SAT question... confused

Question

At a certain university, 1/4 of the applicants failed to meet the minimum standards and were rejected immediately. Of those who met the standards, 2/5 were accepted. If 1200 applicants were accepted, how many applied ?

please help me in this question, I'm confused ... thanks in advance :)

Answer 1

Hint: Since $\frac{1}{4}$ of the applicants did not meet the minimum standards, there are $(1-\frac{1}{4})$ of the applicants who met the minimum standards.

$\frac{2}{5}$ of the applicants who met the minimum standards were accepted. This means it is $\frac{2}{5}$ of the $\frac{3}{4}$ of the applicants who were accepted.

Can you do the rest?

Answer 2

The total number of applicants are $N$.

$N/4$ were rejected, so we are left with $3N/4$.

$2/5$th of the $3N/4$ were accepted, that is:

$1200=(2/5)(3/4)N$

$N=1200*5*4/(2*3)$

$N = 4000$ applicants.