Metro Research is moving into a new office space, configured as shown

Answer is 2.

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The problem is I faced in this one is I did't paid attention to the openings of the cubicles.
For instance A,B in adjacent to 121 only , similarly C,D is adjacent to to 120 only.

Can someone explain this one? I have no idea how the space could be assigned under statement 2?

If two more employees are assigned to Jamal, then Jamal would have 4 employees under him. To be adjacent, the employees must be in cubicles A, B, C and D in 119 and Jamal must be in office 121 and 120. This limits the potential workspace assignments if Jamal only had two employees. For example, Jamal could have been in office 115 and Atticus and May could have been in 116 and 114 respectively. However, with 4 employees now, Jamal can no longer be assigned office 115.

Hope this helps!

For question2, I just cannot quite understand its meaning
What does this sentence ‘ it would PREVENT some employees from being assigned workspace using the current rules’ mean???does it mean that if situation 1、2、3 established(which we select ‘yes’), then some employees ‘’cannot’’ obey the rules mention in the FIRST PARAGRAPH of the question?????(Each employee will be assigned exactly one workspace—an office or a cubicle—with no more than one employee per office or cubicle. Supervisors will not be assigned workspace in cubicles. If an employee has an immediate supervisor, the employee's office or cubicle must be adjacent to that supervisor's office.)

To khamdy71
What you said is the key point to answer question2, in these kind of question, we should reduce the variation as possible as we can, C is one with the most complex relationship, since C HAS RELATIONSHIP WITH L S E, ALSO C IS SUPERVISOR, SO THE ONLY TWO POSITION C CAN SIT IS OFFICE 120&121
So in situation1, if M P S need ‘office’ not ‘cubicle’, then we can try different situations below


please see attachment

Can anyone explain q2, statement 3 how we can Richard's resigning can be pertaining to the rules when there are no rules mentioned for the case resignation?

This question is so hard. I lost to much time trying to figure it out.

Okay, I think I have a simple way to think about question 2 of question 2.

Since Jamal already has 2 people under him, if he has 2 more, he will have a total of 4 people under him. That means that 4 people will have to be "adjacent" to Jamal. This FORCES Jamal to be in office 120. Two of his people in 190C&D, another person in 121 and another person in 117.

Now, took at what other supervisor has two people under them. Yup, Ciaran. Remember, the two people under Ciaran must be adjacent to Ciaran. So that FORCES Ciaran to be in 115 and for Ciaran employees (Salena and Elena) to be in 114 and 116. At this point in time, there are only 2 more available offices (111, 112). But remember, Ciaran has her own supervisor (Leila) that must be adjacent to Ciaran. Thing is, now Ciaran has nowhere to go since 111 and 112 are not adjacent to Ciaran's office (115). Therefore, Jamal having a total of 4 employees is not possible.

Since this one is a 50/50 chance of getting right, I would not put too much time into getting it right on the exam.

Someone leaving alleviates restrictions. That is always welcome and will always lead to something working like it always has in the past. If A is working and B removes a restrictive quality of A, B will also work.

Can someone help me understand how "Richard resigns his position at Metro Research." is NO? It is possible to assign workspace for everyone even if Richard resigns right?

Not sure if anyone else has shared this already, but there is an additional question under this data set now:


For each of the following pairs of employees, select Yes if, based on the information and workspace assignment rules provided, the two employees might be assigned offices 111 and 112. Otherwise, select No.

Yes/No Kim and Richard
Yes/No Jamal and Atticus
Yes/No Mei and Ciaran

Without more detailed information, how can we know this situation—Q2(1) Mei, Pablo, and Selena need offices because the projects they work on require the highest levels of security—has something to do with the rule—the employee's office or cubicle must be adjacent to that supervisor's office.

To wit, the fact that their jobs need the highest security level does not necessarily mean their offices/cubicles cannot be assigned next to their superviors'.

I just got this wrong on a practice exam, but now I see why. Leila supervises Pablo and Ciaran, and Ciaran supervises Selena and Elena. There is no way to arrange the employees such that Mei, Pablo, and Selena get offices and still have enough rooms to put everyone collectively under Leila adjacent to each other and satisfy the office requirement for the 3 workers (and 2 supervisors, don't forget the question stem states they can't be in cubicles) in question. If Selena needs an office, she and Elena have to bracket Ciaran, and Pablo and Ciaran have to bracket Leila (and Ciaran and Leila have to also be in offices).



The question is whether the item happening will prevent assignment of employees to workspaces; you are right, Richard resigning still lets everyone get assigned an office/cubicle. It doesn't prevent them being assigned, hence "No".

Excuse my French, but how the hell is anybody supposed to solve these two question within 3, or even 4 minutes? There's no way.... What's the point of even putting it on the test?

I would like to know the time it took you to solve this question. What should be the ideal time we should generally take to solve such questions?

This question is time consuming, is there structured approach on such question or is it hit and trial even if we start with most complex relationship?

Here is the thing about MSR questions - you must compile the data on your scratch pad as much as possible. Yes, it will take an extra couple of mins but it will ensure that you answer the questions correctly and quickly. Overall you may not end up spending more than 2.5 mins per question and that is great for MSR! 

So here is how I will make my notes as I read Tab 2: 

Supers - C, K, L J (x Cubicles)

Together:
A - J - M 
S - C - E 
P - L - C (I see a problem here as I write this. C must be surrounded by S and E but it must be next to L too. So there will be limited places for C)
R - K

Now I will focus solely on Tab 3 and look at the questions. 

Question 1. Based on the information and workspace assignment rules provided, how many employees are there, each of whom could be assigned to office 112?

112 has only one office adjacent to it. So none from the triplets above can possibly take that office. So A, J, M S, C, E P and L are out i.e. 8 people are out. There are total 10 people. So 2 (R/K) can take that office. 
Answer 2

Question 2. For each of the following situations, select Yes if, based on the information and workspace assignment rules provided, it would PREVENT some employees from being assigned workspace using the current rules. Otherwise, select No.

Mei, Pablo, and Selena need offices because the projects they work on require the highest levels of security.

Cubicles must be taken by reportees only (who are not supervisors too) so A-M and S-E must take the pair of cubicles. Hence J must be in 121 and C must be in 120 so that L can take 117. 
Hence S cannot be in an office. Hence, in this new situation, the given constraints cannot work. Answer YES.

Two additional employees are hired and will be supervised by Jamal.

J already has 2 reportees. With 4 reportees, J cannot be placed in any office along with C's restrictions. Answer YES.

Richard resigns his position at Metro Research.

If an employee reduces, an office/cubicle would become empty. That is not against any constraint. Answer NO.
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