Which of the following is closest to ?
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Is it just me or is this one of those where you're supposed to ignore the tiny terms when expanding? I keep getting something between the C and D range and can't decide.
Yeah I think the trick is realizing (1.03)^4 is barely bigger than 1, so the product stays small-ish. Just depends on how much precision you keep.
Same here, the answer options are so spread out I think they're testing estimation, not exact computation.
Thanks for this one. Helped me see that 0.03^2 term actually matters a lot when you multiply by 100.
Right, and the 0.03^3 term is negligible but the 3*0.03^2 term really changes which answer you pick.
Does anyone have a quick way to do this without full binomial expansion? I feel like there's a shortcut I'm missing.
You could approximate with (1+0.03)^4 ≈ e^(0.12) if you remember e^0.12 ≈ 1.127, but honestly the expansion is faster here.
This felt harder than 655 to me, mostly because of the arithmetic. Got it eventually though.
What it tests
Your fluency with the order of operations, fractions, decimals, and basic number sense — the foundation every quant question leans on.
Common trap
Applying the order of operations out of sequence or rounding intermediate values before the final step.