A small college reduced its faculty by approximately 13 percent to 195

Hi All,

This question can be solved by TESTing THE ANSWERS.

We're told that a small college reduced its faculty by approximately 13 percent to 195 professors. We're asked for the original number of faculty members.

Since these answer choices are relatively 'spread out', we can use a bit of logic to quickly eliminate some of them. The college REDUCED down to 195 professors, so there had to have been MORE than that to start. Eliminate Answer A. 10% of 208 = about 21 (and 208-21 = 187, which is already too small; if we take 13% of 208, that loss will be even greater). Eliminate Answer B. With three answers left...

Let's TEST Answer D: 254

IF....
Original number = 254
13% of 254....
10% of 254 = about 25
20% of 254 = about 50
254 - 25 = 229 = TOO MANY
254 - 50 = 204 = TOO MANY
Answer D is TOO BIG. There's only one answer left that's smaller...

Final Answer:

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich