A particular store has various cell phones in stock. Of all cell

Question

A particular store has various cell phones in stock.

Of all cell phones in stock: 
 
 Most are sold at a discounted price if purchased with a new or renewed service contract. 
 More are dial pad phones (phones with integrated mechanical pads for entering numbers) than are touch screen-only phones (phones without integrated mechanical pads for entering numbers).

Of the dial pad phones: 
 
 Most have screens smaller than 8 centimeters (cm), measured diagonally. 
 Most are packaged with two or more accessories.

Of the touch screen-only phones: 
 
 Most have screens 8 cm or larger. 
 Most are packaged with two or more accessories.

Statement to be completed: Given the information regarding the cell phones in stock at the store, it follows that, of those that ___1___, fewer than half ___2___.

Based on the information provided, select for 1 and for 2 the options that most accurately complete the statement above. Make only two selections, one in each column.

KarishmaB · Accepted Answer

This question shows why TPAs can be tough (though in reality, this one is relatively straight forward). When the two parts are inter-dependent, they can be quite tricky.

We are given that of the touch screen-only phones, most are packaged with two or more accessories. It means fewer than half are packaged with fewer than two accessories.

Select     are touch screen-only phones ,  are packaged with fewer than two accessories

But the problem often is from where to start. We have too many possibilities (5C2 * 2).

Why is the following wrong?

Of those that  are available at a discounted price with a service contract , fewer than half are  touch screen-only phones .

Of all cell phones in stock:  
 
    Most are sold at a discounted price if purchased with a new or renewed service contract.    
    More are dial pad phones (phones with integrated mechanical pads for entering numbers) than are touch screen-only phones (phones without integrated mechanical pads for entering numbers).

Say there are 100 phones in stock. 80 are discounted with contract, 20 are not. Also, say 60 are dial pad and 40 are touchscreen.

Of those that  are available at a discounted price with a service contract  (the 80 phones), 
fewer than half are  touch screen-only phones  (Why? We have 40 touch screen phones. It is possible that all 40 are available at discounted price with contract. Hence half of the 80 would be tough screen phone.)

I could further update the numbers.

Say there are 100 phones in stock. 80 are discounted with contract, 20 are not. Also, say 55 are dial pad and 45 are touchscreen. (still correct)

Now it is still possible that all 45 touch screen phones are discounted with contract. So of 80, 45 are touchscreen. So more than half could be touch screen too.

Hence this is wrong.

yashikaaggarwal · Answer

1) are touch screen-only phones have screens 8 cm or larger

2) are purchased without a service contract

3) are available at a discounted price with a service contract

4) are packaged with fewer than two accessories

Among all four statements, the one with service warranty can't be used as we don't know which of the mobile phone is more (more than 8cm screen size or less than 8cm screen size)

Statement 2: We know most are sold with service contract. So second statement is invalid because we have contradictory information as such given in passage.

Statement 3 : are available at a discounted price with a service contract. Let say this is the first statement what could be fewer than half in the other statement? Has fewer than 2 accessories? But what kind of phone it is? Information gap is in there. 
Are touch screen phone with 8cm screen or larger. But are they the least? Keypad ones could be in least number. No determining factor. 
Hence statement 3 is invalid.

Among last two, 1&4 statement. 
We can't use the statement "are packed with fewer than 2 accessories. What is packed? Which type? 
Hence first statement has to statement 1, and later is statement 4

Now checking validity. We know the shops have both phones. Some are 8cm screen touch phones rest are other. We don't have to check quantity, hence valid. 
Fewer than half have less than two accessories, is valid because it's stated that most are packed with two accessories.

Hence the answer is, 
of those that "are touch screen-only phones have screens 8 cm or larger", fewer than half "are packaged with fewer than two accessories".

P.S.  SajjadAhmad  kindly edit the OA, the statement 1 is til 8cm or larger. 
Thank you.

Posted from my mobile device

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

RO1

The task in this question is to find a characteristic held by fewer than half of a certain subset of the cell phones in stock at the store.

The first characteristic listed (A), are touch-screen-only phones, is held by fewer than half of all the phones in stock but not necessarily of any subset of those phones—since it is possible that more touch-screen-only phones than dial pad phones are available to be sold at a discounted price.

The second characteristic (B), have screens 8 cm or larger, is held by fewer than half the dial pad phones, but that subset is not one of the options available. It is not possible to make a determination about the third characteristic (C), are purchased without a service contract, because there is no information about purchases—only the phones that are available at the store.

The fourth characteristic (D), are available at a discounted price with a service contract, is held by most phones in stock. There is no indication that it is true of fewer than half of any subset.

The fifth characteristic (E), are packaged with fewer than two accessories, is held by fewer than half dial pad phones and also true of fewer than half touch-screen only phones. It is not necessarily held by fewer than half of any subset of those phones, however. (For example, most touch-screen-only phones have screens 8 cm or larger, but it does not follow that fewer than half of those phones are packaged with fewer than two accessories; more than half of them could be packaged this way, and that characteristic would still be held by less than half of all touch-screen-only phones.) Therefore, the subset that fits the criteria is are touch-screen-only phones (blank #1), and the characteristic that is true of fewer than half of those phones is are packaged with fewer than two accessories (blank #2).

The correct answer is are touch-screen-only phones.

RO2

As explained in the analysis of RO1, the only characteristic listed that is true of fewer than half touch-screen-only phones is are packaged with fewer than two accessories.

The correct answer is are packaged with fewer than two accessories.

bboi2000 · Answer

Hi  KarishmaB  Ma'am (CC:  MartyMurray ,  GMATNinja  ) as you have pointed out that the problem with this type of TPA is where to start, can you give me some idea on a general approach to these kind of questions, I feel like sometime I am lucky but some time I am spending too much time on them. But what I am usually doing is going over all the option once and just see if something clicks or makes sense.

MartyMurray · Answer

There are a few approaches we can use with this type of question.

One is to start by getting the general idea of what's going on and what the sentence is meant to convey and then scan the answer choices to, as you suggested, see whether something clicks. Often, this approach works, in which cases we can quickly answer the question.

However, in other cases, we don't see the answer that way. So, we have to take things to another level.

One way to do so is to more fully analyze the relationship between the two blanks to get a clearer idea of how the two correct answers must work together and thus narrow down the possible choices.

For instance, in this case, we have the following:

of those that ___1___, fewer than half ___2___

Notice that, since the answer in blank 2 has to be "of those" named by the answer in blank 1, the answer that fills blank 2 has to be a subcategory of what appears in blank 1. Therefore, we can narrow down our choices for blank 1 and 2 to pairs such that one is a subcategory of the other.

At that point, we have a clearer idea of what we're looking for and we may quickly find the answer by doing some pairing of choices.

If that approach isn't sufficient, at that point, we are stuck pairing each choice with each other choice in a systematic and organized way. This final approach can be somewhat time consuming, but if we're organized, we can do it fairly quickly and will likely find the answer if we're clear about how the answers have to work together.

KarishmaB · Answer

In such recursive TPA (where you have 20 or sometimes even 25 or so options) I suggest my learners to skip and come back if they have extra time at the end. There may be some hints here which you will find after evaluating all the data or there may not be and you may need to try out many options - not worth the time in the first go.

bboi2000 · Answer

Thanks  MartyMurray , helps a lot!!

bboi2000 · Answer

Thank you Ma'am, for sure will help save time!

A particular store has various cell phones in stock. Of all cell

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1	2
		are touch screen-only phones
		have screens 8 cm or larger
		are purchased without a service contract
		are available at a discounted price with a service contract
		are packaged with fewer than two accessories

GMAT Two-part Analysis (TPA) Questions

A particular store has various cell phones in stock. Of all cell

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