<p>"A store charges $28 for a certain type of sweater. This price is 40 percent more than the amount it costs the store to buy one of these sweaters. At an end-of-season sale, store employees can purchase any remaining sweaters at 30 percent off the <em>store's cost</em>. How much would it cost an employee to purchase a sweater of this type at this sale?"</p>
<p>A) 8.40
B) 14.00
C) 19.60
D) 20.00
E) 25.20</p>
<p>Is it just me who thinks "store's cost" is just waaaaaaaay too ambiguous? I interpreted store's cost as the cost of buying from the store, as you normally refer to it in daily life.</p>
<p>"How much does it cost at the store?" "Around two bucks."</p>
<p>I thought it was one of those trick questions and answered C, which is what you get when you get 30% off the store price. The answer turned out to be B, which is when you do 40% off then 30% off the store price. </p>
<p>I don't know man... If the real SAT questions are as vague as this one I'll be in dismay.</p>
<p>You’re seriously overthinking the problem.The “store’s cost” refers to the cost of the store to purchase the sweater. Since you know that the store usually sells the sweater at 40% more than the original cost for the store, you can solve for the original cost. Knowing that (assume x is the store’s cost) $28 = 140% of x, solve for x: x = 28/1.4 = 20. The store’s cost is $20. since an employee can get it for 30% off the store’s cost, multiply $20 by 70% (i.e. the amount needed to be spent still to get the sweater), and the answer is revealed: (B) $14.00</p>
<p>This is not a grammar problem . . . it’s basic economics. The store’s cost for Item X is what it costs the store to purchase Item X from its supplier. The customer’s cost is what it then costs the customer to purchase Item X from the store.</p>
<p>The employees are getting a ridiculously good deal, by the way!</p>
<p>Contrary to what everyones been telling you, I also thought about this when I ran into this same exact question a couple weeks ago. However, knowing the SAT and all, I figured it would be too easy if they were just asking for how much you’re getting off of store price. </p>
<p>But I do admit that the wording isnt perfect. I don’t know why everyone’s been saying that it is… There are 100 ways to ask this question in a way that’s clearer…</p>
<p>At the same time, SAT questions go through rigorous tests so I’m sure TCB knew what it was doing when it gave this question out like that</p>
<p>I’ll give you an answer that will help you avoid all this nonsense in the future:
Rule of thumb for SAT math: 99% of the time there is no pointless information. If you have information that you think you don’t need, you are probably wrong and you should use that information.
Don’t think that the SAT is trying to trip you up like that. Sure, there are trick questions, but they are math tricks, not wording tricks.</p>
<p>Very rarely there are questions with excess information on them.</p>
<p>I agree with the OP. Personally, I have been conditioned,sort of, to find the trick. I think most of us have. In classes, there’s always that question that tries to throw you off. When I read it just now, I also thought it was too easy. Although the SAT doesn’t compare to mathematics competitions, some questions still require a double-take. By the way, good luck everyone for the upcoming SAT.</p>