Praveen is right.

The question states that 2 different factors.It means product of distinct factors.

The question asks to express X as product of 2 factors a and b,where a and b are different.

9 -1,3 and 9 are factors

9-1*9-->This is the only way

In GMAT, we can't take negative integers as factors.

@kvcpk: Thanks for your interest in the matter and your initiative in looking into proper references.

There are many GMAT problems where the word positive is wrongly missed, therefore the official answer is wrong but we have the "luck" of choosing between NUMERICAL answers only (and none of them is really the right one), and then we realize their mistake and still have the opportunity to click the answer the "think" is the right one. I tell my students: "you know they are wrong, so what? Make them happy!"....

In this matter, if you have the "None above" alternative choice, I know it´s hard to decide, but I guess the best advice is: put the RIGHT answer, because some EXCELLENT students will put the "None above" as their choice and (we hope) the GMAT will verify that (Statistically speaking, by cluster analysis for instance, this is not hard to detect...) and they will probably correct the "answer sheet" "afterwards"... yes, this is the idealistic scenario but, hey, it´s better to do it right and believe they will detect it... right?!


@goyalsau: "Because if we consider formula that we use for years for factorizing will prove wrong"

No Sir, please do not forget that the formula you use for years is for calculating the number of POSITIVE factors of a given integer, therefore this formula should have a 2 TIMES it if you want to consider it for the "general scenario".

In this matter, the fact that most books forget to mention the "magic word" POSITIVE does not mean that the books are right, on the contrary, that just says that books are made by human beings and, unfortunately, the GMAT market is NOT a very careful one, because people are always writing books and new editions in a hurry, to sell a lot, compromising quality and details like this one.


@GMATGuruNY : correct!

That means that the test takers will not probably be in the "crux or spade" situation I explained to kvcpk above!!



Final remark: I have already asked the BTG manager to include me as an "Expert", but he asked me politely to keep posting for a period of approximately 2 months just to be sure I will keep contributing to this forum for a while before he evaluates my expertise... that means I would love to have "thanks" from you whenever possible, so that perhaps I will earn this "distinction" earlier, ok?!

Regards,
Fabio.

Yeah, as GMATGURUNY says, official GMAT questions will use the phrase "distinct positive factors."

The same issue arises with multiples. 0 is a multiple of all numbers (except for 0), and yet we normally exclude 0 from a question asking about multiples. But we don't have to make any assumptions to do so--the test will use the phrase "positive multiples." Again, on the actual GMAT, questions will be free of ambiguity--after all it costs them on avreage $2,700 to design a question and the reason it's so pricey is primarily in order to ensure that question stems lead to just one unquestionably correct objective interpreteation.

Testluv wrote:Yeah, as GMATGURUNY says, official GMAT questions will use the phrase "distinct positive factors."

The same issue arises with multiples. 0 is a multiple of all numbers (except for 0), and yet we normally exclude 0 from a question asking about multiples. But we don't have to make any assumptions to do so--the test will use the phrase "positive multiples." Again, on the actual GMAT, questions will be free of ambiguity--after all it costs them on avreage $2,700 to design a question and the reason it's so pricey is primarily in order to ensure that question stems lead to just one unquestionably correct objective interpreteation.

wow..............
Nothing to say,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
They can import some people from IIM's I am sure they will be ready to do the job very cheaply as they have the experience of setting one of the toughest quant papers in the world..........

goyalsau wrote: wow..............
Nothing to say,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
They can import some people from IIM's

Just curiosity: What´s IIM, goyalsau ?

fskilnik wrote:

goyalsau wrote: wow..............
Nothing to say,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
They can import some people from IIM's

Just curiosity: What´s IIM, goyalsau ?

In india we have a admission test or the students who are looking for MBA in one of the 7 IIM (Indian institute of Management )

https://www.catiim.in/

I am writing the website, there are some sample practice test, Just go through them once. You will realize How HARD the Quant is

Just for the knowledge more than 200, thousand people has given the exam last year, and there are only 1300 seats.

Its like that students needs to have 99 percentile for IIMs.

Can't say much about IIMs, In india its like being in heaven if you are in IIM's......

just through to the questions once you will realize the standard of that test........

Thanks a lot for the info, goyalsau. I will certainly have a look... really very interesting!

Regards,
Fabio.