Official Guide Explanation:
Data Sufficiency #112

 

 

Background

This is just one of hundreds of free explanations I've created to the quantitative questions in The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review (2nd ed.). Click the links on the question number, difficulty level, and categories to find explanations for other problems.

These are the same explanations that are featured in my "Guides to the Official Guide" PDF booklets. However, because of the limitations of HTML and cross-browser compatibility, some mathematical concepts, such as fractions and roots, do not display as clearly online.

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Solution and Metadata

Question: 112
Page: 161
Difficulty: 6 (Moderately Difficult)
Category 1: Arithmetic > Properties of Integers > Other
Category 2: Arithmetic > Descriptive Statistics > other
Category 3: Arithmetic > Descriptive Statistics > Average

Explanation: This question is much easier if you know one simple rule: if the numbers in a set are equally spaced--for instance, they are consecutive integers, consecutive even integers, or consecutive multiples of 7--the median is equal to the mean.

Statement (1), then, is sufficient: the numbers are equally spaced, so the mean and the median are the same. Statement (2) is insufficient: knowing the range indicates nothing about the specific spacing between the numbers. For instance, if n = 3, the range is 4. The set could be {0, 2, 4}, in which case the answer is "yes." The set could also be {0, 0, 4}, in which case the answer is "no."

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