what does atleast mean?

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tanmay9: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 8; Joined: Thu Aug 30, 2012 8:39 am

what does atleast mean?

by tanmay9 » Thu Oct 17, 2013 10:55 am

Students are in clubs as follows: Science-20, Drama-30, and Band-12. No student
is in all three clubs, but 8 are in both Science and Drama, 6 are in both Science and
Band, and 4 are in Drama and Band. How many different students are in at least one
of the three clubs?

Do we have to give the total no of students here or just only Science + only drama + only Band?

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Problem Solving | Thu Oct 17, 2013 10:55 am

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by [email protected] » Thu Oct 17, 2013 12:41 pm

Hi tanmay9

This is an example of an "overlapping sets" question. A big part of solving this type of question is to realize that (in this case) certain students have been counted "more than once." For example, the 8 students who are in both the Science and Drama clubs were counted TWICE (once in Science and once in Drama), so that's 8 individuals, NOT 16.

The question asks for the number of DIFFERENT STUDENTS who are in at least 1 of the clubs (meaning either in 1 club or 2 clubs). It's essentially asking for the total number of students.

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