Princeton Review Test question

Expert replies

gmatblrind: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 6; Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2009 9:05 am

by gmatblrind » Mon Dec 07, 2009 4:50 am

Company Y employs c women and d men. Do the women at Company Y earn an average (arithmetic mean) annual salary greater than $25,000?

(1) Company Y pays its employees a total of $30,000(c + d) in salaries annually.
(2) The men at Company Y earn an average (arithmetic mean) annual salary of $34,000.

Explanation:

Stmt 1: Since the annual salary is 30,000(c+d); the avg sal. per employee would be 30,000(c+d)/(c+d) = 30,000
Therefore avg. sal of women is greater than 25000; Sufficient

Stmt 2: Avg. salary of men is 34,000; since nuthng is given about total salaries of all the employess and no.of women & men employees cannot deduce avg sal of women. InSufficient

Therefore IMO ABut official answer is given as E.

Is something wron with the way I have interpreted the problem

[spoiler][/spoiler]

Like this post

Source: Beat The GMAT — Data Sufficiency | Mon Dec 07, 2009 4:50 am

Giorgio: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 182; Joined: Sat Apr 11, 2009 4:55 am; Thanked: 11 times

by Giorgio » Mon Dec 07, 2009 7:40 am

1. Well you know that average salary is 30,000 per employee, but since you don't know what percentage is distributed to to males or females you can not conclude anything about an average salary of women.

2. Here we have additional information , that may help to solve , but , again we know nothing about the % of women in the company.

Like this post

papgust: Community Manager; Posts: 1537; Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2009 6:10 pmFollowed by: 252 members; Thanked: 653 times

by papgust » Mon Dec 07, 2009 7:54 am

gmatblrind wrote: Stmt 1: Since the annual salary is 30,000(c+d); the avg sal. per employee would be 30,000(c+d)/(c+d) = 30,000
Therefore avg. sal of women is greater than 25000; Sufficient

Stmt 2: Avg. salary of men is 34,000; since nuthng is given about total salaries of all the employess and no.of women & men employees cannot deduce avg sal of women. InSufficient

Therefore IMO ABut official answer is given as E.

Is something wron with the way I have interpreted the problem

[spoiler][/spoiler]

Your reasoning for 1st stmt is wrong because the 30,000 that you derived is the avg salary for an employee in general. It is not specific to women/men.

So, this statement simply states the avg salary of an employee but you can derive how much women would have an average salary.

For stmt 2, You only know the average salary of men. You don't know the value of "d". Even if d is provided, it is still not sufficient since there is no info about the women.

Combined together, still insufficient because neither "c" nor "d" is given. Further, we only have average salaries of women and all in general. From this info, women's average salary cannot be deduced.

Hence it is E.

Like this post

Post new topic Post Reply

• Page 1 of 1

GMAT Course Reviews

560 reviews

1168 reviews

431 reviews

359 reviews

147 reviews

5/5

5 Star (560 Reviews)

"Target Test Prep is the closest to the official version of the GMAT exam, about 99% accuracy in terms of the quality and quantity of information. The course has excellently created singular sets of focused lessons and tests for every possible topic that one could come across in the official GMAT exam."

"The TTP course maximizes the efficiency of the time you spend studying. It will take time and effort but I could almost guarantee that if you complete the course exactly as it is laid out you will get an amazing score. They also have a very responsive team willing to help with any questions you might have."

"TTP has two things that I think no other test prep company offers: A teaching approach that reinforces understanding and an attitude that will give you the mental preparedness needed to succeed on the test. TTP gives you a deep understanding of the concept you need to know while teaching you how to think."

Write a Review