Guest Post: The Gmat Coach & Mixtures

Hello All,

I hope you all are preparing well for your GMAT test. We “The GMAT Coach” sincerely wish you great success in your test. As a part of a series of articles to help students ace the GMAT test , today I am writing on the topic “Mixtures”. This “Mixtures” is an extension to the topic “Ratios & Proportions”.

The topic “Mixtures” is very interesting and sometimes tricky if you do not know how to set-up the questions the right way. Today I plan on discussing a strategy to tackle “Mixtures” problem by setting it up in the right & smart way.

“Mixtures” is basically when you combine two or more things in different proportions to form a new product. The best example of mixtures that we use in our day to day life is when we take a shower.
In our shower we mix hot water and cold water in a certain proportion depending on our comfort levels.

A typical GMAT question on this is going to be something like –

A hot water which is (80 degrees) and cold water (30 degrees) solutions are mixed to form a solution which is 50 degrees. What is the ratio of Hot Water to Cold Water in the mixture for 50 degree water solution?

A. 3 : 2

B. 2 : 3

C. 3 : 1

D. 1 : 3

E. 3: 4

Now taking this an example, lets learn a  strategy and smart way to approach this question.

1. First you set-up the questions as hot & cold water with their respective temperatures (80 & 30)
2. After you mix them we get 50 Degrees.
3. 80 – 50 = 30 and  30 – 50 = 20 (Ignore Negative Sign)
4. 20 Relates to Hot Water & 30 relates to Cold Water
5. After reducing we say that to get 50 degrees solution we need to mix Hot & Cold Water in the ratio of 2:3

This strategy helps you in solving the question in less than 30 seconds. Save you a lot of time and stress.

Any questions/concerns on this and for extra practice questions on this topic please feel free to e-mail me, Dhiraj co-founder of “The GMAT Coach” at  Dgoverd@TheGmatCoach.com

Wishing you all a great success in your GMAT prep and test.