GMAT Prep Exam 2 - Survey married/self-employed :: Manhattan GMAT Forums

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 1:33 pm

Please help! I can't seem to get to the right answer...

In a Survey of 248 people, 156 are married, 70 are self-employed, and 25% of those who are married are self-employed. If a person is randomly selected from those surveyed, what is the probability that the person selected will be self-employed but not married?

A- 1/8 (Right answer)
B- 4/31
C- 117/248
D-1/4
E- 31/117

I used the Double set matrix, but I get to 31/248. I don't know what I'm doing wrong!

Thank you!

Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 4:12 am

Just simplyfiy: 31/248 (248/31=8). 31/248 = 1/8

Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 4:12 am

by the way, when something like this happens, note it in the back of your mind: 'always check to see if i can reduce fractions before panic sets in.' could save your life - or at least a few seconds - on the real test.

Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 11:40 am

so close yet so far.

Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 4:00 pm

yes - it's so frustrating when that happens! You could also try to estimate in order to pick something close to your answer, as the answer choices have some spread.

Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 5:57 pm

Can someone please let me know how this probability is arrived at . I think I may be missing something , I am getting only 26/248

Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 11:35 pm

PC wrote:

Can someone please let me know how this probability is arrived at . I think I may be missing something , I am getting only 26/248

you're looking for people who are SE but not M. that's a subset of people who are SE, so you should consider that set to get some insight.
the set of people who are SE has two subsets:
* people who are SE and M
* people who are SE but not M

there are a total of 70 who are SE.
the # who are both SE and M is 25% of the total number of M: 25% of 156, or 39.
so therefore, there are 70 - 39 = 31 people who are SE but not M.