Data Sufficiency Format Question

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sk1698: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 1; Joined: Sat May 16, 2009 8:03 am

by sk1698 » Sat May 16, 2009 8:07 am

Hi, i have a technical question (i'm sorry if this has already been asked previously, i'm new here):

In some third party Gmat practice exams (i.e. Barron's, 800score.com, etc) Data Sufficiency questions ask whether something is true, such as "...is p a prime number?" And then based on the two choices it helps you to conclude "NO" (choice A,B,or D). However, i have noticed that in the official Gmat practice material (downloadable and Official Guide) it never leads you to answer "NO" but always "YES" (choice A, B, or D) or not enough info (choice E).

My Question is, are the third party practices misleading in that sense? and should i just go with the what the Official Guide method?

Thank you for your time.

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Data Sufficiency | Sat May 16, 2009 8:07 am

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Ian Stewart: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2623; Joined: Mon Jun 02, 2008 3:17 amFollowed by: 355 members; Location: Montreal; Thanked: 1090 times; GMAT Score:780

Re: Data Sufficiency Format Question

by Ian Stewart » Sat May 16, 2009 10:37 am

sk1698 wrote:Hi, i have a technical question (i'm sorry if this has already been asked previously, i'm new here):

In some third party Gmat practice exams (i.e. Barron's, 800score.com, etc) Data Sufficiency questions ask whether something is true, such as "...is p a prime number?" And then based on the two choices it helps you to conclude "NO" (choice A,B,or D). However, i have noticed that in the official Gmat practice material (downloadable and Official Guide) it never leads you to answer "NO" but always "YES" (choice A, B, or D) or not enough info (choice E).

My Question is, are the third party practices misleading in that sense? and should i just go with the what the Official Guide method?

Thank you for your time.

Many third party materials overemphasize this aspect of DS. It's very rare that you find an official DS question where one or both statements are sufficient to give a 'no' answer. There is exactly one such question in the Official Guide (at least in the 11th edition) out of about 50 yes/no DS questions, which should give you some idea of how infrequently they appear. I've seen a couple in GMATFocus as well. Still, in the vast majority of yes/no DS questions, if you do indeed have sufficient information, the answer to the question will turn out to be 'yes', not 'no'.

For online GMAT math tutoring, or to buy my higher-level Quant books and problem sets, contact me at ianstewartgmat at gmail.com

ianstewartgmat.com

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