Total number of students in College E is more than 2600 for exactly ___ years.

Concept: In a two-way table that splits every college into a Boys column and a Girls column, the total number of students in a college for a year is simply the sum of that college’s two entries for that year. A question of the form “more than X for exactly ___ years” is therefore a two-stage count: first build the year-wise totals for the one college named in the stem, then count how many of those totals cross the threshold. “More than” is strict, so a total exactly equal to the threshold would not be counted.

Application: College E occupies the last two data columns of the table. Adding its Boys and Girls entries year by year gives:

1. Read College E’s Boys and Girls figures for each of the six years 2018–2023 from the last two columns of the table.

2. Add the two figures for each year: 1300 + 1320 = 2620, 1100 + 720 = 1820, 540 + 480 = 1020, 1080 + 1140 = 2220, 1360 + 1300 = 2660 and 2160 + 2540 = 4700.

3. Compare each total with 2600: 2620, 2660 and 4700 are greater than 2600, while 1820, 1020 and 2220 are not.

4. Count the years whose total crosses the threshold — 2018, 2022 and 2023 — which gives three years.

Cross-check: The two totals that sit closest to the threshold are the ones worth re-testing. 2620 clears 2600 by only 20 and 2660 clears it by 60, so both belong in the count and neither may be dropped by eyeballing the columns; on the other side, 2220 falls 380 short, so no borderline year is missed. Counting the complementary years instead — 2019, 2020 and 2021 with totals at or below 2600 — also gives three, and 3 + 3 = 6, which is the full span of years 2018 to 2023.

Result: College E’s total exceeds 2600 in exactly three of the six years.