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e-GMAT LLC
Shalabh
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For each of the following statements, select Yes if the statement is true based on the
information provided; otherwise select No.
Yes No
24A.
For the 22 earthquakes, the arithmetic mean of the depths is greater than
the median of the depths.
24B.
24C.
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Mean
Fundamental principle In a series of all positive numbers, mean of the series is always
greater than the sum of limited data divided by total # of data points in the set
When we glace at the dataset, we find that the last value 641 is disproportionately high.
This implies that mean of the all depths must be greater than 1/22 times 641. This equals
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to 1/22(641) = 293/22 km. Now, 293/22 itself is already greater than the median depth
(25.5 km), so the actual mean of the depths must be greater than the median of the
depths. So we could arrive at the answer without actually calculating the exact mean of the
list.
This approach has also been used by OG.
APPROACH 2
THE SHERLOCK METHOD - LOGICAL DEDUCTION BY OBSERVATION
This approach is along the lines of the approach 1- Limited set Observation approach, but
there is no calculation involved. In fact this approach relies on data observation only.
Median- Instead of exactly calculating the median, we will make a few observations. After
all to find the exact median, we did have to go through some effort (as shown in standard
approach). We know that median is the middle most value.
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Mean
Importance of set
of observations
Application
Median
1. Middle most values matter the
most.
2. Least affected by extreme
values.
Yields best representation of
average, when few values are too
low and/or too high
OTHER SCENARIOS
1. Few top cell values
are
disproportionately low
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This scenario is opposite of question # 24, we discussed. We can safely infer that mean
would be less than the median, because few top cell values are disproportionally low
compared to other cell values. This will make mean drift towards low values.
The Logical deduction by observation- Sherlock approach will work fine if data points in
other part of the series do not have high variation in values.
2. Few top cell values are disproportionately low and bottom cell values are
disproportionately high
In this scenario, we cannot infer mean is less or more than the median. The top 5 cells
values will drift mean towards lesser value, whereas bottom 4 cells values will drift it
towards higher value. So it is difficult to infer which way mean will drift more.
So what to do in this scenario?
Well, GMAT is not going to test exactly this kind of scenario. Had this scenario been
presented to you in the exam, there would have been some other concept applicable to
deduce the answer. GMAT lays more importance on application of concepts than on long
calculations.
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EXERCISE QUESTION
13 students from a school were rated for their proficiency in 4 sports - higher the rating, more the
proficiency. Table Tennis and Basketball scores are out of 100 points, Lawn Tennis out of 20 points,
and badminton out of 50 points.
Students
Table
Tennis
(100)
Lawn
Tennis
(20)
Badminton
(50)
Basket
Ball
(100)
Angio
Gary
Jackson
John
Karren
Kent
Luke
Mathews
Messey
Stacey
Brent
Mary
Joe
85
60
70
65
75
90
80
55
95
7
9
11
21
10
14
6
16
4
18
8
20
12
20
20
19
18
34
36
40
30
48
38
32
44
42
48
49
5
4
36
34
28
32
84
38
30
40
42
65
48
46
36
For each of the following statements, select Yes if statement is true based solely on the information
provided in the table; otherwise select No.
Q1
Q2
Q3
Yes No
o
o Table tennis mean score is more than Basketball mean score.
o
o There are at least 3 sports, whose median scores are greater than their mean scores.
If 2 new students Manish and Imran are included; whose Lawn Tennis scores are 5 & 19
o
o
respectively, then the mean score of Lawn Tennis increases by at least 2 points.