Jolene entered an 18-month investment contract that guarante

[tex.boonjue]

Jolene entered an 18-month investment contract that guarantees to pay 2 percent interest at the end of 6 months, another 3 percent interest at the end of 12 months, and 4 percent interest at the end of the 18 month contract. If each interest payment is reinvested in the contract, and Jolene invested $10,000 initially, what will be the total amount of interest paid during the 18-month contract?

$506.00

$726.24

$900.00

$920.24

$926.24


I would like someone to help me with the INTERPRETATION of the problem.

I did not include the 4% interest at the end of the 18 months because the question asked for "the total amount of interest paid during the 18-month contract"

I concluded that "during" did not include "the end", thus I did not include the 4% interest rate and selected "A" as my answer.

Someone please please please, provide an explanation that will rid me of this over analyzation I habitually do with problems. Anything will help, thought process, analogies, strategies, metaphors, ANYTHING.

This has been a recurring problem for me, as I have been tricked so many times with GMAT problems, I tend to over analyze some problems.

[jnelson0612]

Jolene entered an 18-month investment contract that guarantees to pay 2 percent interest at the end of 6 months, another 3 percent interest at the end of 12 months, and 4 percent interest at the end of the 18 month contract. If each interest payment is reinvested in the contract, and Jolene invested $10,000 initially, what will be the total amount of interest paid during the 18-month contract?

$506.00

$726.24

$900.00

$920.24

$926.24


I would like someone to help me with the INTERPRETATION of the problem.

I did not include the 4% interest at the end of the 18 months because the question asked for "the total amount of interest paid during the 18-month contract"

I concluded that "during" did not include "the end", thus I did not include the 4% interest rate and selected "A" as my answer.

Someone please please please, provide an explanation that will rid me of this over analyzation I habitually do with problems. Anything will help, thought process, analogies, strategies, metaphors, ANYTHING.

This has been a recurring problem for me, as I have been tricked so many times with GMAT problems, I tend to over analyze some problems.

Hmmm, this is probably a larger issue than is encompassed in this forum, so you may want to seek Stacey's advice in the General forum also about your tendency to overanalyze. However, in this case, it would be almost unheard of for the GMAT to give you a piece of information for a problem solving problem that you would not use. In fact, I really can't think of such a problem. You can pretty much assume that if the test writers are giving you information they intend for you to use it. In this case I can understand your interpretation, but the GMAT wouldn't give you info in a problem solving problem and not have you use it and completely disregard it, so definitely lean in the direction of using the information. They'd rather test that you can do the math then that you can interpret this information. :-)