q: Walking across campus, a student interviewed a group of students. 25% of the students took a finance class last semester, 54% took a marketing class last semester, and 40% took neither a finance nor a marketing class last semester. What percent of the students in the group took both a finance and a marketing class?
Options:
(A) 60%
(B) 50%
(C) 25%
(D) 19%
(E) 10%
a: Stream of consciousness: {Total} = {finance} + {marketing} - {both} + {neither}
100 = 25 + 54 - {both} + 40
{both} = 19%. The answer is (D).

question: A 70 cm long wire is to be cut into two pieces so that one piece will be 2/5th of the other, how many centimeters will the shorter piece be?
Options:
(A) 20 cm
(B) 15 cm
(C) 30 cm
(D) 40 cm
(E) 45 cm
answer: Stream of consciousness: 1: 2/5 = 5: 2
2/7 * 70 = 20 The answer is (A).

q: If 4 men can reap 40 acres of land in 15 days, how many acres of land can 16 men reap in 30 days?
Options:
(A) 320
(B) 240
(C) 369
(D) 489
(E) 125
a: Stream of consciousness: 4 men 40 acres 15 days
16 men ? 30 days
40 * 16/4 * 30/15
40 * 4 * 2
40 * 8 = 320 The answer is (A).

question: In what time will a railway train 70 m long moving at the rate of 36 kmph pass a telegraph post on its way?
Options:
(A) 5 sec
(B) 4 sec
(C) 3 sec
(D) 7 sec
(E) 1 sec
answer: Stream of consciousness: T = 70/36 * 18/5 = 7 sec The answer is (D).

q: The length Q of a rectangle is decreased by 15% and its width is increased by 40%. Does the area of the rectangle decrease or increase and by what percent?
Options:
(A) Decreases by 19%
(B) Decreases by 25%
(C) Increases by 6%
(D) Increases by 19%
(E) Increases by 25%
a: Stream of consciousness: Let the length Q of the rectangle be 100x, and width be 100y. Area = 100x * 100y = 10000xy
Now after the change Length = 85x, and width = 140 y. Area = 11900xy
% Change = (11900xy - 10000xy)/(10000xy) = 19 % Increase. Hence The answer is (D).

q: One copy machine can make 20 copies a minute, and a second copy machine makes 10 copies a minute. If the two copiers work together, how long would it take them to make 900 copies?
Options:
(A) 10 minutes
(B) 20 minutes
(C) 25 minutes
(D) 30 minutes
(E) 35 minutes
a:
Stream of consciousness: Total work done by both machines in a minute = 20 + 10 = 30 copies
Total number of copies required = 900
Time = 900/30 = 30 mins The answer is (D).