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psychology degree

by ankita1709 » Mon May 28, 2012 10:50 pm
On completing both the course in experimental design and the developmental psychology course, Angela will have earned a degree in psychology. Since experimental design, which must be completed before taking developmental psychology, will not be offered until next term, it will be at least two terms before Angela gets her psychology degree.

If the statements above are all true, which one of the following must also be true?
(A) The developmental psychology course Angela needs to take requires two terms to complete.
(B) The course in experimental design is an easier course than the course in developmental psychology.
(C) There are no prerequisites for the course in experimental design.
(D) Anyone who earns a degree in psychology from the university Angela attends will have completed the course in experimental design.
(E) Once Angela completes the developmental psychology course, she will have earned a degree in psychology.


Please help.
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by Kasia@EconomistGMAT » Mon May 28, 2012 11:23 pm
The correct answer is e. The easiest way to solve it is to use elimination method:
A- since it will be at least two terms before she gets the degree, the course in developmental psychology can last one term
B- it is not relevant which course is easier
C- it would be relevant whether there are prerequisites necessary to start the course in experimental design if the concluding statement did not include the expression "at least" - since it does, it can take her longer to do the courses
D-we don't know that, maybe there are other courses available
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by ankita1709 » Tue May 29, 2012 2:01 am
Kasia@MasterGMAT wrote:The correct answer is e. The easiest way to solve it is to use elimination method:
A- since it will be at least two terms before she gets the degree, the course in developmental psychology can last one term
B- it is not relevant which course is easier
C- it would be relevant whether there are prerequisites necessary to start the course in experimental design if the concluding statement did not include the expression "at least" - since it does, it can take her longer to do the courses
D-we don't know that, maybe there are other courses available
The answer i had was D.. but clearly it seems wrong now.
Thanks for the help
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by Gaurav 2013-fall » Tue May 29, 2012 8:45 am
+1 for E
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by GMAT Kolaveri » Tue May 29, 2012 9:08 am
I think D is correct AO.

E is definitely wrong.
(E) Once Angela completes the developmental psychology course, she will have earned a degree in psychology. What if she fails in some other course???

The arguments clearly states that Angela has to complete both Exp design and Dev psy to get psy degree.Think should clearly apply to other students as well and this statement is true and consistent as per the argument.
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by Gaurav 2013-fall » Tue May 29, 2012 9:21 am
GMAT Kolaveri wrote:I think D is correct AO.

E is definitely wrong.
(E) Once Angela completes the developmental psychology course, she will have earned a degree in psychology. What if she fails in some other course???

The arguments clearly states that Angela has to complete both Exp design and Dev psy to get psy degree.Think should clearly apply to other students as well and this statement is true and consistent as per the argument.
I like your thinking Kolaveri.

Regarding option D, what if Angela is a special case and this rule of first doing course of ED and then DP applies only to her?? Hence, we cannot generalize to say that anyone who earns degree in psychology would have completed ED course. I mean, how can we be so sure that whatever rules apply to Angela will also apply to anyone completing psychology degree??. Any thoughts??
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by ice_rush » Tue May 29, 2012 10:00 am
(E) is correct. we cannot infer (D).
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by Kasia@EconomistGMAT » Tue May 29, 2012 10:36 am
d could be correct if taking these two courses (Exp des and Dev psy) were the only possible course of studies. But we don't know that. However, we know that: "On completing both the course in experimental design and the developmental psychology course, Angela will have earned a degree in psychology." So we can only be sure about Angela's case and not about other students. As to failing in another course, in my opinion that is a little too far-fetched generalization. The first statement is not an assumption, it is a premise - so it is factual data. That means that she has probably completed all other courses necessary to obtain a degree.

That is why I have selected e.
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by GMAT Kolaveri » Tue May 29, 2012 5:37 pm
Gaurav 2013-fall wrote:
GMAT Kolaveri wrote:I think D is correct AO.

E is definitely wrong.
(E) Once Angela completes the developmental psychology course, she will have earned a degree in psychology. What if she fails in some other course???

The arguments clearly states that Angela has to complete both Exp design and Dev psy to get psy degree.Think should clearly apply to other students as well and this statement is true and consistent as per the argument.
I like your thinking Kolaveri.

Regarding option D, what if Angela is a special case and this rule of first doing course of ED and then DP applies only to her?? Hence, we cannot generalize to say that anyone who earns degree in psychology would have completed ED course. I mean, how can we be so sure that whatever rules apply to Angela will also apply to anyone completing psychology degree??. Any thoughts??
It is not mentioned anywhere that Angela is a special case or that the courses are elective. Hence under normal circumstances, conditions for obtaining a degree has to be the same for all students pursuing that degree to maintain uniformity (provided there are no electives. this is the assumption i have made)

In case of E, it says passing in Dev psy course ---> she will get her degree. Here we are making a bigger assumption that she has passed in all other courses. We dont have any idea on her performance in other courses.

@Ankita,
Please post the OA and OE why the incorrect options are wrong and why the correct one is correct.
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by eagleeye » Tue May 29, 2012 6:50 pm
GMAT Kolaveri wrote:
Gaurav 2013-fall wrote:
GMAT Kolaveri wrote:I think D is correct AO.

E is definitely wrong.
(E) Once Angela completes the developmental psychology course, she will have earned a degree in psychology. What if she fails in some other course???

The arguments clearly states that Angela has to complete both Exp design and Dev psy to get psy degree.Think should clearly apply to other students as well and this statement is true and consistent as per the argument.
I like your thinking Kolaveri.

Regarding option D, what if Angela is a special case and this rule of first doing course of ED and then DP applies only to her?? Hence, we cannot generalize to say that anyone who earns degree in psychology would have completed ED course. I mean, how can we be so sure that whatever rules apply to Angela will also apply to anyone completing psychology degree??. Any thoughts??
It is not mentioned anywhere that Angela is a special case or that the courses are elective. Hence under normal circumstances, conditions for obtaining a degree has to be the same for all students pursuing that degree to maintain uniformity (provided there are no electives. this is the assumption i have made)

In case of E, it says passing in Dev psy course ---> she will get her degree. Here we are making a bigger assumption that she has passed in all other courses. We dont have any idea on her performance in other courses.

@Ankita,
Please post the OA and OE why the incorrect options are wrong and why the correct one is correct.
I see that there has been quite a discussion going on about the other courses. This is a very important point for us to follow, so I would like to justify why E is correct.

Let's look at the first line: let's call it the premise P.
"On completing both the course in experimental design and the developmental psychology course, Angela will have earned a degree in psychology."

Now let's look at option E:
"Once Angela completes the developmental psychology course, she will have earned a degree in psychology."

For E to follow from P, we need that in P, the condition of experimental design be already complete. If that is the case, then E becomes equivalent to P.

Now we know from "experimental design, which must be completed before taking developmental psychology,"
That "Experimental design MUST BE completed before taking developmental psychology". Let's call this premise Q.

Now pay attention to option E:
"Once Angela completes the developmental psychology course, she will have earned a degree in psychology." Angela can only complete the DP course, if she TAKES the DP course. She can only TAKE the DP course if she has already COMPLETED the ED course. Hence the condition of her completing the development psychology course, already takes into account that she has successfully completed the experimental psychology course. Since E is the same as P with the condition of experimental design being completed, it has to be true.

Let me know if this helps :)
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by ankita1709 » Tue May 29, 2012 7:25 pm
GMAT Kolaveri wrote: @Ankita,
Please post the OA and OE why the incorrect options are wrong and why the correct one is correct.
The OA I had was D. But again I can't trust the source of answer.

E seems right according to all the discussion going on
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by GMAT Kolaveri » Tue May 29, 2012 9:16 pm
ankita1709 wrote:
GMAT Kolaveri wrote: @Ankita,
Please post the OA and OE why the incorrect options are wrong and why the correct one is correct.
The OA I had was D. But again I can't trust the source of answer.

E seems right according to all the discussion going on
OA is E according to a kaplan instructor and the question tests FORMAL Logic, which is not tested on GMAT. :)
https://www.beatthegmat.com/lsar-cr-psyc ... 39164.html
Last edited by GMAT Kolaveri on Wed May 30, 2012 2:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by ankita1709 » Tue May 29, 2012 10:03 pm
GMAT Kolaveri wrote: OA is D according to a kaplan instructor and the question tests FORMAL Logic, which is not tested on GMAT. :)
https://www.beatthegmat.com/lsar-cr-psyc ... 39164.html
Sorry its E according to him also
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by eagleeye » Tue May 29, 2012 10:13 pm
GMAT Kolaveri wrote:
ankita1709 wrote:
GMAT Kolaveri wrote: @Ankita,
Please post the OA and OE why the incorrect options are wrong and why the correct one is correct.
The OA I had was D. But again I can't trust the source of answer.

E seems right according to all the discussion going on
OA is D according to a kaplan instructor and the question tests FORMAL Logic, which is not tested on GMAT. :)
https://www.beatthegmat.com/lsar-cr-psyc ... 39164.html
Even according to formal logic, it should be E. In fact, that's how I did the problem on paper.

Also, I checked the post you wrote. The KAPLAN instructor wrote that someone made a mistake in writing the OA as D, and that the OA must be E.

Hence, I am sure, we can close this one as the correct answer being E.

PS: I have quoted the KAPLAN instructor below:

"Either the original poster mistranscribed the problem or else mistranscribed the OA. This is an inference question requiring skill in formal logic (for that reason, it is unlikely that you would get a question like this on the GMAT).

The first sentence of the passage reads:

"On completing both the course in experimental design and the developmental psychology course, Angela will have earned a degree in psychology."

This yields the following conditoinal statement:

If she completes ED AND DP, then she will have earned her psych degree.

The second sentence tells us that ED MUST be completed before DP. Therefore:

If someone has completed DP, then they have also completed ED.

Therefore, if she completes DP, then it is sufficient to conclude that she has also completed ED. And if she completes both DP and ED, then it is sufficient to conclude that she will have earned her psych degree.

Accordingly, Choice E MUST be correct.

Choice D must be wrong. It improperly reverses the initial conditional statement (without negating).

That is, in the first conditional statement, her having earned a psych degree is a conclusion or necessary condition. Choice D is trying to use her having earned a psych degree as a trigger or sufficient condition.

For example, if you are a dog, then you are definitely a mammal. Does that mean that if you are a mammal, you are definitely a dog? That is what choice D is doing.

Folks, GMAT does NOT test these formal logic subtleties.

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by GMAT Kolaveri » Wed May 30, 2012 3:01 am
ankita1709 wrote:
GMAT Kolaveri wrote: OA is D according to a kaplan instructor and the question tests FORMAL Logic, which is not tested on GMAT. :)
https://www.beatthegmat.com/lsar-cr-psyc ... 39164.html
Sorry its E according to him also
sorry i ve edited my post above..I dont know i typed D there..I wanted to inform that i was wrong and that this wont be test.
Sorry if my earlier post(with the typo) was misleading.
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