A and B are nonzero integers, is A < 5B?

VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL SOLUTION:

The momentum is all toward answer choice A. Statement one can be rephrased as “A < 5B” which mirrors the question stem and seems to be sufficient. Statement 2 does not seem particularly relevant. Who cares if B > 3? Well you should actually. Statement 1 can only be rephrased as “A < 5B” provided that B is a positive number. If B is a negative number then the inequality gets flipped and the statement becomes “A > 5B .”

The GMAT uses your desire to try to be clever against you. Mirroring the question stem is a great strategy on test day and statement 1 appears to be perfect for this technique. Statement 2 is also very carefully crafted. If the statement had said “B > 0” it would be too obvious that “positive and negative” number property is in play on this question. So instead they use the seemingly random “B > 3” but of course if B is greater than 3 it must be positive as well. So we know that B cannot be negative and therefore it is safe to rephrase statement 1 as “A < 5B.” Since we relied on statement 2 the correct answer is C rather than A. In my experience at least twice as many students choose answer choice A than choose C.