GRE numeric entry math question..

[manan.super007]

GRE numeric entry math question..
If out of the total number of people,80% are from Illinois.And of those from Illinois if 15% are from Canada.Then the % of people who are not from Canada is?

so, should I assume that the remaining 20%( those not from Illinois are from Canada ) or should I assume that they are from an American state other than Illinois ..

[nareshchowdary28]

I think you should not assume anything else than what has been provided in the question.
they have provided that 80% from Illinois and 15% of 80% from Canada, that doesn't mean that you should assume all the other 20% from Canada.
so now
Take a Smart number to solve these kind of percentage problems.
e.g 100
80% from Illinois -> 80 from illinois
15% of 80 from Canada -> 12 from Canada
total number of students who are not from Canada are 100-12 = 88

in one way above figure is the answer and the other way Data insufficient to answer the question.

[tommywallach]

Hey Guys,

Hmm. This question doesn't actually make sense as written. The way you wrote it, you said that "Of the 80% from Illinois, 15% are from Canada." That's not physically possible! Whenever you post a question, please post it word for word, rather than from memory. You might misread it, and that's problematic both because the question you post may be insoluble, and also because you may be asking something that isn't GRE-relevant.

Thanks!

-t