If 5 percent of the personnel stationed at army base M are o

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vinni.k: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 421; Joined: Sun Apr 17, 2011 4:27 amFollowed by: 2 members; Location: India; Thanked: 6 times; GMAT Score:620

by vinni.k » Tue May 29, 2018 7:26 am

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If 5 percent of the personnel stationed at army base M are officers, how many of the personnel stationed at army base M are not officers?

1) 15 percent of the officers at army base M are women.
2) 65 percent of the women employed at army base M are officers

OA is E

Last edited by vinni.k on Wed May 30, 2018 9:57 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Data Sufficiency | Tue May 29, 2018 7:26 am

GMATGuruNY: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 15539; Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 12:04 pmFollowed by: 1906 members; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 13060 times; GMAT Score:790

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by GMATGuruNY » Tue May 29, 2018 7:37 am

vinni.k wrote:If 5 percent of the personnel stationed at army base M are officers, how many of the personnel stationed at army base M are not officers?

1) 15 percent of the officers at army base M are women.
2) 65 percent of the women employed at army base M are officers

Statements combined:
Case 1: Total number of personnel = 5,200
Case 2: Total number of personnel = 5,200,000
Clearly, the number of non-officers in Case 2 will be greater than the number of non-officers in Case 1.
Since the number of non-officers can be different values, the two statements combined are INSUFFICIENT.

The correct answer is E.

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vinni.k: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 421; Joined: Sun Apr 17, 2011 4:27 amFollowed by: 2 members; Location: India; Thanked: 6 times; GMAT Score:620

If 5 percent of the personnel stationed at army base M are

by vinni.k » Wed May 30, 2018 9:29 am

GMATGuruNY wrote: Statements combined:
Case 1: Total number of personnel = 5,200
Case 2: Total number of personnel = 5,200,000
Clearly, the number of non-officers in Case 2 will be greater than the number of non-officers in Case 1.
Since the number of non-officers can be different values, the two statements combined are INSUFFICIENT.
The correct answer is E.

Mitch,

Thanks for your explanation. A small, sweet, and a simple answer. Very much preferable on the exam day, however if i want to go deep in understanding the question from analytical point of view, then what do you think about my understanding. I will be glad if you can correct my below analysis.

I would also like to request others to feel free give your opinion.

Thanks in advance

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GMATGuruNY: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 15539; Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 12:04 pmFollowed by: 1906 members; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 13060 times; GMAT Score:790

by GMATGuruNY » Thu Jun 07, 2018 4:07 am

vinni.k wrote:
GMATGuruNY wrote: Statements combined:
Case 1: Total number of personnel = 5,200
Case 2: Total number of personnel = 5,200,000
Clearly, the number of non-officers in Case 2 will be greater than the number of non-officers in Case 1.
Since the number of non-officers can be different values, the two statements combined are INSUFFICIENT.
The correct answer is E.
Mitch,

Thanks for your explanation. A small, sweet, and a simple answer. Very much preferable on the exam day, however if i want to go deep in understanding the question from analytical point of view, then what do you think about my understanding. I will be glad if you can correct my below analysis.

I would also like to request others to feel free give your opinion.

Thanks in advance

While you seem to have arrived at the correct answer, your approach might prove problematic for other problems.
For example:

Your first equation: (5/100)(M + F) = officers
Here, F = the total number of females.
For this reason, a stand-alone F should represent the total number of females in all subsequent equations.

A subsequent equation in your analysis: 0.15(Officers M + Officers F) = F
If in this equation F = the total number of females, the implication is that the total number of females is equal to 15% of the officers -- an invalid statement.

To organize the data, I recommend the use of a double-matrix.
The information in the prompt could be represented as follows:

Statement 1 could then be represented as follows:

Hope tis helps!

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vinni.k: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 421; Joined: Sun Apr 17, 2011 4:27 amFollowed by: 2 members; Location: India; Thanked: 6 times; GMAT Score:620

by vinni.k » Mon Jun 11, 2018 5:23 am

Mitch,

Thanks for checking my work. I was pretty sure that i was doing something wrong, but i wanted someone to look at it.

Thanks. Really appreciate it. <i class="em em-blush"></i>

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by Scott@TargetTestPrep » Thu Jun 14, 2018 9:53 am

vinni.k wrote:If 5 percent of the personnel stationed at army base M are officers, how many of the personnel stationed at army base M are not officers?

1) 15 percent of the officers at army base M are women.
2) 65 percent of the women employed at army base M are officers

If 5 percent of the personnel stationed at army base M are officers, then 95 percent of the personnel are not officers. However, we need the actual number of officers. Thus we need to know the total number of personnel at the army base.

Statement One Alone:

15 percent of the officers at army base M are women.

This does not tell us about the total number of personnel members in the army base. Statement one alone is not sufficient.

Statement Two Alone:

65 percent of the women employed at army base M are officers.

This does not tell us about the total number of personnel members in the army base. Statement two alone is not sufficient.

Statement One and Two Together:

With the two statements, we still can't determine the total number of personnel at the army base.

Answer: E

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