Percent (GPREP)

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aj5105: Legendary Member; Posts: 1169; Joined: Sun Jul 06, 2008 2:34 am; Thanked: 25 times; Followed by:1 members

Percent (GPREP)

by aj5105 » Wed Jul 08, 2009 4:29 am

In a certain year the total expenditure the united nations were $1.6 billion. of this amount, 67.8% was paid by the 6 highest contributing countries, and the balance was paid by the remaining 153 countries. Was country X amoung the 6 highest contributing countries?

(1) 56 percent of the total expendutures was paid by the 4 highest contributing countries, each of which paid more than country X

(2) Country X paid 4.8 percent of the total expenditures.

P.S
I really get stuck with such problems. I do not know where to start and how to proceed. At the end of 2 mins, I would 've done nothing but stared at the problem. I want to fix this problem. Help needed.

Last edited by aj5105 on Wed Jul 08, 2009 10:18 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Data Sufficiency | Wed Jul 08, 2009 4:29 am

abhinav85: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 179; Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2008 4:41 am; Thanked: 2 times

by abhinav85 » Wed Jul 08, 2009 6:32 am

I think IMO C.

Basically its a value ques. what is the value of x?

From given information in the ques we get that 67.8% of $ 1.6 million is divided into 6 highest paid countries. and the rest is divided in 153 countries. that is 32.2% of $ 1.6 million.

Lets take a easier statment first,

From 2nd statement we get nothing.it just says that x countributes 4.8% of total. i.e Not Sufficeint.

From 1st statment we get that 56% of 67.8% is divided into 4 highest paid countries.
x could be or could not be of the remaining two highest paid countries.
Again Not Sufficent.

Now when we take both statment together we get,
now if you divide 32.2% of $ 1.6 million into 153 countries it will be way less than 4.8% for one country out of 153.

So x has to be from the 6 highest paid countries.

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ghacker: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 148; Joined: Wed Jun 03, 2009 8:04 pm; Thanked: 18 times; Followed by:1 members

by ghacker » Wed Jul 08, 2009 9:58 am

Answer is E

Statement I : clearly insufficient

Statement II : Only about X so insufficient

Statement I and II together , we can see that the top 4 paid 56% and all contributed more than 4.8% , but we know that the top 6 contributed 67.8%
and X contributed only 4.8% so we cannot clearly say X is in the top 6

hence E

Example : top4 56% + 5th 6%+ 6th 5.8% , then say 100 counties contributing between 4.81% and 5.79% , then X

or top4 56% + 5th 12%+ x 4.8% then the rest

so in the first X is not in but in the II X is in

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mike22629: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 322; Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2009 3:56 pm; Thanked: 24 times; GMAT Score:710

by mike22629 » Wed Jul 08, 2009 12:06 pm

IMO E
Remember that the key to DS is to disprove statement
A) We know that the top 4 take up 56% and that the last two must take up 67.8%. Therefore, spots 5 and 6 must equal 11.8%. Does not tell you anything about x so insufficient.

B) X paid 4.8%. So it is obviously impossible to be spot 5 because it is less than half of the 11.8% needed for spots 5 and 6, but it can easily be 6. So....see if it is possible that it is not 6. Best way to do this is see if it is possible to be spot 7. That would mean that the 2 spots above it would have to be equal to 11.8% for this to be possible.

This is definitely possible because spot 5 could be 5.51 and spot 6 could be 5.49, making X spot 7 at the best.

An easier way to look at it would be to change x to say 8%. Here it would have to be in spot 5 or 6 because 2 spots above it would always be greater than 11.8%, making it impossible for it to be outside of the top 6.