GRE Solutions Manual, Problem 6.18

Exam Prep, GRE, Quantitative Reasoning

This page is part of my unofficial solutions manual to the GRE Paper Practice Book (2e), a free resource available on the ETS website. They publish the questions; I explain the answers. If you haven’t worked through the Practice Book, give Section 6 a shot before reading this!

6.18: State Populations, Pt. 2

Let’s use G to denote Georgia’s population, and W to denote that of West Virginia. In those terms, the problem supplies us with two pieces of information:

GRE 6.18, Eqn. 1

Plugging our value for W into the equation gives us

GRE 6.18, Eqn. 2

Because 8.0 < 8.1 < 9.9, Georgia belongs to population category E — which, somewhat confusingly, corresponds to answer choice (D).


Math Review Reference

For more on this topic, see the following sections of the GRE Math Review:

  • 1.6: Ratio (p. 9)
  • 4.1: Graphical Methods for Describing Data (pp. 62-64)