AbeNeedsAnswers wrote:

Each of the 12 squares shown is labeled x,y,v,or w. What is the ratio of the number of these squares labeled x or y to the number of these squares labeled v or w?

A. 1:2
B. 2:3
C. 4:3
D. 3:2
E. 2:1

E

Given:
X, X, X, Y, Y, V
V, X, X, Y, W, W

# of X's and Y's = 8
# of V's and W's = 4

(Number of squares with X or Y) : (Number of squares with V or W) = 8 : 4 = 2 : 1

Answer: E

Hi All,

We're told that each of the 12 squares shown is labeled X, Y, V or W. We're asked for the ratio of the number of these squares labeled X OR Y to the number of these squares labeled V OR W.

You would likely find it easiest to just count up the number of times each letter appears and do the necessary arithmetic to answer the question. There is an interesting series of patterns in the answer choices that you can take advantage of though (and might prove useful on more difficult questions). When you're dealing with a ratio of integers, then the "total" of that ratio will limit what the total number of items could be.

For example, Answer C is a ratio of 4:3, meaning that the total of the first group must be a multiple of 4, the total of the second group has to be an equivalent multiple of 3 and the TOTAL number of items must be a multiple of 4+3 = 7. Since we know that ALL the boxes are labeled with one of those 4 letters, IF the ratio was 4:3, then the total number of boxes could be 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, etc. Here though, there are only 12 boxes, so 4:3 CANNOT be the correct answer. In that same way, neither Answer B nor Answer D can be correct either (since they both have a 'total' of 5 and 12 is not a multiple of 5). Answers A and E each have a 'total' of 3, so they could lead to a total of 12 boxes - and since there are clearly more Xs and Ys, the first number in the ratio would be bigger.

Final Answer: E

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