Time and Work Concepts, Tricks for GMAT

In order to crack an entrance exam, it is essential to devise a strategy to attain your dream score. For a highly competitive exam like GMAT, using shortcuts will help you save time and attempt a good number of questions. An important topic under the quant section is Time and Work. For all those who are gearing up for the GMAT exam, here is a blog on time and work tricks and its concepts which will help you work on related questions in less time!

Time and Work Important Concepts

Let’s have a look at some plausible insights into the concept of Man – Work- Hour: 

• More men will do more work
• More men will do more work in less time
• More work signifies more time required to do work
• If M men can do a work in T hours, then Total effort or work = MT man hours
• If X can do a piece of work in D days, then X’s 1 day work = 1/ D
• Part of Work done by X  in t days= t/D
• If X’s 1 day’s work= 1/D, then X can finish the work in D days

Time and Work Important Formulas 

Here are some important time and work formulas for GMAT that one must know to solve questions:

1. Work from Days

If A can do a piece of work in n days, then A’s 1 day’s work = 1/n

2. Days from Work

If A’s 1 day’s work = 1/n, then A can finish the work in n days.

3. Ratio

If A is thrice as good a workman as B, then:

Ratio of work done by A and B = 3 : 1

Ratio of times taken by A and B to finish a work = 1 : 3

Time and Work Relationships to Remember

Mentioned below are some important relationships related to time and work tricks that aspirants or students must know while preparing for any competitive exams. These relationships are indeed shortcuts that will help you to solve time and work questions faster and with ease.   

1. Relationship between Men and Work.

• More men  ⇒ can do  ⇒  More work
• Less men  ⇒  can do  ⇒  Less work

2. Relationship between Work and Time

• More work  ⇒  takes  ⇒  More Time
• Less work  ⇒  takes  ⇒  Less Time

3. Relationship between Men and Time

• More men  ⇒  can do in  ⇒  Less Time
• Less men  ⇒  can do in  ⇒  More Time

Time and Work Tricks 

Mentioned below are some of the beneficial time and work tricks, adapting which along with your GMAT preparation tips will take you a step closer to your career aspirations.

Trick 1: If M1 men can finish W1 work in D1 days and M2 men can finish W2 work in D2 days then, the relation is: M1*D1/W1 = M2*D2/W2

Trick 2: If M1 men finish W1 work in D1 days, working T1 time each day and M2 men finish W2 work in D2 days, working T2 time each day, then the relation is: M1*D1*T1/W1 = M2*D2*T2/W2

Trick 3: If A completes a piece of work in ‘x’ days, and B completes the same work in ‘y’ days, then, 

Work done by A in 1 day = 1/X

Work done by B in 1 day = 1/Y

Work done by A and B in 1 day = 1/X + 1/Y 

Total time taken to complete the work by A and B both = XY/(X + Y)

Trick 4: If A can do a work in ‘x’ days, B can do the same work in ‘y’ days, C can do the same work in ‘z’ days, then the total time taken by A, B and C to complete the work together = XYZ/(XY + YZ + ZX)

Trick 5:  If A alone can do a certain work in ‘x’ days and A and B together can do the same work in ‘y’ days, then B alone can do the same work in = XY/(X – Y)

Trick 6: Work of one day =Total work / Total no. of working days

Total work = (work of one day) × (total no. of working days)

Remaining work = 1 – (work done)

Work done by A = (Work done in 1 day by A) × (total no. of days worked by A)

Trick 7: If A can do a work in ‘x’ days and B can do the same work in ‘y’ days and when they started working together, B left the work ‘m’ days before completion then the total time taken to complete work is = (Y + M)X / (X+Y)

Trick 8: If A leaves the work ‘m’ days before its completion then the total time taken to complete work is = (X + M)Y / (X+Y)

Trick 9: If food is available for ‘a’ days for ‘A’ men at a certain place and after ‘b’ days. ‘B’ men join, then the remaining food will serve total men for Required time = A(a – b) / (A + B) days 

Trick 10: If A and B together can finish a certain work in ‘a’ days. They worked together for ‘b’ days and then ‘B’ (or A) left the work. A (or B) finished the rest of work in ‘d’ days, then, the total time taken by A (or B) alone to complete the work = ad / (a – b) or bd / (a – b) days 

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Time and Work Important MCQs

Some of the important MCQs for Time and Work are mentioned below.

1. A alone can do a piece of work in 6 days and B alone in 8 days. A and B undertook to do it for Rs. 3200. With the help of C, they completed the work in 3 days. How much is to be paid to C?

A. Rs. 375

B. Rs. 400

C. Rs. 600

D. Rs. 800

2. A, B and C can do a piece of work in 20, 30 and 60 days respectively. In how many days can A do the work if he is assisted by B and C on every third day?

A. 12 days

B. 15 days

C. 16 days

D. 18 days

3. If 6 men and 8 boys can do a piece of work in 10 days while 26 men and 48 boys can do the same in 2 days, the time taken by 15 men and 20 boys in doing the same type of work will be:

A. 4 days

B. 5 days

C. 6 days

D. 7 days

4. A can do a piece of work in 4 hours; B and C together can do it in 3 hours, while A and C together can do it in 2 hours. How long will B alone take to do it?

A. 8 hours

B. 10 hours

C. 12 hours

D. 24 hours

5. A machine P can print one lakh books in 8 hours, machine Q can print the same number of books in 10 hours while machine R can print them in 12 hours. All the machines are started at 9 A.M. while machine P is closed at 11 A.M. and the remaining two machines complete work. Approximately at what time will the work (to print one lakh books) be finished?

A. 11:30 A.M.

B. 12 noon

C. 12:30 P.M.

D. 1:00 P.M.

6. 10 women can complete a work in 7 days and 10 children take 14 days to complete the work. How many days will 5 women and 10 children take to complete the work?

A. 3

B. 5

C. 7

D. Cannot be determined

7. 4 men and 6 women can complete a work in 8 days, while 3 men and 7 women can complete it in 10 days. In how many days will 10 women complete it?

A. 35

B. 40

C. 45

D. 50

8. Ravi and Kumar are working on an assignment. Ravi takes 6 hours to type 32 pages on a computer, while Kumar takes 5 hours to type 40 pages. How much time will they take, working together on two different computers to type an assignment of 110 pages?

A. 7 hours 30 minutes

B. 8 hours

C. 8 hours 15 minutes

D. 8 hours 25 minutes

9. Twenty women can do a work in sixteen days. Sixteen men can complete the same work in fifteen days. What is the ratio between the capacity of a man and a woman?

A. 3 : 4

B. 4 : 3

C. 5 : 3

D. Data inadequate

10. A can finish a work in 24 days, B in 9 days and C in 12 days. B and C start the work but are forced to leave after 3 days. The remaining work was done by A in:

A. 5 days

B. 6 days

C. 10 days

D. 10.5 days

Answers

1. B
2. B
3. A
4. C
5. D
6. C
7. B
8. C
9. B
10. C

Time and Work Practice Questions

Now that you have gathered insight into the time and work tricks, let us go through some practice questions to see how much you have retained form these tricks:

1. Two workers Ram and Rohit are appointed to cover the jars in a factory. When Ram works alone he covers 1500 in x hours. When both Ram and Rohit work together they cover 1500 jars in n hours. Considering the m and n hours, how many hours will it take Rohit to cover 1500 jars?
2. Three friends A, B, C working at their constant rate finish a set amount of work in 3, 5 and 4 hours. If all three friends work together, what amount of work will be done by B?
3. Riya and Siya can do some work in 70 days and 60 days. They started doing the work together. But after some days Riya leaves and Siya finishes the rest of the work in 47 days. Determine, after how many days did Riya leave the work?
4. A Mother can do given piece work in 10 days and the Daughter takes 20 days to do the same work. When the father helps, mother and daughter are able to finish the work in 4 days. If a father is to do the entire work alone, in how many days will he complete the work?
5. Two sisters, Jane and Julie started to pack some gifts. It took them 21 and 24 days respectively. After working together, Jane left the work and Julie completed the remaining work in 9 days. Calculate, after how many days did Jane leave. 

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FAQs

Concludingly, we hope that these time and work tricks have helped you in getting a better hold of the topic. Want to achieve your dream GMAT score? Enrol on Leverage Edu’s exclusive GMAT online preparation to get expert guidance on the same. Hurry up, register for an online demo session. Call us immediately at 1800 57 2000 for a free 30-minute counselling session.