• Free Practice Test & Review
How would you score if you took the GMAT

Available with Beat the GMAT members only code

• 1 Hour Free
BEAT THE GMAT EXCLUSIVE

Available with Beat the GMAT members only code

• 5-Day Free Trial
5-day free, full-access trial TTP Quant

Available with Beat the GMAT members only code

• Free Trial & Practice Exam
BEAT THE GMAT EXCLUSIVE

Available with Beat the GMAT members only code

• FREE GMAT Exam
Know how you'd score today for $0 Available with Beat the GMAT members only code • Award-winning private GMAT tutoring Register now and save up to$200

Available with Beat the GMAT members only code

• Free Veritas GMAT Class
Experience Lesson 1 Live Free

Available with Beat the GMAT members only code

• 5 Day FREE Trial
Study Smarter, Not Harder

Available with Beat the GMAT members only code

• Magoosh
Study with Magoosh GMAT prep

Available with Beat the GMAT members only code

• Get 300+ Practice Questions

Available with Beat the GMAT members only code

# This topic has 4 expert replies and 5 member replies

gmattesttaker2 Legendary Member
Joined
14 Feb 2012
Posted:
641 messages
Followed by:
8 members
11

#### Consumer Price Index (CPI) measures the average prices of

Sat Jun 14, 2014 9:27 pm
Hello,

For Question 2 here, I am thinking that CPI-U for electricity in July was 0.5 and in August it was 0.7 due to the 0.2 increase. Hence, %age increase is 40%. Is this correct?

For Question 3, the OA says that there was change in the CPI-U from May 2010 to Sep. 2010. Since it is 0 for May and Sep 2010 I was not clear. Can you please explain this?

OA: Yes No No

Thanks a lot,
Sri
Attachments

### GMAT/MBA Expert

Rich.C@EMPOWERgmat.com Elite Legendary Member
Joined
23 Jun 2013
Posted:
9654 messages
Followed by:
483 members
2867
GMAT Score:
800
Sun Jun 15, 2014 12:54 am
Hi Sri,

The description at the top of the table reads "Seasonally adjusted changes from the PRECEDING MONTH", which means that the number in the box is the percent increase/decrease in price of an item relative to the prior month.

For question 2, the CPI-U for electricity in July was 0.5; this means that the price of electricity was .5% HIGHER in July than in June. The CPI-U for electricity in August was 0.2; this means that the price of electricity was .2% HIGHER in August than in July. This statement asks if the increase from July to August was .5% higher. This means that the answer to this question is NO.

For question 3, we need to look at the CPI-U for "all items less food and energy." This statement asks if there was NO CHANGE from May through September. We can see from the table that there were 3 "changes" (in May, June and July), so the answer to this question is NO.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

_________________
Contact Rich at Rich.C@empowergmat.com

gmattesttaker2 Legendary Member
Joined
14 Feb 2012
Posted:
641 messages
Followed by:
8 members
11
Sat Jun 28, 2014 5:43 pm
Rich.C@EMPOWERgmat.com wrote:
Hi Sri,

The description at the top of the table reads "Seasonally adjusted changes from the PRECEDING MONTH", which means that the number in the box is the percent increase/decrease in price of an item relative to the prior month.

For question 2, the CPI-U for electricity in July was 0.5; this means that the price of electricity was .5% HIGHER in July than in June. The CPI-U for electricity in August was 0.2; this means that the price of electricity was .2% HIGHER in August than in July. This statement asks if the increase from July to August was .5% higher. This means that the answer to this question is NO.

For question 3, we need to look at the CPI-U for "all items less food and energy." This statement asks if there was NO CHANGE from May through September. We can see from the table that there were 3 "changes" (in May, June and July), so the answer to this question is NO.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
Hello Rich,

Thank you very much for the excellent explanation.

Best Regards,
Sri

Boredguy1543 Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
Joined
13 Oct 2015
Posted:
5 messages
Wed Oct 21, 2015 1:42 pm
gmattesttaker2 wrote:
Hello,

For Question 2 here, I am thinking that CPI-U for electricity in July was 0.5 and in August it was 0.7 due to the 0.2 increase. Hence, %age increase is 40%. Is this correct?

For Question 3, the OA says that there was change in the CPI-U from May 2010 to Sep. 2010. Since it is 0 for May and Sep 2010 I was not clear. Can you please explain this?

OA: Yes No No

Thanks a lot,
Sri
I hated this question, since I got it wrong. The reason I got it wrong was the wording of the question. It clearly states ' For each following, select YES if the statement is INFERABLE from the given information. ' So basically, I thought it was like Data Sufficiency where we didn't need to solve it, and see if we have the information to solve it. So for the first question, I clicked yes instead of no, since there's information that you can obtain from it to get the right answer.

crescendo85 Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
Joined
13 Feb 2016
Posted:
18 messages
1
Fri Mar 18, 2016 11:11 pm
Hello Rich
Small confusion.

For each following, select YES if the statement is INFERABLE from the given information else select NO.

Shouldnt answer be YES for all these 3 answers. Its not a true false question. It just asks you if the information is sufficient to answer these.

### GMAT/MBA Expert

DavidG@VeritasPrep Legendary Member
Joined
14 Jan 2015
Posted:
2667 messages
Followed by:
120 members
1153
GMAT Score:
770
Sat Mar 19, 2016 4:31 am
crescendo85 wrote:
Hello Rich
Small confusion.

For each following, select YES if the statement is INFERABLE from the given information else select NO.

Shouldnt answer be YES for all these 3 answers. Its not a true false question. It just asks you if the information is sufficient to answer these.
"Inferable" and "sufficient to answer" are not the same thing. Take a simple example. Say x = 9. This would be sufficient to answer the question "Is x prime?" However, if we were asked, "Can we infer that x is prime?" the answer is "no," we can't. So to summarize: Sufficient = we definitively know the answer to the question. Inferable = we can deduce that the statement in question is true.

_________________
Veritas Prep | GMAT Instructor

Veritas Prep Reviews
Save $100 off any live Veritas Prep GMAT Course Enroll in a Veritas Prep GMAT class completely for FREE. Wondering if a GMAT course is right for you? Attend the first class session of an actual GMAT course, either in-person or live online, and see for yourself why so many students choose to work with Veritas Prep. Find a class now! ### GMAT/MBA Expert DavidG@VeritasPrep Legendary Member Joined 14 Jan 2015 Posted: 2667 messages Followed by: 120 members Upvotes: 1153 GMAT Score: 770 Sat Mar 19, 2016 4:34 am See here for another example in which a test-taker was struggling to differentiate between inferable and sufficient - this may help clarify the distinction: https://www.beatthegmat.com/ir-inference-question-from-gmat-software-t288804.html _________________ Veritas Prep | GMAT Instructor Veritas Prep Reviews Save$100 off any live Veritas Prep GMAT Course

Enroll in a Veritas Prep GMAT class completely for FREE. Wondering if a GMAT course is right for you? Attend the first class session of an actual GMAT course, either in-person or live online, and see for yourself why so many students choose to work with Veritas Prep. Find a class now!
crescendo85 Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
Joined
13 Feb 2016
Posted:
18 messages
1
Sat Mar 19, 2016 4:36 am
Its better now. Cant they just ask us "Is it true or false"
But well noted. You mean read inferable as true except cases where there is no way to find this information from table - in that case say False.

### GMAT/MBA Expert

Rich.C@EMPOWERgmat.com Elite Legendary Member
Joined
23 Jun 2013
Posted:
9654 messages
Followed by:
483 members
2867
GMAT Score:
800
Sat Mar 19, 2016 9:22 am
Hi crescendo85,

IR questions have a lot in common with CR questions, so it might help to think of IR prompts in those terms. In a CR Inference question, you're looking for an answer that logically 'flows' from the given information (meaning, which answer is logically 'true') - the same idea applies to this prompt. From what you described, you were dealing with this prompt in the same way that you would deal with a DS question (and that's not applicable here).

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

_________________
Contact Rich at Rich.C@empowergmat.com

WorthPursuit Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
Joined
23 Oct 2017
Posted:
1 messages
Mon Oct 23, 2017 1:48 pm
I had the same problem with this question in regards to the phrasing of "yes if the statement is inferable from the given information." I don't agree with the wording but I'll accept it. Thanks for the clarification.

### Top First Responders*

1 Jay@ManhattanReview 64 first replies
2 GMATGuruNY 59 first replies
3 Rich.C@EMPOWERgma... 34 first replies
4 Brent@GMATPrepNow 24 first replies
5 ceilidh.erickson 6 first replies
* Only counts replies to topics started in last 30 days
See More Top Beat The GMAT Members

### Most Active Experts

1 Jeff@TargetTestPrep

Target Test Prep

132 posts
2 GMATGuruNY

The Princeton Review Teacher

94 posts
3 Brent@GMATPrepNow

GMAT Prep Now Teacher

88 posts
4 Scott@TargetTestPrep

Target Test Prep

85 posts
5 Max@Math Revolution

Math Revolution

82 posts
See More Top Beat The GMAT Experts