GMAT OFFICIAL GUIDE PS

Solution:

The key to solving this problem is to accurately translate what is being asked to a mathematical expression. We need to determine the “per capita expenditure”. As an expression this is:

(Total annual expenditure)/(Total population)= per capita expenditure

The easiest first step is to express 240 million as a number times a power of 10 since the other number is in this format.

240 million = 240,000,000

Since we have a 24 with 7 zeroes we can write this as:

24 x 10^7

Next, we should adjust 1.2 x 10^12 to make it a more usable number in our expression.

1.2 x 10^12 = 120 x 10^10

We now can solve:

(Total annual expenditure)/(Total population)

(120 x 10^10)/(24 x 10^7)

5 x 10^3

5 x 1,000 = 5,000

Answer: E

About The Author

Jeffrey Miller is the head GMAT instructor for Target Test Prep. Jeff has more than fourteen years of experience in the business of helping students with low GMAT scores hurdle the seemingly impossible and achieve the scores they need to get into the top 20 business school programs in the world, including HBS, Stanford, Wharton, and Columbia. Jeff has cultivated many successful business school graduates through his GMAT instruction, and will be a pivotal resource for many more to follow.