Accountant: A fellow accountant recently sent me an e-mail of advice

The stem tells us "a project always takes longer than one expects, even when one accounts for Hofstadter’s Law." So even when the accountant revises the projection to 8 months to account for Hofstadter's Law, the project will still take longer than he or she expects, and C is the answer.

What is the error in D?
My reasoning is
if the accountant accounted for that law he would not have set a time limit for a project as whatever time limit he sets time to require to complete project will always be more than that

The passage didn't mention any information indicated that the accountant has not accounted for Hofstadter’s Law
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nguyendinhtuong
oohhhh yes i made a stupid mistake....this helped thank you so much

I think you actually have a good point - rereading the problem, I think the question designer wants the answer to be C, but as the question is written, D is probably the most logical answer. There's a problem with the way the question is written, at least if C is meant to be right. The question stem says "if the statements above are true..." Well the two "statements above" are that "I received an email telling me something" and "I have revised my estimate". Hofstadter's Law itself is not one of the "statements" in the stem, so the question never tells us to assume the Law is a fact. That's a bit of a subtle point, but if a question began:

"Someone told me my bus will be late. If this statement is true..."

then the statement we're being asked to assume is true is that someone told me something about my bus. We're not being told one way or the other if the bus will actually be late - what the person told me could be right or wrong.

For C to be the correct answer, we need to assume Hofstadter's Law is a true fact. I think that's exactly what the question designer intended when they wrote the question, but interpreting the wording literally, that's not what the question says. And if we take the question literally, D then becomes a decent answer, and a very good answer if you insert the word "correctly": "The accountant has not correctly accounted for Hofstadter’s Law" is the right answer here, because had the accountant correctly accounted for the Law, he or she could only have said "the project will take longer than 8 months".

This question is a little bit tricky, or rather tries to obfuscate the readers. What the stimulus is basically saying is that even when you assume the worst and plan out more time to do a project, the project STILL will take longer then what you anticipate after considering potential delays. So I want to get an MBA and I initially think it will take a year, but then I consider H'S law and realize hey okay realistically it'll probably take 1.5 years then I would still be wrong because H's Law states that even after readjusting plans you still lack a realistic concept of how long something will take.

C

The statement "a maxim cautioning that a project always takes longer than one expects, even when one accounts for Hofstadter’s Law"
suggests that even if the accountant took Hofstadter’s law into consideration the audit will still take more time than projected(8 months)

therefore, answer is C

sometimes, strange patterns do appear in gmat prep, and it is still unknown that these patterns will be tested in the actual gmat.
In this question, C is correct obviously, but the question needs also to be modified to become an official question.

Accountant: A fellow accountant recently sent me an e-mail of advice that featured Hofstadter’s Law, a maxim cautioning that a project always takes longer than one expects, even when one accounts for Hofstadter’s Law. With that precept in mind, I have revised my initial projection of the time required for my audit of our company’s foreign accounts from six months to eight months.

If the statements above are true, which of the following do they best support?

A)The audit will take less than the projected eight months.

B)The audit will take the projected eight months.

C)The audit will take more than the projected eight months.
Indeed, it will take more and that is an answer to keep. What about E?

D)The accountant has not accounted for Hofstadter’s Law.

E) The audit is unlikely to be accurate.
If the project is indeed delayed, then the prediction of the audit is inaccurate since it will not be 8 months and therefore inaccurate.

C looks more specific, but what is inherently wrong with E?

Thanks,
A

Hi albertziade, I think I have an idea why E is wrong. This answer states that the audit itself will be inaccurate. It doesn't point out anything about the time required to finish the audit. There aren't any statements about the quality of the audit made in the passage.

Hope that helps

Answer could be A or B as well
Let's say initially I thot project would be completed in 5 months
Taking H law into account - 6 months
But I know how H law works so It will actually take 7 months , so I give a 8 months to be on a safe side.


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It can't be A or B.

The accountant plans eight months for the project. Because of H law, which is always true, the time required to finish the project will be longer than eight months. Consequently, it can take eight months or less, which precludes answers A and B.

Hi Masterscorp,

Good point, I read that and it is clear now.

Appreciate your feedback.
Best,
Albert

A. We can't infer this as it may take more than 8 months.

B. Not supported by the passage.

C. This is true as passage says even accounting for HF's law, the project may get delay.

D. We can't say this whether he accounted HF law of not.

E. Audit's accuracy is Out of scope.

Hence (C)
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Official solution

Solution: C

Begin this Inference question by making sense of Hofstadter’s Law, which states that a project has two potential dates of completion, both of which are inaccurate and premature: the initial estimate, and the revised estimate accounting for Hofstadter’s Law. Since the accountant gives an initial time and a revised time, both of them are presumably inaccurate and premature, so (C) is the best answer.

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