fm

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fm

by sogmat » Tue Apr 14, 2009 6:11 pm
Every week, the programming office at an FM radio station reviewed unsolicited letters from listeners who were expressing comments on the station’s programs. One week, the station received 50 letters with favorable comments about the station’s news reporting and music selection and 10 letters with unfavorable comments on the station’s new movie review segment of the evening program. Faced with this information, the programming director assumed that if some listeners did not like the movie review segment, then there must be other listeners who did like it. Therefore, he decided to continue the movie review segment of the evening program.
Which on e of the following identifies a problem with the programming director’s decision process?
(A) He failed to recognize that people are more likely to write letters of criticism than of praise.
(B) He could not properly infer from the fact that some listeners did not like the movie review segment that some others did.
(C) He failed to take into consideration the discrepancy in numbers between favorable and unfavorable letters received.
(D) He failed to take into account the relation existing between the movie review segment and the news.
(E) He did not wait until he received at least 50 letters with unfavorable comments about the movie review segment before making his decision.

OA-D
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

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Explanation needed for this question ?

by mharv » Tue Apr 14, 2009 11:55 pm
A is a generalization and while could be true, is not a problem or mistake the director made

B is the premise, and that can never be wrong.

C is wrong, the director did not cite the discrepancy between the numbers - he simply ignored the listeners about the news.

D is correct as it fixes the problem that the director did not consider the listeners views about the news. Co-relation is correct.

E is making an assumption, not a problem with his decision.
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please elaborate

by sogmat » Wed Apr 15, 2009 6:37 pm
still dont get it

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by mharv » Wed Apr 15, 2009 9:06 pm
Let me try again :oops: ...Did you identify the conclusion and premise as below first ..

Conclusion : The director assumes that ONLY 10 people expressed dis-interest about movie review show, and since the majority must have liked the show he decides to continue the show on FM channel.

Premise: HThe director assumed that if some listeners did not like the movie review segment, then there must be other listeners who did like it.

A is wrong
Because it is not identifying a problem with decision. The statement might be true, but it is not relevant to the argument

B is re-stating the premise, and for GMAT premise is always correct. You can state assumptions to weaken/strengthen the premise but not question the premise on which argument is based.

C while this may be true it is not a problem with the process. We are NOT given any information that he used the 50 favorable letters to make his decision about the movie review slot

D Had he taken into account that 50 letters are praising news/music channel and 10 are not interested in movie reviews ... he did not use all the inputs available to make a decision ... that is a PROBLEM

E is saying what he should or should not have done ... it is not a problem with the decision made. It is a what-if scenario and irreleval.
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by pops » Sat Apr 10, 2010 2:16 am
edirik wrote:Hey guys OA is [spoiler]B ! It is not D[/spoiler]
wow.. I have deduced B only but was afraid as OA given was D... I guess the initial startes should not give OA... replier tend to get reasons to arrive at given OA :)