GMAT Word Problems Practice Questions
Starter questions
These are sample questions to ease you into the topic. They cover the basic principles and the simplest forms these questions can take.
A research team needs to prepare 1,250 ml of a mixture containing three chemical solutions: A, B, and C. Solution C must constitute 40% of the total mixture, while the remaining volume is divided between Solutions A and B in a 4:1 ratio. How many milliliters of Solution A should be added to the mixture?
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More questions
These are examples that are more reflective of the exam. They include a couple of different steps and test the same concepts in slightly less obvious ways.
A manufacturing plant produces components in batches. Machine A produces batches every 4 days, Machine B every 5 days, and Machine C every 6 days. All three machines start production together today. The plant requires a minimum combined output of at least 100 components per production cycle from all machines. What is the smallest number of days from today when the plant will meet or exceed this minimum requirement, given that each machine produces exactly 15 components per batch?
A hospital maintains three emergency drug stock solutions with different concentrations of active ingredient: Solution X contains 420 mg per liter, Solution Y contains 680 mg per liter, and Solution Z contains 840 mg per liter. To prepare a 3.5-liter batch with exactly 2,310 mg of active ingredient, the hospital must mix two of these solutions. What is the minimum possible volume of the stronger solution that must be used in this mixture?
At the start of January, a regional insurance company employed 216 claims adjusters at its processing center. During each of the first two quarters of the year, one third of the adjusters employed at the start of that quarter left the company, and no new adjusters were hired. The number of adjusters employed was a whole number at the start of each quarter.
At the start of the third quarter, a severe storm caused a surge in claims. During week 1 of the surge, 3 new claims were submitted, and the number of new claims submitted each week tripled relative to the week before, so that 3^n new claims were submitted during week n of the surge. A separate team was assigned to process the newly submitted claims.
In the same week that the surge began, the adjusters who remained after the two quarters of departures began clearing a pre-storm backlog of 14,400 claims, working only on that backlog. Each remaining adjuster cleared claims at the same constant rate of 5 claims per week, and they cleared the entire backlog in a whole number of weeks.
What is the units digit of the number of new claims submitted during the week in which the remaining adjusters finished clearing the backlog?
A soccer team scored exactly 15 goals in their first 10 games, with an integer number of goals in each game. If they maintain the same integer scoring rate per game, what is the minimum number of goals they must score in the next 20 games?
A construction project requires selecting a team of 3 workers from a group of 4 carpenters and 5 electricians. How many different teams include at least one carpenter?
Hard questions
These are 705+ level questions that you can expect from the GMAT Focus Edition. They test multi-step reasoning, complicated word problems, and the hardest percent concepts the exam covers.
A hospital has two teams, Team A and Team B, that work on rotating schedules. Team A works every 6 days, and Team B works every 8 days. Both teams worked together today. How many days from now will both teams next work together on the same day?
A repair shop makes shoe soles from two rubbers. The low-friction rubber has a friction index of 2, and the high-friction rubber has a friction index of 10. A blend's friction index is the mass-weighted average of the indices of its rubbers.
A sole initially has a friction index of 4. During use, it loses 20% of its low-friction rubber and 40% of its high-friction rubber. The shop then adds 15 grams of low-friction rubber and 60 grams of high-friction rubber. A quality check reports that the square of the repaired sole's friction index is 36.
What percent of the repaired sole's mass is high-friction rubber that was in the sole before it was worn?
An airport is rebuilding one security checkpoint with 12 lanes. Seven lanes will keep their current width of 39 inches. The other five lanes will be rebuilt so that their widths are five different whole numbers of inches and are consecutive. The average width of all 12 lanes must be within 1.5 inches of 40 inches, inclusive. For each lane, the contractor charges $180 for a width up to and including 44 inches, plus $125 for each inch above 44 inches. What is the greatest possible value of the total charge for the five rebuilt lanes minus the total charge for the seven unchanged lanes?
A city is blending two water sources for its municipal supply. Source A contains 180 ppm of mineral X, and Source B contains 320 ppm of mineral X. The city wants to create a 2,400-gallon mixture with exactly 240 ppm of mineral X. Due to infrastructure constraints, Source A can contribute no more than 1,200 gallons to the mixture. What is the minimum number of gallons the city must use from Source B to achieve the desired blend?