Got a question here, and don't agree with some statements from the explanation. See what you guys think.

Of the 4800 voters who voted for or against Resolution K, 1800 were Democrats and 3000 were Republicans. What was the total number of female voters who voted for Resolution K ?

1) 3/4 of the democrats and 2/3 of the republicans voted for resolution K.

2) 1/3 of the democrats who voted for Resolution K and 1/2 of the Republicans who voted for Resolution K were female.

I interprete the main question stem as:

4800 --> Comprise of 2 groups of people, those who voted for (in agreement) and those who voted against (not in agreement)
Similarly,
1800 Democrats = Democrats who voted for + Democrats who voted against
3000 Republicans = Republicans who voted for + Republicans who voted against

From 1), all we know are 3/4 of the Democrats and 2/3 of the Republicans voted for Resolution K. We do not know how many Democrats and Republicans there are. Neither is there any mention about female voters, so 1) is not sufficient.

From 2), 1/3 of the Democrats who voted for Resolution K and 1/2 of the Republicans who voted for Resolution K were female. All we know is 3/4 of the Democrats voted for resolutoin K, so 1/3(3/4) = 1/4 of the Democrats who voted for resolution K are female. Similarly, 1/2(2/3) = 1/3 of the Republicans who voted for Resolution K are female.

However, we do not know the number of Democrats and Republicans invovled. If the number of Democrats who came to vote were 2000, then 3/4(2000) = 1500 voted for and 300 voted against and another 200 probably did not cast. So unless we know exactly how many came to cast their vote, we don't know exactly how many voted for and how many voted against the resolution.

I chose (E).

However, the OE considered the number of Democrats who voted for resolution K to be 3/4(D) = 3/4(1800) = 1350. It seemed to assume that all the Democrats who turned up voted. That would means the total number of Democrats is 1800 and the total number of Republicans who voted is 3000.

My ans is C. (actual no. of female voters towards K = 1450)


It is already given in the question. "Of the 4800 voters who voted for or against Resolution K, 1800 were Democrats and 3000 were Republicans."



From the stem, "Of the 4800 voters who voted for or against Resolution K", it is assumed that people are forced to support either towards or against K. (If you want to think about not casting vote, there is also a category who gave nuetral vote )