The correct answer is (A) - 721,000
The table is plentiful with different types of data; however, the only information that is relevant for answering the question is the number of students studying for a BA in each department (2nd column from the left) and the percentage of OS students out of it (6th column from the left).
To answer the question, you need to calculate the number of OS students for each department. For instance, in the History department there are 250 thousand BA students, of which 10% are OS students. So, the number of OS students in the History department is: 250,000 x 10% = 250,000 x 0.1 = 25,000 (for simplicity, you can omit the thousands throughout the calculation and add it in the end). In a similar way, you can calculate the number of BA OS students in each of the departments:
| Department |
Total BA students (000's) |
% of OS students |
Number of OS students (000's) |
| History |
250 |
10% |
25 |
| Psychology |
675 |
20% |
135 |
| Finance |
1180 |
30% |
354 |
| Literature |
340 |
5% |
17 |
| Physics |
620 |
20% |
124 |
| Math |
210 |
30% |
63 |
| Philosophy |
150 |
2% |
3 |
Finally, sum up all the departments to get the total number of OS students (remember to add the thousands):
(25 + 135 + 354 + 17 + 124 + 63 + 3) x 1,000 = 721,000