Statistics

Statistics
The average (or the Arithmetic mean) is calculated as:
.

Average = Sum/# of terms

A = S/n
Where S = Sum of all terms in the set
n = Number of terms in the set

Question: If the average of the set 2,5,5,7,8,9, x is 6.1, what is the

value of x?
Answer: (2+5+5+7+8+9+ x)/7 = 6.1
Solving, x = 6.7

Question: Peter earned a $2,000 commission on a big sale, raising his

average commission by $100. If Peter’s new average commission is
$900, how many sales has he made?
Answer: Let us say Peter made x sales before the big sale.
His average commission before the big sale = 900-100 = 800
So, 2000 + 800x = 900(x+1)
100x = 1100
x = 11
So, including the big sale, total no. of sales = 12
 Statistics
Evenly spaced sets .

The average of an evenly spaced set is always the middle number.

The average of the set {3,5,7,9,11} is 7.

If the set has ‘two’ middle numbers, the average of the set is the
average of these two middle numbers.

The average of the set {5,10,15,20,25,30} is 17.5.

In fact, irrespective of whether there is one middle number or two

middle numbers, the average of an evenly spaced set is the average of
the first and the last term of the set.

The average of the set {101, 111, 121,….581,591,601} is

(101+601)/2 = 351
 Statistics
.

Weighted Average
When we consider sets in which some data are more heavily
‘weighted’ than other data, we need to calculate ‘weighted average’.

Weighted Average = (wt1 x number 1) +(wt2 x number 2) +….

-------------------------------------------------
(wt1+wt2+…)

Question: Find the weighted average of 20 and 30, with a weight of 2

and 3 respectively.

Answer: (2x20 + 3x30)/(2+3) = 26

Note: You do not need concrete values for the weights in weighted-
average problems. Having just the ratios of the weights will allow us
to find weighted average.
 Statistics
.
Question: A mixture of ‘lean’ oil (10% fat) and ‘super lean’ oil (4% fat)
contains twice as much lean oil as super-lean oil. What is the
percentage of fat in the mixture.

Answer: Let lean oil = 2x; super-lean oil = x

So, fat in the mixture = (10% of 2x + 4% of x)/(2x+x) = 0.24x/3x =
0.08

So, 8% is the fat percentage.

 Median
.
The median is the ‘middle number’.

For sets containing an odd number of values, the median is the unique
middle value when the data are arranged in ascending or descending
order.

For sets containing an even number of values, the median is the

average (arithmetic mean) of the two middle values when the data are
arranged in ascending or descending order.

Example:
The median of the set 5,17,24,25,28 is 24.
The median of the set 3,4,9,9 is the mean of the two middle values 4
and 9 => 6.5
 Median
.

Note: Unlike the mean, the median of a set depends only on the one
or two values in the middle of the ordered set.

Example, for the set {x, 2, 5, 11, 11, 12, 33}, no matter what the
value of x is (lesser than 11, equal to 11 or greater than 11), the
median of the set will be 11.

However, the median of the unordered set {x, 2, 5, 11, 12, 12, 33}
depends on the value of x.

•If x is 11 or less, median is 11.

•If x is between 11 and 12, the median is x.
•If x is 12 or more, the median is 12.
 Standard Deviation
.
The mean and median both give the ‘average’ or ‘representative’
values for a set, but they do not tell anything about the ‘spread’ of
the set.

Standard Deviation (SD) is a statistic used to describe the ‘spread’ or

‘variation’ of the data in the set. SD indicates how far from the
average (mean) the data points typically fall.

A small SD indicates that a set is clustered closely around the mean

value.

A large SD indicates that the set is spread out widely, with some
points appearing far from the mean.

Standard Deviation is calculated by:

Note: You would almost never be asked to ‘calculate’ standard

deviation on GMAT. The ‘variance’ is just ‘square’ of SD.
 Standard Deviation
.
Question: Given two sets {1,2,3,4,5} and (346, 348, 349, 350, 351}.
•Which set has a greater SD
•If each data point in the sets is increased by 7, how will SD change.
•If each data point in the sets is increased by a factor of 7, how will SD change.

Answer:
•The second set has a greater SD. This is because the ‘gaps’ between its
numbers are, on average, slightly bigger than the gaps in the first set. If the
second set were (347, 348, 349, 350, 351}, then the SD of the two sets would
have been equal.
•The SD will not change, since it will not affect how far the data points are from
the mean.
•SD will increase, since each data point is multiplied by 7. So, SD will increase
by a factor of 7.

If we add or subtract a constant to each term in a set:

- Mean will increase or decrease by the same constant.
- SD will not change.

If we increase or decrease each term in a set by the same percent

(multiply all terms by the constant):
- Mean will increase or decrease by the same percent.
- SD will increase or decrease by the same percent.
 Statistics
1. In a class, 40% of a student’s grade comes from exam.

performance, 30% from written assignments, 20% from conventional

practice and 10% from simultaneous interpretation. If a student’s
grades are 94 for exams, 88 for written assignments, 98 for
conventional practice and 85 for simultaneous interpretation, what is
the student’s overall grade in the course.

2. Given the set {x, x, y, y, y, y}, where x<y, is the median greater
than arithmetic mean?

3. The average of 11 numbers is 10. When one number is eliminated,

the average of the remaining numbers is 9.3. What is the eliminated
number.

4. There is a set of 160 numbers, beginning at 6, with each

subsequent term increasing by an increment of 3. What is the average
of this set of numbers.

5. On 4 sales, Matt received commissions of $300, $40, $x and $140.

Without $x, his average commission would be $50 lower. What is x.
 Statistics
6. The class mean score on a test was 60, and the standard
. deviation
was 15. If Elena’s score was within 2 standard deviations of the mean,
what is the lowest score she could have received.

7. Matt gets a $1000 commission on a big sale. This commission alone

raises his average commission by $150. If Matt’s new average
commission is $400, how many sales has Matt made?

8. Matt starts a new job, with a goal of doubling his old average
commission of $400. He takes a 10% commission, making
commissions of $100, $200, $250, $700 and $1,000 on his first 5
sales. If Matt made two sales on the last day of the week, how much
would Matt have had to sell on the last day in order to meet his goal.

9. There is a set of numbers in ascending order: (y-x,

y,y,y,y,x,x,x,x+y). If the mean is 9, and the median is 7, what is x?

10. In an exam, the boys averaged 86 marks and girls averaged 80

marks. If overall class average was 82 marks, what is the ratio of boys
to girls in the class.
 Statistics
11. The average of temperatures at noontime from Monday. to Friday
is 50; the lowest one is 45, what is the possible maximum range of
the temperatures.

12. Both the average (arithmetic mean) and the median of a set of 7
numbers equal 20. If the smallest number in the set is 5 less than half
the largest number, what is the largest possible number in the set?
 Sets
Set problems generally involve 2 or more given sets of .data that
partially intersect with each other. These are also termed as
Overlapping sets.

Double set Matrix

For problems involving only two categorizations or decisions, Double
set matrix should be used. The rows correspond to the options for one
decision and columns correspond to the options for the other decision.
 Sets
.
Example: Of 30 integers, 15 are in set A, 22 are in set B, and 8 are in
both set A and B. How many of the integers are in neither set A nor
set B.

A Not A Total
B 8 22
Not B
Total 15 30

Now fill up the rest rows and columns:

A Not A Total
B 8 14 22
Not B 7 1 8
Total 15 15 30

So, nether set A nor set B: 1.

For problems involving percents, pick a total of 100; for problems

involving fractions, pick a common denominator of the total.
 3-Set problems: Venn Diagrams
.
Problems that involve 3 overlapping sets can be solved using a Venn
diagram.

Question: Workers are grouped by their areas of expertise and are

placed on at least one team. 20 workers are on the Marketing team,
30 are on the Sales team, and 40 are on the Vision team. 5 workers
are on both the Marketing and Sales team, 6 workers are on both the
Sales and Vision teams, 9 workers are on both the Marketing and
Vision teams, and 4 workers are on all three teams. How many
workers are there in total?

Adding all the numbers, total = 74

 Sets
1. All members of Gym 1 live in Building A or Building B.
. There are

350 members of Gym 1. 200 people live in Building A across the

street. 400 people live in Building B. 100 people from Building A are
members of Gym 1. How many people live in Building B that do not
belong to Gym 1.

2. Of 28 people in a park, 12 are children and rest are adults. 8 people

have to leave at 3 pm; the rest do not. If after 3 pm, there are 6
children are still in the park, how many adults are still in the park.

3. 70% of guests at Company X’s annual Holiday party are employees

of company X. 10% of guests are women who are not employees of
Company X. If half the guests at the party are men, what percent of
the guests are female employees of Company X.

4. Santa estimates that 10% of the children in the world have been
good this year but do not celebrate Christmas, and that 50% of the
children who celebrate Christmas have been good this year. If 40% of
the children in the world have been good, what percentage of children
in the world are not good and do not celebrate Christmas.
 Sets
5. There are 26 students who have read a total of 56 books
. among
them. The only books they have read though, are Aye, Bee, Code and
Dee. If 10 students have only read Aye, and 8 students have read only
Cod and Dee, what is the smallest number of books any of the
remaining students could have read.

6. If 75% of a class answered the 1st question on a certain test

correctly, 55% answered the 2nd question on the test correctly and
20% answered neither of the questions correctly, what percent
answered both correctly?

7. The 38 movies in the video store fall into the following categories:
10 action, 20 drama, and 18 comedy. However, some movies are
classified under more than one category: 5 are both action and drama,
3 are both action and comedy, and 4 are both drama and comedy.
How many action-drama-comedies are there.
 Sets
8. In a particular state, 70% of the counties received some
. rain on
Monday and 65% of the counties received some rain on Tuesday. No
rain fell either day in 25 percent of the counties in the state. What
percent of the counties received some rain on Monday and Tuesday?

9. When 1,000 children were inoculated with a certain vaccine, some

developed inflammation at the site of the inoculation and some
developed fever. How many of the children developed inflammation
but not fever ?

(1) 880 children developed neither inflammation nor fever

(2) 20 children developed fever

10. Of 200 surveyed students, 20% of those who read book A also
read book B and 25% of those who read book B also read book A. If
each student read at least one of the books, what is the difference
between the number of students who read only book A and the
number of students who read only book B?
11. In an exam, one-fourth of students answered ‘Y’ to Question 1.
Out of those students who answered ‘Y’ to Question 1, one-third
answered ‘Y’ to Question 2. What fraction of the students did not
answer ‘Y’ to ‘both’ Question 1 and Question 2.

12. In a consumer survey, 85% of those surveyed liked at least one of

three products: 1, 2, and 3. 50% of those asked liked product 1, 30%
liked product 2, and 20% liked product 3. If 5% of the people in the
survey liked all three of the products, what percentage of the survey
participants liked more than one of the three products?

13. Is Z equal to the median of the 3 positive integers X,Y and Z?

(1) X < Y+Z
(2) Y = Z

14. In a series of numbers: x, 3, 1, 12, 8

If x is an integer, is the median of the 5 numbers greater than the
average (arithmetic mean) of the 5 numbers?
(1) x>6
(2) x is greater than the median of the 5 numbers