MGMAT CAT 2: PS Problem

Hi josh80,

Co-ordinate Geometry (or "graphing", as most people call it) is a relatively small category in the GMAT Quant section; you'll likely see just 1 of these questions on Test Day. The question is perfect for TESTing Values. Here's how:

We're asked which of the 5 answers COULD be in the same quadrant as (a,b), where neither a nor b equals 0. This makes me think that we'll have to consider more than one possibility, since there are 4 different quadrants on a graph.

Here are the examples that I would consider:
(a,b)
(1,2) - Quadrant 1
(-1,2) - Quadrant 2
(-1,-2) - Quadrant 3
(1,-2) - Quadrant 4

You'll notice that each of the 5 answer choices changes the "sign" of at least one of the variables (and sometimes switches the variables around). If you start off in Quadrant 1, the only way to end up in that SAME Quadrant is if both the a and b are positive. That doesn't happen in ANY of the answer choices, so we need to look at a diffent Quadrant. I'm going to start with:

Quadrant 2:
(a,b)
(-1,2)

So, if we plug a = -1 and b = 2 into the 5 answer choices, do any of them give us an answer that puts us in Quadrant 2?

[spoiler]Answer A: (-b,-a) = (-2,1). [/spoiler] THAT answer puts in Quadrant 2. It's a match for what the question asked us for, so it has to be the answer.

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