Noting the success of DVDs in the marketplace, the newly

mikemcgarry: Can you please clear the confusion between Choice C and D? Thanks

Dear bkpolymers1617,

I'm happy to respond.

To be honest, my friend, I am not a huge fan of this question. Among other things, it seems to take for granted some American cultural background knowledge, and it's also woefully out of date. This question had to be written 20+ years ago. I don't even know how many current GMAT student have even seen a VCR tape!

Here's what I'll say about (C) & (D).
C) Only a very small number of the movies the store sells are available on DVD.
So, Movie Tapes has only a small number of movies on DVD. It has many more on tapes, including some that competitors have on DVD, and on these particular movies, Movie Tapes outsells its competitors. Is this also a small number of movies, the specific movies that Movie Tapes has on VCR and competitors have on DVDs? We don't know. Did those competitors have those movies just on DVD, or did the competitors also have the VCR versions of those movies? We don't know. Is there a preference in that town for VCR? If people there have a choice, do they go out of their way to get a copy of a movie on a VCR, rather than on a DVD? That's possible, and that certainly would weaken the answer, but this is tenuous at best. (C) is not logically tight as an OA--it could work, but it's not a clear winner.

(D) A month before the campaign began, the public library started buying videocassettes to lend.
OK, great. Where are they buying the VCR tapes? Is the library buying them from Movie Tapes, or it is buying them from, I don't know, some Library Supply House that provides materials to libraries at cheaper costs? In American culture, it would be highly unusual for a public library to buy books or other materials from businesses in town hoping to sell these materials at a profit. Libraries tend to get their supplies from state agencies or non-profit sources. Of course, there is no way the GMAT would expect non-Americans to have this kind of detailed knowledge of how American public libraries function. This answer is incorrect because the place of purchase is not specified, but this would be far more obvious to someone who grew up in America.

As someone who writes questions professionally, I would give this question a grade of an F. The premise is interesting, although a little out of date, but the question is poorly designed, and there's no rigorous right answer. Sometimes, the questions that generate endless discussion and debate on GMAT Club are the poorly written questions--there's a lot to debate, precisely because the question is fundamentally unclear.

Here's a high quality CR practice question:
The element ytterbium increases

Does all this make sense?
Mike

KAPLAN OFFICIAL SOLUTION:

Correct Choice: (C)

To cast doubt on the argument’s conclusion, we should tr y to undermine the assumption(s) linking it to the evidence. In this case, the author seems to be assuming that the only reason for the store’s success is its publicity campaign. Choice (C) undermines this assumption, by suggesting that Movie Tapes has succeeded because it sells movies not available in DVD format.

Choice (A) would make DVDs more attractive, but would not provide an alternate explanation (other than the publicity campaign) for Movie Tapes’ sales success. Thus it is incorrect.

Choices (B) and (D) suggest that the school system and the library, respectively, are potential buyers of videocassettes, but we don’t know that either of them alone could account for Movie Tapes’ tremendous sales, or that they bought only from Movie Tapes.

Choice (E) neither strengthens nor weakens the argument, and so is irrelevant to this argument.

I got spooked by "the store", which I thought referred to MovieClips. I mean sure MC may not have a big collection on DVDs since its primarily selling videocassettes. But other stores could have a huge collection? Thats how I eliminated C.

I mean how do I prevent from getting spooked like this? The stimulus does not say MC "only" sells VCs.

mikemcgarry GMATNinja GMATNinjatwo

But we are talking of the same movies. Doesn't option C just contradict the premise?

P:- After six months in business, Movie Tapes found that its sales had doubled — in fact, it had sold twice as many copies of movies on tape as all the other stores in town had sold on DVD of the same movies.

Option C: Only a very small number of the movies the store sells are available on DVD.

Even if stores keep less DVD's but here we are comparing the same movies that are available in 2 formats.

I feel that option C is flawed.

Experts? Any take on this???

Did anyone else misinterpret answer choice C to mean that out of all the movies sold at the store, only a small number of them were available as DVD as opposed to tapes?

Poor poor poor question and options

Like many others, I too eliminated C because high proportion of movies on videocassettes for THIS PARTICULAR store does not help us know how it DOUBLED the sales of movies on dvd from OTHER stores.

Thanks mikemcgarry for confirming that choice C could not be a good answer, otherwise I would have doubted my reasoning and would have ended up scratching my head for no reason.

A) DVDs include special features that enhance the viewing experience.
This doesn't address the the advertisement campaign and it's impact

B) The local school system uses only VCRs in the classroom.
The demoggraphic of the school is unknown therefore we cannot comment on the same

C) Only a very small number of the movies the store sells are available on DVD.
This will undermine the conclusion since not because of the advertisement campaign did better but only because of them being compatible and DVDs incompatible lead to the increase in sales

D) A month before the campaign began, the public library started buying videocassettes to lend.
Similar reasoning as B

E) Neither the price of DVDs nor that of videocassettes has risen in two years.
This further lends support to the advertisement campaign
Therefore IMO C

Maybe there is a typo on answer C “Only a very small number of the movies the store sells are available on DVD.” It should say stores sell instead of store sells.