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Exit Polls

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Exit Polls

by carlos.lara.7 » Fri Sep 16, 2016 3:48 pm
In a certain country, the exit polls conducted in four major towns during last president election indicated that the candidate from party A was going to lose by a wide margin. However, after votes were counted the underdog had won the election by a narrow margin.

Which of the following, if true, would explain the apparent contradiction in the results of the exit polls?

A - The random sample questioned in the polls was biased by a large amount of party A supporters.

B - The towns in which the exit poll was conducted traditionally show a share of party B supporters way above country's average.

C - The exit polls were conducted in several poor neighborhoods, which usually present a higher density of party A supporters.

D - Party A candidate made several promises of improving educational and health indicators if elected.

E - Another poll was conducted a few days before the election and showed party A candidate winning.
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by audi066 » Mon Dec 12, 2016 11:04 pm
Tough choice between A and B.
Would like to go with A, as its more generic answer.
Whats the OA?
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by kanwar86 » Wed Dec 14, 2016 1:12 pm
I will go with B.
Regards

Kanwar

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by crackverbal » Fri Dec 23, 2016 10:55 pm
there are two parts to this paradox -

1. Exit polls - party A candidate will lose by a huge margin.
2. Actual results - party A candidate won by a small margin. (I am assuming the candidate from party A is the underdog).

A - goes against point #1. if the polls were biased because of supporters of party A, exit polls should have shown something else.
this option does not also explain 2. If the exit polls were biased, the candidate should have lost by an even larger margin.

B - correct answer. If party B's supporters were overrepresented, it could explain why the exit poll results were biased against A.

C - incorrect. does not explain the paradox.
If this were indeed the case, party A candidate should have lost by an even higher margin.

D - does not explain the discrepancy between the exit polls and the actual results.

E - talks about other exit polls. the correct answer should explain the discrepancy between that exit poll and the actual results.
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by ceilidh.erickson » Mon Dec 26, 2016 5:52 am
OP: please post the source of the question as well as the OA whenever you're posting a question, as well as a brief explanation about what you found confusing. That way other students can assess the value of various sources.

This question, for example, is written in language that could be interpretable in a few different ways, and is likely not a high-quality source of GMAT study material. If you wrote this question yourself just for practice, you must say so in your post.

- As crackverbal has pointed out, the word "underdog" is ambiguous and open to interpretation. We have no reason to believe that there were only 2 candidates in this election.

- "... during last president election..." is not idiomatically correct English. It's a bad idea to study from sources that do not themselves use proper English.

- in answer choice A, "biased by a large amount of party A supporters" is confusing. "Biased by" is not idiomatically correct; we would say "biased toward." Furthermore, the correct usage is "large number of supporters," not "large amount of supporters."

- The following are also not idiomatically correct: "show a share of supporters" and "present a density of supporters."

If you wrote this question yourself: great! You have a good understanding of CR discrepancy/contradiction questions, and your right answer makes logical sense. Just work on some of your idioms ;) And be sure to qualify any post with "I wrote this myself for practice - I'd love to know what you think!"

If you got this question from a test prep source, a) tell us the source, and b) I'd recommend not using this as primary study material.
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by carlos.lara.7 » Mon Dec 26, 2016 5:58 am
Guys, I do not have the answer. I got this question on a preparation test for an admission process for Bain and Company (consultancy firm, which uses GMAT questions in their recruiting process). They claim that the questions are GMAT type, but I do not really know the source of the question.

Regards,

Carlos.
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by ceilidh.erickson » Mon Dec 26, 2016 6:38 am
That's totally fine! You can always say "I saw this question on a prep test for a consulting interview, so I don't know whether it came from an official GMAT source or accredited test prep source," or even simply "I found this on the internet but I have no idea where it came from!" Any of that helps students to assess whether this is one they should study deeply or not.
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