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Melinda's MBA

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Melinda's MBA

by ollapodrida » Sat May 05, 2012 4:12 pm
Melinda can earn an MBA unless she does poorly on the GMAT or does not get a
scholarship.
Which one of the following statements cannot be validly drawn from the above
statements?
(A) Melinda received an MBA. So she must have both done well on the GMAT and
gotten a scholarship.
(B) Melinda received an MBA and she did well on the GMAT. So she must have
gotten a scholarship.
(C) Melinda did poorly on the GMAT. So she will not earn an MBA.
(D) If Melinda does not earn an MBA, then she did poorly on the GMAT or could not
get a scholarship.
(E) If Melinda does poorly on the GMAT and does not get a scholarship, then she
will not earn an MBA.

OA after some discussion.
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by Bill@VeritasPrep » Sat May 05, 2012 4:57 pm
The stem tells us that 4 of the answers are valid inferences, so we need the one that isn't.

A--either a bad GMAT or no scholarship is enough to prevent her from getting an MBA, so if she got an MBA, she met both conditions. Valid.

B--Again, she needed a scholarship and a good GMAT to get her MBA. If she got her MBA, she must have met both conditions. Valid.

C--If Melinda doesn't meet one of the conditions, she won't get an MBA. Valid.

D--Invalid. The GMAT and scholarship are necessary conditions, but they are not enough to guarantee that she got an MBA.

E--If she fails both conditions, she will not get an MBA. valid.
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by ollapodrida » Sat May 05, 2012 5:21 pm
I tried to diagram this question, but my diagram did not lead to the right answer, although I somehow managed to pick the right answer. I would like to know what went wrong with my diagramming.

Here's what I wrote on my scratch paper:

M unless (P or ~ S)
therefore: ~(P or ~S) --> M
or
~P and S --> M

From the above, it appears that the following would be a valid inference:
~M --> P or ~S

Any help with what went wrong with my diagramming will be greatly appreciated.

OA is D by the way.
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by Bill@VeritasPrep » Sat May 05, 2012 8:59 pm
The key wording in the stimulus is "can earn." That is, meeting the two conditions (a scholarship and a not-poor GMAT) give her the chance to get her MBA, but on their own they are not enough to guarantee that she does.

M--->~P & S (If she got her MBA, then she must have had a not-poor GMAT and a scholarship)

And the contrapositive:

~S or P--->~M (If she got a poor GMAT score or did not get a scholarship, then she did not get her MBA)
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by ranjeet75 » Sat May 05, 2012 9:47 pm
What is the source of your question?
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by ollapodrida » Sun May 06, 2012 5:22 am
ranjeet75 wrote:What is the source of your question?
This question is from the Nova GMAT prep course study material.
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by Bill@VeritasPrep » Sun May 06, 2012 9:03 am
I would say that you are extremely unlikely to see a question like this on the GMAT; it is much more common on the LSAT.
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