Last visit was: 20 Nov 2025, 03:36 It is currently 20 Nov 2025, 03:36
Close
GMAT Club Daily Prep
Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.

Customized
for You

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History

Track
Your Progress

every week, we’ll send you an estimated GMAT score based on your performance

Practice
Pays

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History
Not interested in getting valuable practice questions and articles delivered to your email? No problem, unsubscribe here.
Close
Request Expert Reply
Confirm Cancel
User avatar
MichelleSavina
Joined: 27 Sep 2010
Last visit: 07 Apr 2011
Posts: 23
Own Kudos:
262
 [69]
Given Kudos: 3
Posts: 23
Kudos: 262
 [69]
12
Kudos
Add Kudos
57
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Most Helpful Reply
User avatar
Bunuel
User avatar
Math Expert
Joined: 02 Sep 2009
Last visit: 20 Nov 2025
Posts: 105,408
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 99,987
Products:
Expert
Expert reply
Active GMAT Club Expert! Tag them with @ followed by their username for a faster response.
Posts: 105,408
Kudos: 778,465
 [41]
15
Kudos
Add Kudos
26
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
General Discussion
avatar
gaganthapar
Joined: 18 Oct 2011
Last visit: 15 Apr 2013
Posts: 1
Own Kudos:
2
 [2]
Given Kudos: 3
Posts: 1
Kudos: 2
 [2]
1
Kudos
Add Kudos
1
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
User avatar
dchow23
Joined: 16 May 2011
Last visit: 18 Feb 2013
Posts: 51
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 2
Posts: 51
Kudos: 46
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
(2) The probability that both the selected people will be women is more than 20% -> \frac{w}{8}*\frac{w-1}{7}>\frac{1}{5} --> w(w-1)>11.2 --> is w\geq{4}: there are more than or equal to 4 women in 8 people: 4, 5, 6, ... hence there are less than or equal to 4 men: 4, 3, ... So answer to the question whether there are more than or equal to 5 men is NO. Sufficient.

can you explain what this equaiton means? W(W-1) >11.2 How do we know its SUFF by this equation?
User avatar
Bunuel
User avatar
Math Expert
Joined: 02 Sep 2009
Last visit: 20 Nov 2025
Posts: 105,408
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 99,987
Products:
Expert
Expert reply
Active GMAT Club Expert! Tag them with @ followed by their username for a faster response.
Posts: 105,408
Kudos: 778,465
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
gmihir
A committee of 2 people is to be formed from a group of 8 people which includes some women and rest are men. If P is the probability that both the selected people are men, is P > 0.25?

(1) More than 40% of the employees are men.
(2) The probability that both the selected people will be women is more than 20%.

Merging similar topics. Please refer to the solution above.


dchow23
(2) The probability that both the selected people will be women is more than 20% -> \frac{w}{8}*\frac{w-1}{7}>\frac{1}{5} --> w(w-1)>11.2 --> is w\geq{4}: there are more than or equal to 4 women in 8 people: 4, 5, 6, ... hence there are less than or equal to 4 men: 4, 3, ... So answer to the question whether there are more than or equal to 5 men is NO. Sufficient.

can you explain what this equaiton means? W(W-1) >11.2 How do we know its SUFF by this equation?

The question asks whether the # of men in 8 people is more than or equal to 5 (5, 6, or 7). From (2) we have that \(w(w-1)>11.2\). Now, if the # of women is 3 then 3(3-1)=6<11.2, so w>3, which means that there are more than or equal to 4 women in 8 people: 4, 5, 6, ... hence there are less than or equal to 4 men: 8-4=4, 8-5=3, ... So, the answer to the question whether there are more than or equal to 5 men is NO.

Hope it's clear.
User avatar
narangvaibhav
Joined: 30 Jun 2011
Last visit: 17 Aug 2012
Posts: 98
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 12
Affiliations: Project Management Professional (PMP)
Location: New Delhi, India
Concentration: Marketing
Posts: 98
Kudos: 160
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Good question and great explanation... thanks
User avatar
EMPOWERgmatRichC
User avatar
Major Poster
Joined: 19 Dec 2014
Last visit: 31 Dec 2023
Posts: 21,784
Own Kudos:
12,807
 [2]
Given Kudos: 450
Status:GMAT Assassin/Co-Founder
Affiliations: EMPOWERgmat
Location: United States (CA)
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V49
GRE 1: Q170 V170
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V49
GRE 1: Q170 V170
Posts: 21,784
Kudos: 12,807
 [2]
1
Kudos
Add Kudos
1
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Hi All,

There are a couple of ways to approach this question, depending on how comfortable you are with the math concepts involved. There's a great 'brute force' element to the question that you can take advantage of (as long as you write everything down and label your work).

We're told that we have a group of 8 people (some men and some women). We're told to randomly select 2 of the 8 people and we're asked if the probability that they're BOTH men is greater than .25 This is a YES/NO question.

Since there are only 8 people, we can have from 0 - 8 men in the group. We can do a bit of work up-front so that we can move faster through the two Facts later. We want to figure out the point at which the probability will be > .25

IF....
There are 4 men and 4 women
Probability of selecting 2 men is (4/8)(3/7) = 3/14
Since 3/12 = .25, 3/14 must be LESS than .25 (since the denominator of that fraction is bigger than 12)

IF.....
There are 5 men and 3 women
Probability of selecting 2 men is (5/8)(4/7) = 5/14
Since 5/15 = .333333, 5/14 must be BIGGER than .3333 (since the denominator of that fraction is smaller than 15)

So, with 4 OR FEWER men, the answer to the question is NO
With 5 OR MORE men, the answer to the question is YES

We now know that the question is really asking if the number of men is 5 OR GREATER. Again, this is a YES/NO question.

Fact 1: MORE than 40% of the employees are men.

(.4)(8) = 3.2, BUT since we CANNOT have a "fraction" of a man, we must have 4 OR MORE men....

IF...we have 4 men, then the answer to the question is NO
IF...we have 5 men, then the answer to the question is YES
Fact 1 is INSUFFICIENT

(2) The probability that both the selected people will be women is more than 20%.

For this Fact, we can use the calculations that we did at the beginning (with a little extra work).

IF....
There are 4 women and 4 men
Probability of selecting 2 women is (4/8)(3/7) = 3/14
Since 3/15 = .2, 3/14 must be GREATER than .2 (since the denominator of that fraction is less than 15)

This tells us that we have 4 OR MORE women.

IF... we have 4 women, then the answer to the question is NO
IF... we have MORE women, we have even FEWER men and the answer to the question is still NO.
Fact 2 is SUFFICIENT

Final Answer:
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
User avatar
Anu26
Joined: 18 May 2014
Last visit: 27 Feb 2018
Posts: 14
Own Kudos:
119
 [1]
Given Kudos: 204
Location: India
GMAT 1: 710 Q49 V40
GPA: 3.8
Products:
GMAT 1: 710 Q49 V40
Posts: 14
Kudos: 119
 [1]
1
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Bunuel
MichelleSavina
Q) A committee of 2 people is to be formed from a group of 8 people which includes some women and rest are men. If P is the probability that both the selected people are men, is P > 0.25?
(1) More than 40% of the employees are men.
(2) The probability that both the selected people will be women is more than 20%.

Given: \(m+w=8\). Question: is \(\frac{m}{8}*\frac{m-1}{7}>\frac{1}{4}\)? --> is \(m(m-1)>14\) --> is \(m\geq{5}\)? So the question basically asks whether the # of men in 8 people is more than or equal to 5 (5, 6, or 7).

(1) More than 40% of the employees are men --> \(m>0.4*8\) --> \(m>3.2\): there may be 4 men and in this case the answer to the question will be NO or there may be more than 4 men (5, 6, ...) and in this case the answer to the question will be YES. Not sufficient.

(2) The probability that both the selected people will be women is more than 20% -> \(\frac{w}{8}*\frac{w-1}{7}>\frac{1}{5}\) --> \(w(w-1)>11.2\) --> is \(w\geq{4}\): there are more than or equal to 4 women in 8 people: 4, 5, 6, ... hence there are less than or equal to 4 men: 4, 3, ... So answer to the question whether there are more than or equal to 5 men is NO. Sufficient.

Answer: B.

Hi Bunuel

Why is ,the total number of ways in which 2 people can be selected , 8*7 and not 8C2?
that would mean we are taking order into consideration!
For ex : out of 4 people A B C D

ways of choosing 2 people - to form a committee - is 4C2 = 6
AB AC AD BC BD CD

and not 4*3 => which is 12 and will include the reverse as well since there isn't any position or order mentioned here while forming the committee.
User avatar
EgmatQuantExpert
User avatar
e-GMAT Representative
Joined: 04 Jan 2015
Last visit: 02 Apr 2024
Posts: 3,663
Own Kudos:
20,169
 [2]
Given Kudos: 165
Expert
Expert reply
Posts: 3,663
Kudos: 20,169
 [2]
2
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Anu26
Bunuel
MichelleSavina
Q) A committee of 2 people is to be formed from a group of 8 people which includes some women and rest are men. If P is the probability that both the selected people are men, is P > 0.25?
(1) More than 40% of the employees are men.
(2) The probability that both the selected people will be women is more than 20%.

Given: \(m+w=8\). Question: is \(\frac{m}{8}*\frac{m-1}{7}>\frac{1}{4}\)? --> is \(m(m-1)>14\) --> is \(m\geq{5}\)? So the question basically asks whether the # of men in 8 people is more than or equal to 5 (5, 6, or 7).

(1) More than 40% of the employees are men --> \(m>0.4*8\) --> \(m>3.2\): there may be 4 men and in this case the answer to the question will be NO or there may be more than 4 men (5, 6, ...) and in this case the answer to the question will be YES. Not sufficient.

(2) The probability that both the selected people will be women is more than 20% -> \(\frac{w}{8}*\frac{w-1}{7}>\frac{1}{5}\) --> \(w(w-1)>11.2\) --> is \(w\geq{4}\): there are more than or equal to 4 women in 8 people: 4, 5, 6, ... hence there are less than or equal to 4 men: 4, 3, ... So answer to the question whether there are more than or equal to 5 men is NO. Sufficient.

Answer: B.

Hi Bunuel

Why is ,the total number of ways in which 2 people can be selected , 8*7 and not 8C2?
that would mean we are taking order into consideration!
For ex : out of 4 people A B C D

ways of choosing 2 people - to form a committee - is 4C2 = 6
AB AC AD BC BD CD

and not 4*3 => which is 12 and will include the reverse as well since there isn't any position or order mentioned here while forming the committee.

Dear Anu26

You're absolutely right.

The probability of selecting 2 men in the group = (No. of ways in which 2 men can be selected)/(No. of ways in which 2 people can be selected)

=mC2/8C2

= \(\frac{m(m-1)}{8*7}\) (Since both mC2 and 8C2 contain 2!, it cancels out to give us this expression)

Hope this helped! :)

Regards

Japinder
User avatar
Anu26
Joined: 18 May 2014
Last visit: 27 Feb 2018
Posts: 14
Own Kudos:
119
 [1]
Given Kudos: 204
Location: India
GMAT 1: 710 Q49 V40
GPA: 3.8
Products:
GMAT 1: 710 Q49 V40
Posts: 14
Kudos: 119
 [1]
1
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Ah ok right! Thanks. I didn't see m(m-1) in the numerator in the solution. Just jumped to why is it 8*7 ;)

So then with numbers starting 4 - considering statement 1) - with men=4 -> P = 4C2/8C2 = 6/28 , P <0.25

and then with 5 men -> P = 5C2/8C2 = 10/28 ,P>0.25 so that tells me how it is insufficient!

Thanks much. +1 to you!
User avatar
DarkHorse2019
Joined: 29 Dec 2018
Last visit: 07 May 2020
Posts: 89
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 10
Location: India
WE:Marketing (Real Estate)
Posts: 89
Kudos: 272
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Bunuel
MichelleSavina
Q) A committee of 2 people is to be formed from a group of 8 people which includes some women and rest are men. If P is the probability that both the selected people are men, is P > 0.25?
(1) More than 40% of the employees are men.
(2) The probability that both the selected people will be women is more than 20%.

Given: \(m+w=8\). Question: is \(\frac{m}{8}*\frac{m-1}{7}>\frac{1}{4}\)? --> is \(m(m-1)>14\) --> is \(m\geq{5}\)? So the question basically asks whether the # of men in 8 people is more than or equal to 5 (5, 6, or 7).

(1) More than 40% of the employees are men --> \(m>0.4*8\) --> \(m>3.2\): there may be 4 men and in this case the answer to the question will be NO or there may be more than 4 men (5, 6, ...) and in this case the answer to the question will be YES. Not sufficient.

(2) The probability that both the selected people will be women is more than 20% -> \(\frac{w}{8}*\frac{w-1}{7}>\frac{1}{5}\) --> \(w(w-1)>11.2\) --> is \(w\geq{4}\): there are more than or equal to 4 women in 8 people: 4, 5, 6, ... hence there are less than or equal to 4 men: 4, 3, ... So answer to the question whether there are more than or equal to 5 men is NO. Sufficient.

Answer: B.

how did men be greater than equal to 5 here?
Please help me solve the quadratic equation - How did this come to greater than equal to 5
m(m−1)>14m(m−1)>14 --> is m≥5 ??
avatar
Geet8
Joined: 25 May 2020
Last visit: 05 Oct 2020
Posts: 1
Given Kudos: 2
Posts: 1
Kudos: 0
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
The way I approached this question was P(men)*P(men) > .25, hence the P(men) should be > .5 = 1/2, hence the no of men should be more than (8/2) 4, i.e 5,6,7 and then to get to know so 2nd statement helps as below:
P(women)*P(Women) > 20/100 = 1/5,
P(w)^2 > 1/5 hence P(w) >= 1/2.236, i.e.hence the no of women will be more more than 8/2.236 i.e. 3.57 hence 4 or more(no of people will be integer)
Hence no of men will be less then 4.
B is the answer


Is the approach correct here?? Please help.


Thanks
User avatar
bumpbot
User avatar
Non-Human User
Joined: 09 Sep 2013
Last visit: 04 Jan 2021
Posts: 38,597
Own Kudos:
Posts: 38,597
Kudos: 1,079
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Hello from the GMAT Club BumpBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.
Moderators:
Math Expert
105408 posts
496 posts