I'm studying for the GMAT at work and I came across this problem from GMAT Club (answers are not pasted since its owned by gmat club)
If 40% of unsuccessful suicide attempts are repeated within 6 months and 25% of suicides are successful, what percentage of suicides in any 6 month period would be the first attempt?
I hate this test. Problems like these are not encouraging.
45% or 70%
70%
Agree with 70%...
77%
Assume initially you have 100 suicides - 25 first attempt successful (75%) - 75 unsuccessful (25%), 30 more attempts (40% of 75), 7.5 successful 25% of 30) - first attempt suicides / total suicides - 25 / (25+7.5) =77%
hahaha I should elaborate... its not because of the difficulty of the problem... its because of the fact that it uses suicide as an example...
So what answer did you get??
The question is flawed in its construction. You cannot definitively answer without knowing the total number of attempts in the trailing 6 months as well as the total number in the current 6 months.
For instance, if there were 100 suicides in the current period, that may mean that there were simply 400 re-attempts from the prior period with 0 new attempts. Conversely, there may have been 0 attempts in the trailing period which means all 100 suicides were 1st attempts. Everything in-between is possible as well.
You are unlikely to find such ambiguous questions on the GMAT unless they are new "test" questions which don't count anyway.
77%
77%
its 70%. 70% of suicides are the first attempt. sorry but this question is just morbid
how do you get 70%?
100 initial 25 successful 75 left over (excuse the phrasing) 40% x 75 = 30 retry (2nd attempt) 100 intial - 30 2nd attempts = 70
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Assume 100 starters. 25 die on try 1. 75 left, so (0.475) retry and (0.250.475) die on try 2 = 7.5 (30-7.5).4 of these try again. So 9, of which .259 are successful = 2.25 (9-2.25).4 of these try again. So 2.7, of which .25*2.7 are successful = 0.675
Model it as a series, works out to 70.
Thanks R5A7B...maybe I am just reading the question wrong:
"what percentage of suicides in any 6 month period would be the first attempt?"
First attempt suicides would be 25, correct?
Total suicides - I don't see that, but I still think its 32.5...25 from the 1st attempt group, and 7.5 (25% of the second 30 attempts are successful)
So 25 / 32.5 is the percentage of suicides in any 6 month period which would be the first attempt....
so you're saying 70 of the 100 are initial 1st tempt successful suicides? still don't get this logic...
probably not reading it right, but i think its somewhat confusing...whatever...i'm done with this
I think 70% is the only truly correct answer. I'd appreciate LIBOR or anyone critiquing my logic:
If we isolate the100 first time attempters at the beginning of the 6 months, then, yes, 70% of the suicides from those 100 people will be first time attempts...
HOWEVER, that would be leaving out people from the 6 months before, and the six months before that, etc, that were unsuccessful and are trying again in the current 6 month period. The people who "roll over" from previous periods AND are successful must be counted as part of the total suicide count, but are NOT counted as first attempts, and thus they'll be included in the denominator only.
70% = (25 first timers / 25 first timers + 7.5 second timers + 2.25 third timers + 0.625 fourth timers + etc) 70% = (25 / approximately 35.4ish or so)
Am I right? Also, what kind of math short could there be here, and what is this kind of math called? I didn't take much math, just business...
guessed i assumed that they only re-attempt once...and not subsequent times during the 6 months.
But it doesn't specify successful or unsuccessful... The problem still calls an unsuccessful suicide a suicide.
You guys are trying to solve an ill-structured problem as if there were a single right answer.
is 77% even in the set of multiple choice answers? the answer based on the information provided is 70%
why it's 70...
25% successful = 75% unsuccessful 40% of 75% is repeated = 30% repeat 1st attempt percentage = 100% - 30% = 70%
The reason there is not a single right answer is because it is premature to assume that there will be no additional suicide attempts which makes it a bullshit problem.
ok this was not my point at all but fine try and answer the question... i was just trying to emphasize the disturbing, morbid fact this question asked how many people kill themselves
i just realized when you said 'sick' you really meant SICK rather than cool. haha on the flip side, i do remember a RC passage that was about LSD and the effects on your body. high fiiiiiiiiiiiiiive.
It could be worse, throwing in percentage of successful suicide attempts that were due to failing the GMAT as an additional variable. Though test prep producers can't be that cruel... are they?
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