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RonPurewal
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Re: If ab does not equal zero

by RonPurewal Thu Feb 09, 2012 8:37 pm

aps_asks Wrote:Very Good Explanation !


thanks.
rohant444
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Re: If ab does not equal zero

by rohant444 Tue Apr 21, 2015 1:09 pm

Sorry to open this post again. Just wanted to clarify something.

Given that we have established that a and b have same sign, following is my approach.

a) a=+ve, b=+ve, which implies that the points (-a,b) and (-b,a) lie in the 2nd quadrant.
b)a=-ve, b=-ve, which implies that the (-a,b) and (-b,a) lie in the 4th quadrant.

Given that the question stem fails to specify a quadrant, do we assume that it is alright to take only one of these quadrants at a time and mark the answer as c, since in both the cases, and taking into account the two fact statements together, (-x,y) will lie in quadrant 2 or 4, as per the signs of a and b.

Or, do we treat these as two different possibilities and since the two fact statements fail to give us a specific quadrant, we mark the answer as E?

Thanks
RonPurewal
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Re: If ab does not equal zero

by RonPurewal Thu Apr 23, 2015 6:20 pm

Or, do we treat these as two different possibilities and since the two fact statements fail to give us a specific quadrant, we mark the answer as E?

Thanks


^^ whoa no no no.

THE ENTIRE POINT OF DATA SUFFICIENCY is to reward test takers who actually focus on the goal of the problem, and to punish those who don't. if you begin your work thinking "i need to find a specific quadrant", you've already gotten the problem wrong, BEFORE YOU EVEN START WORKING ON IT.

this is, in fact, the entire reason why the DS format was invented.
a multiple-choice question can't punish you for finding too much information. (if you can find the information... well, good for you.)
on the other hand, DS problems can... and they do.