Of the 4,800 voters who voted for or against Resolution K

Question

Of the 4,800 voters who voted for or against Resolution K, 1,800 were Democrats, and 3,000 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 females.

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

Edited the question. Initially crucial part "or against" was omitted.

This one is fairly straightforward question. We don't even need matrix/diagram or any calculation.

(1) 3/4 of the Democrats and 2/3 of the Republicans voted for resolution K --> no info about female voters. Not sufficient.

(2) 1/3 of the Democrats who voted for Resolution K and 1/2 of the Republicans who voted for Resolution K were females --> no info about how many Democrats/Republicans voted for. Not sufficient.

(1)+(2) From (1) we know how many Democrats/Republicans voted for and from (2) we know what fraction of each of these group were females, thus we can get exact # of females who voted for. Sufficient.

Answer: C.

rashminet84 · Answer

I just took my last gmat prep test before the exam, and guess what, the same question popped up.

At first I was surprised that such an ambiguous question was on gmat prep, which meant that there could be other questions of this type as well.

Then i saw that the question actually says -

"If 4800 voters who voted  for or against  Resolution K...."

C makes sense now.

fiendex · Answer

As rashminet84 correctly mentioned before, C is the correct OA. I was confused as well untill I saw the hint at the exact wording. Moreover, the short answer explanation given in the software tells us also that B can't be correct and hints in this direction.

maaadhu · Answer

Bunuel,

If required, what is the best way to draw a matrix for this problem?

WoundedTiger · Answer

Hi maaadhu,

I will give it a short

We need to find no. of female voters who voted for Resolution K

Given No. of Voters: 4800
Democrats: 1800
Republicans: 3000

From st 1 we have the following matrix

Matrix St 1 For Against Total
Democrats 1350 450 1800
Republicans 2000 1000 3000
Total 3350 1450 4800

Now we can't tell no. of female voters from the above

From St 2, the matrix says

Matrix St 2 Male Female Total
Democrats who voted for Res.K 2/3A 1/3A A
Republicans who voted for Res. K 1/2B 1/2B B

Where A and B total no. of voters for who voted for Resolution K. for Demo. And Rep. 
Again we cannot tell no. of Female voters as it will be 1/3A +1/2B

Combining 2 statements, we get value of A and B as 1350 and 2000 from Matrix 1

Matrix 3 Male Female Total
Demcrats 900 450 1350
Repulicans 1000 1000 2000
Total who voted 1900 1450 3350

Ans: 1450

Therefore Option C

Apologies if the Matrix is not clear. Please refer to attachment

gmatprav · Answer

Forgot to read "female voters" :roll:

jlgdr · Answer

Hi All,

For the non-natives just remember that Voted For means in favor of. So just to recap first we were given the total number of voters who voted FOR OR AGAINST resolution for each party.

Statement 1 tells us nothing about the sex of these voters but we know the proportion of those who voted IN FAVOR. Statement 2 tells us that of those that voted in favor a fraction were female for each party.

Therefore with both statements together we can calculate the total number of females who voted for resolution K.

Cheers
J :-D

kskumar · Answer

Experts, can you please explain in Matrix Model?  Bunuel

bumpbot · Answer

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Of the 4,800 voters who voted for or against Resolution K

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