How many female and male team members are on the team?

• A. 27 female, 39 male
• B. 26 female, 40 male
• C. 28 female, 38 male
• D. 25 female, 41 male

Answer: (A)

You're told how many people are on the team in total and that there are more male members than female members by a certain amount. The way to solve this is to set up two simple equations.

Let F be the number of female members and M the number of male members. The total gives you:

M + F = 66.

The given difference tells you how much larger the male count is than the female count. If there are 12 more males than females:

M − F = 12.

Solve these quickly: add the two equations to get 2M = 78, so M = 39. Then F = 66 − 39 = 27. So there are 27 females and 39 males.

This matches the distribution stated as 27 female and 39 male. The other options would imply a different difference between male and female counts, which doesn’t fit the given relationship.