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CAREY33: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 19; Joined: Sat Mar 26, 2016 4:53 pm

by CAREY33 » Sun Apr 10, 2016 4:48 pm

How do I solve this question?

1) In a survey of students, each student selected from a list of 12 songs the 2 songs the student like the best. If each song was selected 4 times, now many students were surveyed?

A) 96
B) 48
C) 32
D) 24
E) 18

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Problem Solving | Sun Apr 10, 2016 4:48 pm

MartyMurray: Legendary Member; Posts: 2135; Joined: Mon Feb 03, 2014 9:26 amFollowed by: 140 members; Location: https://martymurraycoaching.com/; Thanked: 955 times; GMAT Score:800

by MartyMurray » Sun Apr 10, 2016 4:58 pm

Here's a wicked easy way to solve it. A key thing to understand in handling many GMAT questions is the following.

If a solution works, then even if it is the easiest solution, all of the other solutions must create the same answer. For example, if an easy way to get to an answer to this question generates a way that all the songs were listened to four times, then assuming that the question was correctly designed, any other approach would give the same answer.

So if each student chooses 2 songs, all 12 songs can be chosen by 6 students choosing 2 songs each.

In order for all 12 to be chosen 4 times, that process has to happen 4 times.

6 x 4 = 24

The correct answer is D.

Marty Murray
Perfect Scoring Tutor With Over a Decade of Experience
MartyMurrayCoaching.com
Contact me at [email protected] for a free consultation.

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CAREY33: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 19; Joined: Sat Mar 26, 2016 4:53 pm

by CAREY33 » Sun Apr 10, 2016 5:06 pm

Thanks!

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GMAT/MBA Expert

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 » Mon Apr 11, 2016 6:51 am

CAREY33 wrote:How do I solve this question?

1) In a survey of students, each student selected from a list of 12 songs the 2 songs the student like the best. If each song was selected 4 times, now many students were surveyed?

A) 96
B) 48
C) 32
D) 24
E) 18

All 12 songs selected 4 times each means a TOTAL of 48 selections were made (12 x 4 = 48).
Each student makes 2 selections, so the TOTAL number of students = 48/2 = 24

Answer: D

Cheers,
Brent

Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com

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Matt@VeritasPrep: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2630; Joined: Wed Sep 12, 2012 3:32 pmFollowed by: 119 members; Location: East Bay all the way; Thanked: 625 times; GMAT Score:780

by Matt@VeritasPrep » Mon Apr 11, 2016 1:06 pm

I'd opt for Brent's way: you know that 4*12 = 48 songs were picked, and each student picked two songs, so

(# of songs picked) / (# per student) = # of students

48 / 2 = 24

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