Last year at an accounting firm, accountants made up 40% of the total

Hi All,

This is an awkwardly-worded question, but it can be solved by TESTing VALUES.

To start, let's set the TOTAL number of employees at 100. Since 40% of those employees are accountants, we have 40 accountants (out of 100 employees).

Next, we're told that 50% of the ACCOUNTANTS left for another company - thus 20 (of the 40) left. This leaves 80 total employees, of which 20 are accountants.

Then a group of NEW accountants, equal to 50% of the CURRENT number of employees, joined the company. Since there were 80 current total employees, that 50% increase represents 40 NEW accountants. This brings the total number of employees up to 120 and the total number of accountants up to 60. The question asks for the percentage of total employees that are now accountants....

60/120 = 1/2 = 50%

Final Answer:

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

In the language, Question must mention that 'no other employee left'.

Solution
Say Total - 100 , Accountant - 40
people left -50% of 40 = 20
now total employees left in the company = 100-20 = 80
New Accountants = 50% of 80 = 40

So new Total employees = 80+40 =120 and total accountants now = 20+40 = 60

hence now accountants are 60 out of 120 = 50%

Let's say,
Number of accountants 40
Number of non accountants 60

Accountants left 50%, so the number of accountants left is 20.

Now, given that current (20 accountants) "accounts to 50% of the total employees"

So,it can be concluded that 20 accountants comprise 50% of total employees this year.

Posted from my mobile device

Hi N12,

The first part of your explanation is correct, but you appear to have ignored a specific piece of information that the prompt includes.

IF...we start with
100 total employees
--40 accountants
--60 non-accounts

and 50% of the ACCOUNTANTS left (meaning 50% of 40 = 20 accountants left), we have:

80 total employees
--20 accountants
--60 non-accountants

THEN, some NEW accountants - which represents 50% of the REMAINING employees - JOIN the company (meaning 50% of 80 = 40 NEW accountants joined). We now have:

120 total employees
--60 accountants
--60 non-accountants

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

Contact Rich at: Rich.C@empowergmat.com

Given: Last year at an accounting firm, accountants made up 40% of the total employees. This year, 50% of these accountants left for another company, and new accountants, which amounts to 50% of the total employees left, joined the company.

Asked: What percent of the total employees are accountants this year?

Last year at an accounting firm, accountants made up 40% of the total employees.
Let the total employees in the accounting firm be x.
Accountants = 40%*x = .4x

This year, 50% of these accountants left for another company, and new accountants, which amounts to 50% of the total employees left, joined the company.
Accountants left = 50%*.4x = .2x
Accountants joined = 50%*(x-.2x) = .5*.8x = .4x
Net accountants joined = .4x - .2x = .2x

Total employees = x + .2x = 1.2x
Accountants = .4x + .2x = .6x
Accountants as Percent of the total employees =( .6x/1.2x) *100% =50%

IMO E

It's funny how Math questions can be made difficult with English.

Both probable answers are just dependent on your Reading skills here.

We started with 40% accountants. We lost some. We added more than we lost. We must have more than 40% accountants.

Answer choice E.