DS question from Official practice test

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DS question from Official practice test

by sev » Mon Jun 04, 2007 2:59 pm
What is the remainder when positive interger N is divided by 6?


a) n is a multple of 5

b) n is a multiple of 12


the correct answer is B, but I dont see how,

when you divide any multiple of 5 by 6, there's almost always a remainder

when you divide any multiple of 12, there isnt....



i got this problem wrong, but im not sure why. it asks WHAT the remainder is, and there IS a remained on A, but not on B......

I put down C because the question asks 'what IS the remainder' implying that whether or not it's 0 or >0 it doesnt matter.

the correct answer is B... why?

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by drhomler » Mon Jun 04, 2007 3:13 pm
The question is asking what is the value of the remainder when N is divided by six. If N were 10(a multiple of 5) the remainder would be 4 if n were fifteen the rmainder woulf be 3. Since there are multiple answers with 1), we cannot come up with a value. in 2) the remainder is zero for N becasue any multiple of 12 can be divided by 6 evenly.

Essentially the data is never sufficient if you get more than one answer with the information provided.

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by sev » Mon Jun 04, 2007 3:48 pm
ohhhhhh... i see...

thanks, that was confusing me