mkrishnabbdr
In a town of 8,000 residents, 65 percent of all residents own a car, 55 percent own a motorcycle, and 25 percent own neither a car nor a motorcycle. How many residents own a car but not a motorcycle?
A. 800
B. 1,600
C. 2,000
D. 3,600
E. 4,400
Another approach is to use the
Double Matrix Method.
This technique can be used for most questions featuring a population in which each member has two characteristics associated with it (aka overlapping sets questions).
Here, we have a population of residents, and the two characteristics are:
- own a car or do not own a car
- own a motorcycle or do not own a motorcycle
65% of 8000 = 5200
55% of 8000 = 4400
25% of 8000 = 2000
So, our matrix looks like this so far:

Since there are 8000 resident altogether, we know that, if 5200 own a car, then 2800 do NOT own a car
And, if 4400 own a motorcycle, then 3600 do NOT own a motorcycle
We get:

When we fill in the rest of the matrix we get:

We can see that
1600 residents own a car but not a motorcycle.
Answer: B
This question type is
VERY COMMON on the GMAT, so be sure to master the technique.
To learn more about the Double Matrix Method, watch this video: