In the figure above, what is the area of region PQRST ? (1) PQ = RS (

Hi Skv23,

To start, it's worth remembering that in DS questions, we CANNOT assume that the picture is drawn to scale. For example, triangle PQT might be an equilateral triangle (meaning that all sides have a length of 6 - and we could calculate its area).... BUT we only have one of those 3 sides - and none of its angles - so we do not know what type of triangle it actually is (and thus, we cannot determine its area).

We're asked for the area of region PQRST. This question is based around a couple of Geometry rules. To properly find the area, we can break this shape into 2 pieces (a rectangle and the aforementioned triangle), so we need to know the dimensions of the rectangle and the exact type of triangle.

(1) PQ = RS

With the information in Fact 1, we know that the width of the rectangle is 6 and one of the two missing triangle sides is also 6. Along with the diagonal of the rectangle, we can now calculate its length (it's 8, since we have a 6/8/10 right triangle in the rectangle) but without the 3rd side of the triangle (or its 3 angles), we cannot calculate that other area.
Fact 1 is INSUFFICIENT

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