Manhattan Word Problem Guide - Chapter 5 (Pg 70)

[JbhB682]

Source : Manhattan Guide

70 % of the guests at Company X's annual holiday party are employees of Company X. 10 % of the guests are women who are not employees of Company X. If half the guests at the party are men, what % of the guests are female employees of Company X ?

Per the answer guide, the two sets of mutually exclusive groups are
1) Men / Women
2) Employee / Non employee

My error

As a test taker -- i stumbled on the second set of mutually exclusive groups specifically (employee / non employee)

I thought the second set of mutually exclusive groups was instead employee / guests at the annual holiday party

I thought by definition -- a non employee at a holiday party WOULD HAVE TO BE a Guest at the annual company holiday party


Q1) Why is that not a legitimate assumption to make (do you think the GMAT writers will ensure there will be clear distinction between guest and non-employee

If not,

Q2) How would you suggest, a test taker avoid such mistakes during the exam ...I am pretty sure during the GMAT exam -- i might make this assumption once again without recalling something to "look out for" to avoid making this same assumption

Thank you !

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

Take another look at this question and tell me what information we have about people who are not guests at the party.

[JbhB682]

there is no information about non guests

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

Exactly. Everyone at the party is a guest: the employees are guests, and the non-employees are guests. Using a double-set matrix with a smart number of 100 people (guests) at the party would likely be the easiest way to solve this.

As for interpreting the problem, that's part of the deal. Pretty often in solving these kind of word problems, we might think "Hey, this problem doesn't make sense!". We then have a choice: either the problem is incorrect or we've interpreted it incorrectly. As for me, I don't take a long time making this choice...