Hi M7MBA,

We're told that the TOTAL income for a group of people is $6,000 and the MEDIAN of the group is $2,000. We're asked for the total number of people in the group. While the prompt does not explicitly state it, based on the correct answer, we're meant to assume that EACH family member generates some income. Since the answer choices are numbers, we can use them 'against' the prompt and TEST THE ANSWERS.

Answer A: 2 people
IF... there were 2 people, and the median = $2,000... then the total would be (2)($2,000) = $4,000. That does NOT match what we were told though (the total is supposed to be $6,000), so Answer A is NOT correct.

Answer B: 3 people
The median = $2,000, so we would need one LARGER value and one SMALLER value. Those values could be $3,000 and $1,000, respectively... and that would create a total of $6,000, so this MUST be the answer.

Final Answer: B

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

M7MBA wrote:If the total income of a family per month is $6000 and the median income is $2000, how many members are there in the family?

A. 2
B. 3
C. 4
D. 5
E. 6

The OA is B.

Experts, How can I determine which one is the correct answer? Thanks! <i class="em em-smiley"></i>

If there are 3 members, the income of each of the 3 members could be $1,000, $2,000, and $3000, respectively. We see that in this case, the total income of the family is exactly $6000.

(Note: This question is imprecise. There could be as few as 3 or as many as 5 members in the family. For example, if the incomes were $0; $2,000; $2,000; and $2,000, the two conditions would be met. And if the incomes were $0; $0; $2,000; $2,000; and $2,000, the total income would be $6,000 and the median income would still be $2,000.)

Answer: B