GMAT Prep
  • Official Guide – Tricky Data Sufficiency from Student

    Here’s a random customer question I’d like you to take a look at regarding Data Sufficiency.

    She’s asking about some Official Guide questions. Here’s her question:
    Question 132: If n is greater than 1, is n equal to 2?
    1) n has exactly 2 positive factors
    2) the difference of any two distinct positive factors of n is odd.

    The answer is B, but I don’t understand how they came to that conclusion, without statement 1 I wouldn’t have known that the number is prime so I could essentially plug in 10 for n and if i subtracted 5-2 ( which are factors of 10) I would get an odd number as well. The answer I selected was C,Can you explain why the answer is B?

    Question 144: If n is a positive integer, is (1/10)^n<0.01?
    1) n >2
    2) (1/10)^n-1<0.1

    The answer is D, but I have a hard time understanding why since statement 2 doesnt work if n is less than 3, so it technically wouldnt be sufficient alone.

    ——————————————————————————

    Question 132: If n is greater than 1, is n equal to 2?
    1) n has exactly 2 positive factors
    2) the difference of any two distinct positive factors of n is odd.

    Let’s look at (1):
    What numbers have exactly 2 positive factors? Well, we know 2 has factors: 1 and 2.
    Are there any other numbers?
    What about 3? 3 has factors: 1 and 3.
    So here we have two different possibilities to the question: is n equal to 2?
    Because of this ambiguity, we know (1) is no good, so the answer is either (B), (C), or (E).

    Now, let’s take a look at (2):
    —the keyword in Statement #2 is “ANY”–always be careful when you see absolute words like this.
    Say you pick 10 as you did. Factors of 10: 1, 2, 5, 10
    The difference between ANY positive factor of n must be odd to satisfy requirement #2.
    Well, 10-1= 9 = odd
    And yes, 5-2 = 3 = odd
    And yes, 2-1 = 1 = odd
    and yes, 10 – 5 = 5 = odd

    BUT

    5-1 = 4 = even
    10 – 2 = 8 = even

    The keyword ANY makes it extremely difficult to find a number that satisfies statement #2. And the more factors a number has, the more difficult it is. Only with a super small number that only has 2 factors (like the number 2) might this work. Let’s look:
    #2: 1, 2
    2-1 = 1 = odd

    what about 3?
    #3: 1, 3
    3-1 = 2 = even..

    The number must be 2 using statement #2 alone so answer is B. Be wary of words like “any.”

    ———————


    Question 144: If n is a positive integer, is (1/10)^n<0.01?
    1) n >2
    2) (1/10)^(n-1) <0.1

    First you should rephrase the question as I do in Framework #1.

    Let’s look at statement #1. What happens when n=2? You should recognize that
    if n=2, then the inequality is equal on both sides.
    (1/10)^2 = .01 —— so then you get “Is .01< .01?"
    You should recognize two points:

    1) And you should recognize that as n gets bigger, then we have
    a true statement.

    2) If n gets smaller, then we get a false statement.

    In other words, you can “translate” the ORIGINAL question to asking:
    “Is n >2?”

    Statement (1) tells us, YES! — [ n > 2 ] —so we know (1) alone is good.

    With statement #2, see if you can simplify what statement #2 is saying.
    Try values for n: 1, 2, and 3

    Try n=1
    (1/10) ^ 0 = 1 [anything to the zero power=1]
    Continue looking at statement #2 (not the original question yet):
    Is 1<.1? No. That means n cannot = 1. Keep that in mind.

    Try n=2
    (1/10) ^ (1) <.1
    Continue looking at statement #2 (not the original question yet):
    Is .1<.1? No, they're the same so we're right at the border. That means n cannot = 2

    Try n=3
    (1/10) ^ 2 < .1
    Is .01 < .1? Yes! That means n can = 3

    And the higher n is the more this will be true.
    So in other words, statement (2) is saying n >2–which is
    exactly what statement (1) is saying.

    They’re saying the same thing! And we already know (1)
    is good–I’m assuming you got 1 as good?
    So that means (1) is good, (2) is good –> answer is (D).

    So as you say if n is less than 3, then statement (2) is not satisfied so
    we can’t pick n less than 3.
    Remember you must pick values of n so that the requirements
    are satisfied. Once you do that, THEN you answer the question which we
    translated before as: “Is n>2?”

    To A Higher GMAT Score,

    Zeke
    The GMAT Pill Study Method
    http://www.gmatpill.com

     

    2 responses to “Official Guide – Tricky Data Sufficiency from Student”

    1. Pamela

      Are there any videos for the math section other than data sufficiency?

    2. At the moment we only cover data sufficiency, but will cover problem solving in the future.

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