All GMAT Math Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #111 : Word Problems
How much interest will be accumulated in a simple interest investment if is invested for years at interest rate?
$
$
$
$
$
Simple interest equation:
Example Question #11 : Interest Problems
Jessica deposits $5,000 in a savings account that collects 6% simple interest. How much money will she have accumulated after 5 years?
None of the other answers are correct.
Example Question #12 : Interest Problems
How many years does it take an investment of to yield in interest if invested at a simple interest rate?
Remember the simple interest formula, where I is interest, p is principle, r is rate, and t is time:
Example Question #12 : Calculating Simple Interest
Bob lends $500 to his friend, who agrees to pay it back one month later with 5% simple interest. How much will Bob's friend owe him at the end of the month?
At the end of one month, Bob's friend will owe him the $500, plus the 5% simple interest he agreed to pay. The total amount he owes Bob, then, will be $500 plus 5% of $500. This gives us:
Example Question #14 : Interest Problems
We deposit today in an account paying simple interest every months. Assuming we make no other deposits, how much interests will we receive after years?
By applying the formula for simple interest rates, , where is the principal, the rate for the given period and is the number of periods we can easily get the amount of interests received. Our is 15, because the rate is given for 6 months. 7 years is equivalent to 14 times 6 months, to that we add the last half year and we get 15 periods. Therefore the amount of interest received is : or .
Example Question #14 : Calculating Simple Interest
If is invested at simple annual interest rate over months, what it is the amount of interest earned over that period?
Here, we cannot apply the rate as is, since it is given for a year. We just have to divide the rate by the number of months in a year, since we are looking for a monthly rate. Therefore, the applicable rate is , now we can apply the formula and we get: or .
Example Question #13 : Interest Problems
A local credit union offers short-term loans at an annual interest rate of . If Jasmine takes out a loan for months, how much will she pay in interest?
Here we need our simple interest formula. There is no compounding, so all we need is:
= Dollar amount of interest
= Amount borrowed/invested
= Annual interest rate
= Number of years borrowed/loaned
Plug in what we know and solve for :
So, Jasmine pays in interest.
Example Question #13 : Interest Problems
We deposit today in an account paying annual simple interest, how much do we have in the account at the end of the year, provided we make no other deposit?
This is a simple interest problem, therefore, the amount of interests received is given by the formula: , where is the principal, is the number of periods and is the rate over that period. In this problem is 140,000, is 10 and is 10% or 0.1. Therefore we get or 140,000. We add the interest received to the principal, and we get the final answer of .
Example Question #1 : Calculating Compound Interest
Grandpa Jack wants to help his grandson, Little Jack, with college expenses. Little Jack is currently 3 years old. If Grandpa Jack invests $5,000 in a college savings account earning 5% compounded yearly, how much money will he have in 15 years when Little Jack is 18?
Between $9,500-$10,000
Between $9,000-$9,500
Between $11,000-$11,500
Between $10,000-$10,500
Between $10,500-$11,000
Between $10,000-$10,500
To solve this, we can create an equation for the value based on time. So if we let t be the nmbers of years that have passed, we can create a function f(t) for the value in the savings account.
We note that f(0) =5000. (We invest 5000 at time 0.) Next year, he will have 5% more than that. To find our total value at the end of the year, we multiply 5,000 * 1.05 = 5,250. f(1) = 5000(1.05)=5,250. At the end of year 2, we will have a 5% growth rate. In other words, f(2) = (1.05)* f(1). We can rewrite this as . We can begin to see the proper equation is . If we plug in t = 15, we will have our account balance at the end of 15 years. So, our answer is .
Example Question #1 : Calculating Compound Interest
Cherry invested dollars in a fund that paid 6% annual interest, compounded monthly. Which of the following represents the value, in dollars, of Cherry’s investment plus interest at the end of 3 years?
The monthly rate is
3 years = 36 months
According to the compound interest formula
and here , , , so we can plug into the formula and get the value