IBPS Clerk Prelims Model Paper 4

Solution:
The first sentence g ives a total of 144 for A’s, B’s and C’s marks.
Second sentence: When D joins the group, the total becomes 44 4 = 176. Hence, D must get 32 marks.
Alternatively, you can reach this point by considering the first two statements together as:
D’s joining the group reduces the average from 48 to 44 marks (i.e. 4 marks).
This means that to maintain the average of 48 marks, D has to take 4 marks from A, 4 from B and 4 from C or A, i.e. a total of 12 marks.
Hence, he must have got 32 marks.
From here:
The first part of the third sentence gives us information about E getting 3 marks more than 32.
Hence, E gets 35 marks.
Now, it is further stated that when E replaces A, the average marks of the students reduce by 1, to 43.
Mathematically, this can be shown as
A + B + C + D = 44 × 4 = 176
B + C + D + E = 43 × 4 = 172
Subtracting the two equations, we get A – E = 4 marks. Hence, A would have got 39 marks.
Alternatively, you can think of this as:
The replacement of A with E results in the reduction of 1 mark from each of the 4 people who belong to the group. Hence, the difference is 4 marks. Hence, A would get 4 marks more than E, i.e. 39 marks.