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Hi, would you be so kind as to elucidate me in how to approach this bizarre question?
“A marketing consultancy has developed a test for the identification of ‘excellent’ and ‘average’ sales staff. If a group of ‘excellent’ applicants for a sales position takes this test, 95% pass and 5% fail. When a group of ‘average’ applicants takes the test, 10% pass and 90% fail.
Company B, which does not use the marketing consultancy’s test, believes that 15% of its applicants for every sales position are ‘excellent’, but that the company’s selection procedures are not particularly successful because only 60% of the current sales force is ‘excellent’.
If all of company B’s applicants were to take the marketing consultancy’s test, what percentage of those who pass the test will actually be ‘excellent’? Give your answer to the nearest whole percentage.”
Thank you in advance.
Hi there – yes this is quite a complex problem. Can I ask where you’ve found this example – was it a CIMA approved publisher?
Im assuming the solution is given to you also? – can you tell me what it says and which bit of it you don’t follow.
That will narrow down the help you need.
Many ThanksHi, no answer was provided. This is question 27 of the P2 Pearson Mock Exam with 40 questions.
This is the link through which it can be accessed:
Hi there, it isn’t the best worded question but the explanation is below.
Let’s assume that there is a total of 10,000 applicants. This number does not matter; we are just using this assumed figure to calculate some proportions.
Of these 10,000 applicants, 1,500 (10,000 x 15%) are known to be actually ‘excellent’ and the other 8,500 will actually be ‘average’.
Of the 1,500 applicants who are actually ‘excellent’, 1,425 (1,500 x 95%) will pass the test. Of the 8,500 applicants who are actually ‘average’, 850 (8,500 x 10%) will pass the test.The total number of applicants who will pass the test is 2,275 (1,425 + 850).
So the percentage of candidates who pass the test who are actually ‘excellent’ is 63% (1,425 / 2,275).
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