The fire department has two classes of employees, responders and administrators. The department requires a physical for each new employee, unless that employee has had a physical in the previous year or is an administrator. Last month, the fire department required physicals of 6 new employees. If 3/4 of the new employees are responders, how many new employees does the department have?
(1) 1/6 of the new employees are administrators who have had a physical in the previous year.
(2) 1/3 of the new responders have had a physical in the previous year.
tough value question
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I'm happy to help with this.rishianand7 wrote:The fire department has two classes of employees, responders and administrators. The department requires a physical for each new employee, unless that employee has had a physical in the previous year or is an administrator. Last month, the fire department required physicals of 6 new employees. If 3/4 of the new employees are responders, how many new employees does the department have?
(1) 1/6 of the new employees are administrators who have had a physical in the previous year.
(2) 1/3 of the new responders have had a physical in the previous year.
This is a very tricky question, an interesting question, about ratios & counts. Incidentally, what's the source?
Statement #1: 1/6 of the new employees are administrators who have had a physical in the previous year.
New administrative employees do not need physicals, regardless of whether they have had a physical in the past year or not. All new employees needing new physicals are responders. This information is irrelevant.
This statement, alone and by itself, is insufficient.
Statement #2: 1/3 of the new responders have had a physical in the previous year.
There are six new employees that needed physicals, and all of them must be new responders. This six is the one-third of responders that needed physicals, so 2/3, 12 new responders didn't need physicals. There are 18 new responders in total, which accounts for 3/4 of all new employees, so there are 24 new employees.
This statement, alone and by itself, is sufficient.
I get that the answer is [spoiler](B)[/spoiler].
The stipulations in this question are tricky. It takes very careful reading.
Does all this make sense?
Mike
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This is an EITHER/OR group problem.rishianand7 wrote:The fire department has two classes of employees, responders and administrators. The department requires a physical for each new employee, unless that employee has had a physical in the previous year or is an administrator. Last month, the fire department required physicals of 6 new employees. If 3/4 of the new employees are responders, how many new employees does the department have?
(1) 1/6 of the new employees are administrators who have had a physical in the previous year.
(2) 1/3 of the new responders have had a physical in the previous year.
A new employee is EITHER a responder OR an administrator.
A new employee EITHER has had a physical previously OR has not.
For an EITHER/OR group problem, we can use a GROUP GRID (also known as a double-matrix) to organize the data.
Let R = responder, A = administrator, P = has had a physical previously, NP = has not had a physical previously.
Here's the grid:
In the grid above, the entries in any given row or column must add up to the TOTAL of that row or column.
Since the fractions in the problem are 3/4, 1/6, and 1/3, and the LCM of 4, 6 and 3 = 12, let the total number of new employees = 12x.
Since 6 of the new employees require physicals -- and the only type of new employee who requires a physical is a responder who has not had a physical previously -- the number of responders who have not had a physical previously = 6.
Since 3/4 of the new employees are responders, the total number of responders = (3/4) * 12x = 9x.
Entering these values into the grid, we get:
To determine the total number of new employees -- 12x -- we need to know the value of x.
Question rephrased: What is the value of x?
Statement 1: 1/6 of the new employees are administrators who have had a physical in the previous year.
Since (1/6) * 12x = 2x, we get:
No way to solve for x.
INSUFFICIENT.
Statement 2: 1/3 of the new responders have had a physical in the previous year.
Since the total number of new responders = 9x, the number of new responders who have had a physical previously = (1/3) * 9x = 3x.
Here's the resulting grid:
Since 6x=6, x=1.
Thus, the total number of new employees = 12x = 12*1 = 12.
SUFFICIENT.
The correct answer is B.
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As Mitch points out, his approach uses a technique known as with the Group Grid or Double Matrix Method. This technique can be used for most questions featuring a population in which each member has two characteristics associated with it.
Here, we have a population of employees, and the two characteristics are:
- job (responder or administrator)
- had physical or didn't have physical
To learn more about this important technique, watch our free video: https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gmat- ... ems?id=919
Then try these additional practice questions that can be solved using the Double Matrix Method:
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/05/ ... question-1
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/05/ ... question-2
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/05/ ... question-3
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/ds-quest-t187706.html
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/overlapping- ... 83320.html
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/finance-majo ... 67425.html
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/ds-french-ja ... 22297.html
Cheers,
Brent
Here, we have a population of employees, and the two characteristics are:
- job (responder or administrator)
- had physical or didn't have physical
To learn more about this important technique, watch our free video: https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gmat- ... ems?id=919
Then try these additional practice questions that can be solved using the Double Matrix Method:
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/05/ ... question-1
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/05/ ... question-2
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/05/ ... question-3
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/ds-quest-t187706.html
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/overlapping- ... 83320.html
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/finance-majo ... 67425.html
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/ds-french-ja ... 22297.html
Cheers,
Brent