In the question you're given a pie chart (along with a bar graph, though that isn't relevant here) that provides you with the percentages of employees in a number of different professions. The chart is based off of a listed sample size of 994,530 total workers, and the question asks you, based on the percentages listed of the total population in each profession, how many of the professions employ over 100,000 people. It lists five different potential answers:
A) 2
B) 3
C) 4
D) 5
E) Cannot be determined
I reasoned that any professions with 11% or more would have more than 100,000 employees and that any professions with 9% or less would have fewer that 100,000 employees. But where I got tripped up was with the two professions that had 10% of the total workforce. A simple calculation says that exactly 10% of 994,530 is 99,453 employees, fewer than 100,000. But if the total employees in either of those sectors was 10.4%, which could have been rounded down to 10% for simplifying the graph would have resulted in 103,431 employees in that sector. SO, I answered "E) Cannot be determined" because I thought I would need more precise data (i.e. 10.0% listed on the graph). The answer that they wanted was B) 3. I am miffed, help!
My questions are:
Where did I go wrong in my logic regarding the GRE?
How can I avoid getting tripped up by a similar question in the future?
Why is the GRE so damn ambiguous!
Thanks so much!
Eric