Hello,

Just wanted some help on the following:

Last year Department store X had a sales total for December that was 4 times the average of the monthly sales totals for January through November. The sales total for December was what fraction of the sales total for the year?

In the solution, it assumes that the the sales total for december was 4 times the sales of each individual month from Jan - Nov. I assumed that it was 4 times the sales of all 11 months from Jan - Nov. What is the clue in the sentence that distinguishes between these two alternatives?

Thank you!

Please post the answer choices as well, in case others want to study the whole problem.

"average of the monthly sales totals" means take each monthly sales total (11 values) and calculate an average - add them up and divide by 11. That gives you one monthly average - not an 11-month value.

I'm thinking 4/15 is the answer...