Critical Reasoning

On completing both the course in experimental design and the developmental psychology course, Angela will have earned a degree in psychology. Since experimental design, which must be completed before taking developmental psychology, will not be offered until next term, it will be at least two terms before Angela gets her psychology degree.
If the statements above are all true, which one of the following must also be true?
(A) The developmental psychology course Angela needs to take requires two terms to complete.
(B) The course in experimental design is an easier course than the course in developmental psychology.
(C) There are no prerequisites for the course in experimental design.
(D) Anyone who earns a degree in psychology form the university Angela attends will have completed the course in experimental design.
(E) Once Angela completes the developmental psychology course, she will have earned a degree in psychology.


The OA is D

As strange as it may seem, if this were on the GMAT, none of the answer choices would be correct. However, I have heard that "obvious" assumptions/inferences can be made on the LSAT, so I would go with D. Everything else is out of scope.

On completing both the course in experimental design and the developmental psychology course, Angela will have earned a degree in psychology. Since experimental design, which must be completed before taking developmental psychology, will not be offered until next term, it will be at least two terms before Angela gets her psychology degree.
If the statements above are all true, which one of the following must also be true?

the passage says that ED and DP are two courses taken by A at uni X for her degree in psy .............. and gives certain facts about the courses .

What can be true based on the above facts ?

We know if A has the degree then A has completed the two courses but we don't know if A has completed ED and DP whether she has the degree

and we know that ED must be taken in order to do DP

But nothing is given about the courses or their out come so the only thing we can infer is D

hence ans: D

(A) The developmental psychology course Angela needs to take requires two terms to complete. : Nothing is said about the duration
(B) The course in experimental design is an easier course than the course in developmental psychology. : Who says its easier? information not given
(C) There are no prerequisites for the course in experimental design.: We don't know that , its not given
(D) Anyone who earns a degree in psychology form the university Angela attends will have completed the course in experimental design. yes
(E) Once Angela completes the developmental psychology course, she will have earned a degree in psychology. : We cannot say this , we can only say that if Angela has the degree then she has completed the two courses

IMO (E) is also correct only if A completes DP( in which she can take admission after completing ED course) can she become eligible to earn degree , Please explain why is (E) is out

Mayur Sand wrote:IMO (E) is also correct only if A completes DP( in which she can take admission after completing ED course) can she become eligible to earn degree , Please explain why is (E) is out

E is out because we don’t know for sure whether Angela will complete the developmental psychology course.

ranell wrote:

Mayur Sand wrote:IMO (E) is also correct only if A completes DP( in which she can take admission after completing ED course) can she become eligible to earn degree , Please explain why is (E) is out

E is out because we don’t know for sure whether Angela will complete the developmental psychology course.

No (E) says Angela completes the developmental psychology course. (E) is wrong because we do not know if Angela passes or fails the psychology course. She will complete it though.

strait E
D can't b oa

On completing both the course in experimental design and the developmental psychology course, Angela will have earned a degree in psychology...

not will earn degree but she will have earned degree on completing both courses...

Since experimental design, which must be completed before taking developmental psychology...
she cant take development course unless she completes exmerimental course.

I agree that E should be the answer. D is too extreme of an inference. Also, all the explanations given above for why E is wrong are contradictory; you guys are trying hard to disqualify E. D is definitely not the answer.

Either the original poster mistranscribed the problem or else mistranscribed the OA. This is an inference question requiring skill in formal logic (for that reason, it is unlikely that you would get a question like this on the GMAT).

The first sentence of the passage reads:

"On completing both the course in experimental design and the developmental psychology course, Angela will have earned a degree in psychology."

This yields the following conditoinal statement:

If she completes ED AND DP, then she will have earned her psych degree.

The second sentence tells us that ED MUST be completed before DP. Therefore:

If someone has completed DP, then they have also completed ED.

Therefore, if she completes DP, then it is sufficient to conclude that she has also completed ED. And if she completes both DP and ED, then it is sufficient to conclude that she will have earned her psych degree.

Accordingly, Choice E MUST be correct.

Choice D must be wrong. It improperly reverses the initial conditional statement (without negating).

That is, in the first conditional statement, her having earned a psych degree is a conclusion or necessary condition. Choice D is trying to use her having earned a psych degree as a trigger or sufficient condition.

For example, if you are a dog, then you are definitely a mammal. Does that mean that if you are a mammal, you are definitely a dog? That is what choice D is doing.

Folks, GMAT does NOT test these formal logic subtleties.

Dear Testluv,

Could you post ONE challenging CR question, for us, from your bag ? If i solve it, I will go confident on D day.