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A new study reports that every

by kvcpk » Fri Aug 20, 2010 1:59 am
A new study reports that every U.S. president has had an IQ that placed him in the top two percent of the population: 138 or above. However, a different study focusing on leadership ability and potential concluded that the optimal IQ for a national leader is 125-above average, but not in the top two percent. Therefore, no United States president has had an IQ optimal for a national leader.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the conclusion above?

A. President John F. Kennedy's IQ as reported in the second study was 127; in the first, 159.
B. A president's election in the US depends less on his leadership potential than on the public's perception of his intelligence.
C. Leadership ability in the second study was determined by studying the IQs of current national leaders from 100 different countries around the world.
D. The calculation of IQ is not an exact science; the margin of error can be as great as 3-4%.
E. IQ is only one of many factors that determines a national leader's success.
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by ashish2104 » Fri Aug 20, 2010 3:01 am
I am caught between D and E. But I will go with E.

If there are multiple reasons that decide national leader's success as opposed to author conclusion that IQ is sole criteria to be a national leader
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by abhigang » Fri Aug 20, 2010 3:09 am
IMO C.

If the study involved leaders of diff countries, then drawing a conclusion on US leaders is definitely not justified.
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by FightWithGMAT » Fri Aug 20, 2010 7:45 am
kvcpk wrote:A new study reports that every U.S. president has had an IQ that placed him in the top two percent of the population: 138 or above. However, a different study focusing on leadership ability and potential concluded that the optimal IQ for a national leader is 125-above average, but not in the top two percent. Therefore, no United States president has had an IQ optimal for a national leader.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the conclusion above?

A. President John F. Kennedy's IQ as reported in the second study was 127; in the first, 159.
B. A president's election in the US depends less on his leadership potential than on the public's perception of his intelligence.
C. Leadership ability in the second study was determined by studying the IQs of current national leaders from 100 different countries around the world.
D. The calculation of IQ is not an exact science; the margin of error can be as great as 3-4%.
E. IQ is only one of many factors that determines a national leader's success.
IMO C

Data from the second study is not representative.
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by beatthegmatinsept » Fri Aug 20, 2010 7:51 am
kvcpk wrote:A new study reports that every U.S. president has had an IQ that placed him in the top two percent of the population: 138 or above. However, a different study focusing on leadership ability and potential concluded that the optimal IQ for a national leader is 125-above average, but not in the top two percent. Therefore, no United States president has had an IQ optimal for a national leader.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the conclusion above?

A. President John F. Kennedy's IQ as reported in the second study was 127; in the first, 159.
B. A president's election in the US depends less on his leadership potential than on the public's perception of his intelligence.
C. Leadership ability in the second study was determined by studying the IQs of current national leaders from 100 different countries around the world.
D. The calculation of IQ is not an exact science; the margin of error can be as great as 3-4%.
E. IQ is only one of many factors that determines a national leader's success.
I was stuck between C and E. Will go with C because their studies r based on leaders around the world, while they r making a conclusion about US leaders. Doesn't quite make sense.
Whats the OA?
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by SeemaSkl » Fri Aug 20, 2010 10:05 am
I think A because it disproves that - NO president has optimum IQ. According to A at least one president scored optimum on both tests.
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by kvcpk » Fri Aug 20, 2010 2:11 pm
OA A

Still Waiting for some good Explanation!!
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by ssp » Fri Aug 20, 2010 3:31 pm
Yeah - got caught up on this one -- didn't even remotely think this was A. Any one with a good explanation?
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by debmalya_dutta » Fri Aug 20, 2010 7:23 pm
my pick was A

Because -

what A shows is that the basis / methodology for calculating IQ in test 1 was different than test 2 ..hence Kennedy, even though he had a IQ of above 138 as per the first study , he had an IQ of 127 as per the second study .. So this proves that the parameters for the 2 studies were different.

The optimum IQ level is based on Study 2...So using the result of Study 1 which is different than study 2 , one cannot conclude that no US presidents had an IQ optimal for a national leader...
@Deb
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by FightWithGMAT » Sun Aug 22, 2010 4:58 am
debmalya_dutta wrote:my pick was A

Because -

what A shows is that the basis / methodology for calculating IQ in test 1 was different than test 2 ..hence Kennedy, even though he had a IQ of above 138 as per the first study , he had an IQ of 127 as per the second study .. So this proves that the parameters for the 2 studies were different.

The optimum IQ level is based on Study 2...So using the result of Study 1 which is different than study 2 , one cannot conclude that no US presidents had an IQ optimal for a national leader...
If A says that both the studies are based on different parameters.
C also does the same kind of task. C tells us that representativeness of both the studies is different.
A encompasses US leaders only whereas C encompasses leaders from 100 countries. They are not in same in their analysis.

ultimately, both A and C convey that both the studies are not same. They are different.

I am stuck how to decide which option is more favorite of GMAC....
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by abhigang » Sun Aug 22, 2010 6:01 am
FightWithGMAT wrote:
debmalya_dutta wrote:my pick was A

Because -

what A shows is that the basis / methodology for calculating IQ in test 1 was different than test 2 ..hence Kennedy, even though he had a IQ of above 138 as per the first study , he had an IQ of 127 as per the second study .. So this proves that the parameters for the 2 studies were different.

The optimum IQ level is based on Study 2...So using the result of Study 1 which is different than study 2 , one cannot conclude that no US presidents had an IQ optimal for a national leader...
If A says that both the studies are based on different parameters.
C also does the same kind of task. C tells us that representativeness of both the studies is different.
A encompasses US leaders only whereas C encompasses leaders from 100 countries. They are not in same in their analysis.

ultimately, both A and C convey that both the studies are not same. They are different.

I am stuck how to decide which option is more favorite of GMAC....
Just to add to what FightWithGMAT had said...
Option C also says that second study was done by observing current national leaders whereas the result of the second study is compared with IQ of the US leaders of all times.
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by debmalya_dutta » Sun Aug 22, 2010 1:32 pm
FightWithGMAT wrote:
debmalya_dutta wrote:my pick was A

Because -

what A shows is that the basis / methodology for calculating IQ in test 1 was different than test 2 ..hence Kennedy, even though he had a IQ of above 138 as per the first study , he had an IQ of 127 as per the second study .. So this proves that the parameters for the 2 studies were different.

The optimum IQ level is based on Study 2...So using the result of Study 1 which is different than study 2 , one cannot conclude that no US presidents had an IQ optimal for a national leader...
If A says that both the studies are based on different parameters.
C also does the same kind of task. C tells us that representativeness of both the studies is different.
A encompasses US leaders only whereas C encompasses leaders from 100 countries. They are not in same in their analysis.

ultimately, both A and C convey that both the studies are not same. They are different.

I am stuck how to decide which option is more favorite of GMAC....
The option C is enticing but there is a catch to it . Its quite different from Option A if you look closely.. OPtion C extends the study 2 out to leaders of the world whereas we are interested in only national leaders i.e in the context of this stimulus , it is the presidents of the united states... So the results of a study based on the 100 leaders would not weaken the conclusion that we are trying to reach about the leaders of United States...
@Deb
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