A committee of 2 people is to be selected out of

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VJesus12: Legendary Member; Posts: 2276; Joined: Sat Oct 14, 2017 6:10 amFollowed by: 3 members

by VJesus12 » Thu Mar 15, 2018 4:23 am

A committee of 2 people is to be selected out of 3 teachers and 4 preachers. If the committee is selected at random, what is the probability that the committee will be composed of at least 1 preacher?

A. 1/4
B. 1/3
C. 2/3
D. 6/7
E. 8/9

The OA is D.

Should I use combinations here? Or probability? I am confused.

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Problem Solving | Thu Mar 15, 2018 4:23 am

DavidG@VeritasPrep: Legendary Member; Posts: 2663; Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2015 8:25 amFollowed by: 128 members; Location: Boston, MA; Thanked: 1153 times; GMAT Score:770

by DavidG@VeritasPrep » Thu Mar 15, 2018 5:37 am

VJesus12 wrote:A committee of 2 people is to be selected out of 3 teachers and 4 preachers. If the committee is selected at random, what is the probability that the committee will be composed of at least 1 preacher?

A. 1/4
B. 1/3
C. 2/3
D. 6/7
E. 8/9

The OA is D.

Should I use combinations here? Or probability? I am confused.

Yes! (You can think of probability as a ratio of combinations or permutations.)

Useful equation P(x) = 1 - P(not x)

P( at least 1 preacher) = 1 - P(no preachers)

P(no preachers) = # ways we can select committee with no preachers/# ways we can select committee total
# ways we can select no preachers: Both selections would be teachers. If there are 3 to choose from, we want 3C2 = 3*2/2! = 3.
# ways we can select committee total: There are 7 people. We want to, or 7C2 = 7*6/2! = 21
P(no preachers) = 3/21 = 1/7
1 - P(no preachers) = 1 - 1/7 = 6/7. The answer is D

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DavidG@VeritasPrep: Legendary Member; Posts: 2663; Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2015 8:25 amFollowed by: 128 members; Location: Boston, MA; Thanked: 1153 times; GMAT Score:770

by DavidG@VeritasPrep » Thu Mar 15, 2018 5:41 am

VJesus12 wrote:A committee of 2 people is to be selected out of 3 teachers and 4 preachers. If the committee is selected at random, what is the probability that the committee will be composed of at least 1 preacher?

A. 1/4
B. 1/3
C. 2/3
D. 6/7
E. 8/9

The OA is D.

Should I use combinations here? Or probability? I am confused.

You can also go pick by pick. We want 1 - P( no preachers)

P(no preachers) = P(pick 1 not a preacher) * P(pick 2 not a preacher given that pick 1 was not.)
P(pick 1 not a preacher) = 3/7
P(pick 2 not a preacher given that pick 1 was not) = 2/6
P(pick 1 not a preacher) * P(pick 2 not a preacher given that pick 1 was not) = 3/7 * 2/6 = 6/42 = 1/7
1 - P(no preachers) = 1 - 1/7 = 6/7, or D

The gist is that you can think of probability as a ratio of combinations, or you can go pick by pick. (Just make sure that if you go pick by pick that you consider every possible order of selection.)

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Brent@GMATPrepNow: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 16207; Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2008 6:26 pmFollowed by: 1268 members; Location: Vancouver, BC; Thanked: 5254 times; GMAT Score:770

by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Thu Mar 15, 2018 5:46 am

VJesus12 wrote:A committee of 2 people is to be selected out of 3 teachers and 4 preachers. If the committee is selected at random, what is the probability that the committee will be composed of at least 1 preacher?

A. 1/4
B. 1/3
C. 2/3
D. 6/7
E. 8/9

Here's an approach that uses probability rules.

We want P(select at least 1 preacher)
When it comes to probability questions involving "at least," it's best to try using the complement.
That is, P(Event A happening) = 1 - P(Event A NOT happening)
So, here we get: P(getting at least 1 preacher) = 1 - P(NOT getting at least 1 preacher)
What does it mean to not get at least 1 preacher? It means getting zero preachers.
So, we can write: P(getting at least 1 preacher) = 1 - P(getting zero preachers)

P(getting zero preachers)
P(getting zero preachers) = P(1st selection is teacher AND 2nd selection is teacher)
= P(1st selection is teacher) x P(2nd selection is teacher)
= 3/7 x 2/6
= 1/7

So, P(getting at least 1 preacher) = 1 - 1/7
=6/7

Answer: D

Cheers,
Brent

Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com

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Vincen: Legendary Member; Posts: 2898; Joined: Thu Sep 07, 2017 2:49 pmFollowed by: 5 members; Thanked: 6 times

by Vincen » Thu Mar 15, 2018 6:45 am

Hello Vjesus12.

This is how I would solve it: I'd use combinations and then probability.

There are 7 people and we have to pick 2, this can be done from $$7C2=\frac{7!}{5!2!}=\frac{7\cdot6\cdot5!}{5!\cdot2}=\frac{42}{2}=21.$$ Now:

The number of ways to pick 1 preacher is given by: $$3C1\cdot4C1=\frac{3!}{2!1!}\cdot\frac{4!}{3!1!}=3\cdot4=12.$$ The number of ways to pick 2 preachers is given by: $$4C2=\frac{4!}{2!2!}=\frac{12}{2}=6.$$ Hence, the total of ways to pick at least 1 preacher is 12+6 = 18.

Now, the probability of pick at least 1 preacher is: $$P=\frac{18}{21}=\frac{6}{7}.$$ Therefore, the correct answer is the option D.

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Scott@TargetTestPrep: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 8188; Joined: Sat Apr 25, 2015 10:56 amFollowed by: 29 members; Location: Los Angeles, CA; Thanked: 43 times

by Scott@TargetTestPrep » Mon Mar 19, 2018 5:45 am

VJesus12 wrote:A committee of 2 people is to be selected out of 3 teachers and 4 preachers. If the committee is selected at random, what is the probability that the committee will be composed of at least 1 preacher?

A. 1/4
B. 1/3
C. 2/3
D. 6/7
E. 8/9

To determine how many ways to select at least one preacher, we can use the formula:

Number of ways to select at least 1 preacher = total number of ways to select the committee - number of ways to select NO preachers

Total number of ways to select the committee of 2 people is:

7C2 = 7!/[2!(7-2)!] = (7 x 6)/2! = 21

The number of ways to select NO preachers in the committee is:

3C2 = (3 x 2)/2! = 3

Thus, the number of ways to select at least 1 preacher is 21 - 3 = 18.

So the probability that the committee will be composed of at least 1 preacher is 18/21 = 6/7.

Alternate Solution:

We use the rule of the complement, which says: The probability of picking AT LEAST one preacher = 1 - the probability of picking NO preachers.

Note that the probability of picking NO preachers is the same as the probability of picking all teachers for this committee of 2. Thus, the probability of picking 2 teachers is 3/7 x 2/6 = 1/7.

Thus, the probability of picking at least one preacher = 1 - 1/7= 6/7.

Answer: D

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Founder and CEO
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