Madhavsinghyadav
GMATNinjahow do i solve this one with your method of three overlapping sets?
The other methods in the thread might be more efficient in this case, and it's not the easiest method to describe in writing. But in case it would help, here's what it would look like:
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Here's what's going on: you'd start by letting "x" be the number of students who play all three sports. Those students account for 3x "tallies", where a "tally" represents a unique student-sport combination (e.g. if Tim plays cricket, football, AND hockey, that would be 3 distinct "tallies"). So the total number of tallies is 20+25+18 -- the sum of the tallies for each individual sport.
That makes the number who play only two sports: (15-x)+(12-x)+(10-x) = 37-3x. Each of those students represent TWO distinct tallies, so the total tallies for that group is 2*(37-3x) = 74-6x.
Next, calculate the number who play just one sport: 33-x-(37-3x) = 2x-4. Each of those students only represents one tally, so the total tallies for that group is also 2x-4.
The sum for each group has to equal the total number of tallies, so 20+25+18 = 63 = (3x)+(74-6x)+(2x-4) = 70-x. Since 63 = 70-x, x is 7.
We're almost done! Since 7 play all three sports, we know that 8 play just cricket and football (15-7) and 3 play just cricket and hockey (10-7). That's 11 students who play cricket plus one other sport, along with the 7 who play all three sports (including cricket).... so 18 who play cricket plus AT LEAST one other sport, leaving only 2 who play JUST cricket (20-18).
So... yeah. Not sure if that helps at all. This method is a bit more elegant in a video than in a forum post.