it too fast.
slow down.

[RonPurewal]

When solving this problem, I took the 20% "loss" and 25% "profit" of $20,000, $4K and $5k, respectively, and thought: "well if he lost $4K and profited $5K, then he netted a total of $1K"

if you are taking at adaptive practice test, and you think a problem is THIS easy...
...think again.

[JimH718]

there's no "magic" advice, other than... SLOW DOWN.

if you try to rush through reading the problem statement...
...that's how you'll make all the mistakes,
AND
...you'll actually take LONGER to get through the problem, since you'll have to keep re-reading parts of the problem statement over and over again.

if you are re-reading the question repeatedly, that just means you're trying to go through it too fast.
slow down.

I will S L O W D O W N. I have the same issue with RC. Stress is a funny thing.

Thank you for taking the time Ron, much appreciated.

[RonPurewal]

no problem.