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Median number of workers

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by gmattesttaker2 » Tue Dec 24, 2013 8:16 pm
Hello,

Can you please assist with this:

The table above shows the number of workers absent at a certain company during
the 20 working days of February and the number of days at which that number of
workers was absent. For instance, 8 workers were absent on each of 2 days of February,
10 workers were absent on each of 3 days of February. What was the median number of
absent workers for this company in February?

(A) 5
(B) 8
(C) 11
(D) 11.5
(E) 12

OA: D

Thanks for your help,
Sri
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Source: — Problem Solving |

by GMATGuruNY » Wed Dec 25, 2013 5:14 am
gmattesttaker2 wrote:Hello,

Can you please assist with this:

The table above shows the number of workers absent at a certain company during
the 20 working days of February and the number of days at which that number of
workers was absent. For instance, 8 workers were absent on each of 2 days of February,
10 workers were absent on each of 3 days of February. What was the median number of
absent workers for this company in February?

(A) 5
(B) 8
(C) 11
(D) 11.5
(E) 12

OA: D

Thanks for your help,
Sri
8 workers absent --> 2 days
10 workers absent --> 3 days
11 workers absent --> 5 days
12 workers absent --> 4 days
14 workers absent --> 6 days

List the absentee rates in ASCENDING order, as follows:
If an absentee rate occurs on 2 DAYS, it should appear in the list TWICE.
If an absentee rate occurs on 3 DAYS, it should appear in the list 3 TIMES.
And so on.
8, 8, 10, 10, 10, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 12, 12, 12, 12, 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, 14.
The median absentee rate is the average of the two values in red:
(11+12)/2 = 11.5.

The correct answer is D.
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