Jorge travels to meet once daily with exactly six clients, Clients A

Question

Jorge travels to meet once daily with exactly six clients, Clients A through F. When scheduling these meetings, Jorge schedules the most urgent meeting to be the first of the day and then schedules each subsequent meeting according to which client is the least distance from the meeting immediately prior to it. The table shows the distances between Jorge’s clients.

Number of Kilometers between Clients 
    Client    A    B    C    D    E    F     A  0  7  3  4  2  1    B  7  0  2  15  17  4    C  3  2  0  3  18  6    D  4  15  3  0  12  7    E  2  17  18  12  0  9    F  1  4  6  7  9  0

On Tuesday, Jorge’s most urgent meeting will be with Client E. For each of the following pairs of clients, select  Yes  if Jorge will schedule meetings with the given clients in the given order. Otherwise, select  No .

ID: 100471

Sajjad1994 · Accepted Answer

Official Explanation

The information provided indicates that Jorge’s first meeting (his most urgent of the day) will be with Client E and that he will schedule meetings with each other client in order based on proximity to the previous meeting. From Client E, the closest client is Client A (2 km). From Client A, the closest client is Client F (1 km). From Client F, the closest client is Client A, but that meeting would be scheduled to take place immediately after the meeting with Client E, so among the remaining clients, Client B is closest to Client F (4 km). From Client B, the closest remaining client is Client C (2 km). After Client C, only Client D remains, so the client meetings would be scheduled in the following order: E, A, F, B, C, D. Therefore, Jorge will schedule the meeting with Client B to be immediately before that with Client C.

The correct answer is Yes.

Based on the explanation above, the meeting with Client C would be scheduled to immediately precede the meeting with Client D.

The correct answer is Yes.

Based on the explanation above, the meeting with Client A would be scheduled to be the second of the day and the meeting with Client D would be scheduled to be the last among the six.

The correct answer is No.

vv65 · Answer

First E, so we have E-2-3-4-5-6

Check E's row (or column). A is closest. 
So we have E-A-3-4-5-6

Check A's row. Ignore E-A. 
F is closest. So we have E-A-F-4-5-6

Check F's row. Exclude E-A-F. 
B is closest. So we have E-A-F-B-5-6

Check B's row. Exclude E-A-F-B. 
C Is closest. So Jorge's full schedule is E-A-F-B-C-D.

Now check the answer choices 
Client B then Client C - Yes
Client C then Client D - Yes
Client D then Client A - No

Posted from my mobile device

suchita2409 · Answer

Yes 
No
No

Client D is @less distance than Client C.

Am i wrong?
OA says different answer.

Posted from my mobile device

Apt0810 · Answer

So here we can try the permutations and combinations on our own to see how the path is formed

We have to always follow the logic :

John schedules each subsequent meeting according to which client is the least distance from the meeting immediately prior to it.
 
So here first John goes to E

Now from E ,then from E the closest client is A with a distance of 2,so John will go to A,next from the closest point is F with a distance of 1,so John will go to client F,

Now from F,again the closest is A,but he already met A,so the next closest in the list is B with a distance of 4 ,so from F John will go to B

Now from B,the closest is C with a distance of 2,so John will go to C

Now from C,the closest is B,but John has already met B,so he will go to D(at a distance of 3 from C),so John will go to D.

Now from D,John will not go to A,since he already met A.

So the answers are Yes,Yes,No

bM22 · Answer

Hi  SajjadAhmad , could you share the official explanation, I am not able to come to Yes for the second one.

thanks.

Fish181 · Answer

For part 2, 18 miles is farther away than 12 miles? Therefore it should be D then C, no??

chetan2u · Answer

Fish181

You are going wrong in measuring distances. The distances has to be measured from the last client visited.

So we start with E. 
1. Scan for all the distances to the remaining clients from E. Closest is A, 2 km away. 
2. From A, scan the distances to the remaining clients less E from A. Closest is F, 1 km away. 
3. Now, he is with F and the closest is B, 2 km away. 
4. From B, C is 3 km away 
5. Finally, D is 3 km from C.

Thus, the clients visited are E-2-A-1-F-4-B-2-C-3-D. 
# Client B then Client C - Yes
# Client C then Client D - Yes
# Client D then Client A - No

On a lighter and logical note, B to D is 15 km while B-C-D is just 5 km. Why would someone call B-D as direct route when a route one-third the length is available.

Gemmie · Answer

Most urgent: E

1. Sort by E => A is closest

2. Sort by A => F is closest

3. Sort by F => B is closest (since already met A)

4. Sort by B => C is closest

5. Last is D

1. Client B then Client C => Yes

2. Client C then Client D => Yes

3. Client D then Client A => No

micahman · Answer

yipmewmew · Answer

Am I the only one who immediately didnt get that the question wanted me to chart Jorge's path? Its written in such a confusing manner for such an easy question. I thought all the question was asking from me was to check the options in isolation. It got right by fluke but still a wrong approach is a wrong approach.
Want to ask experts how to tackle DI when language gets in the way  KarishmaB   GMATNinja   MartyMurray

KarishmaB · Answer

The wording seems ok. At most, perhaps putting down "on Tuesday" at the end of second sentence would make it clearer but otherwise, I think it works.

On Tuesday, Jorge’s most urgent meeting will be with Client E. For each of the following pairs of clients, select Yes if Jorge will schedule meetings with the given clients in the given order "on Tuesday."

GMATNinja · Answer

Sorry that I'm late to the party, but for whatever it's worth: I completely agree with Karishma here. (Hi, Karishma!) The wording is sometimes a bit murky by design on DI, but there really aren't many ways to interpret this prompt. We get a full paragraph about Jorge's scheduling. Then we're asked specifically about the order of Jorge's meetings. But your question is an important one in general, because you're almost certainly going to encounter questions whose language is either unclear or ambiguous, and you'll need a game plan. So here's what we suggest: Read the prompt twice. Carefully. If something is still ambiguous, see if you can arrive at a reasonable interpretation. (In this question, you might think, "well, they're asking me specifically about Jorge, so I guess I need to determine the order of his meetings.") If you can, great. You're not going to be certain that your interpretation is the correct one, but that's the nature of the beast. We don't get perfection or certainty in life or on the GMAT DI section.

If after multiple readings, you still have no idea what the question is asking for and can't arrive at any reasonable interpretation, just run away. If you have time to come back and tackle the question again with fresh eyes, great. If not, well, the odds of answering the question correctly aren't great, so your time is better spent elsewhere. For a whole lot more on potentially ambiguous language and other elements of DI, check out this DI video playlist (filmed live) or this stack of DI videos (NOT filmed live). I hope that helps!

sutharpralhad · Answer

I approached it by creating the Tuesday's complete day schedule of meetings ,

E-A-F-B-C-D ( WITH RESPECTIVE ROWS and not repeating the clients )

Then We can answer easily within one minute ( YYN)

ManifestDreamMBA · Answer

Same here, I was thinking of all scenarios. For e.g. if C is the most urgent then meeting with B will come later. I have seen sometimes GMAT wordings can get confusing. May be will get better with practice.

ShubhadeepB · Answer

In this question, it would be prudent to chart Jorge's route of meeting. E, being the most urgent, is scheduled first. Afterwards, the next meeting will be scheduled for the client whose distance is the least from client E. So, the next client Jorge will meet is A. Based on this logic, Jorge's route will be  E - A - F - B - C - D . The first two orders are correct while the last one is wrong.

ndwz · Answer

Hi  Bunuel ,  GMATNinja  or anyone who can please help me answer this doubt - so I got the correct order, and I got the correct answer as well. However, I was looking at another variation of this question from a different source and one of the options was "A followed by B". I marked it yes thinking that yes B comes after A, but it was wrong. Is it because in GMAT context X followed by Y means that Y is immediately after X? In this case the order is E->A->F->B->C->D. I guess F is in between A and B so technically it is false - just wanted to check the meaning of A followed by B in GMAT context, thank you!

kk166 · Answer

1. Start with Client E (most urgent).
Distances from E:
 
 To A: 2 
 To B: 17 
 To C: 18 
 To D: 12 
 To F: 9  
✅ Nearest is  A (2 km)  → next is A.
2. Now at A. Go to nearest client not yet visited.
Distances from A:
 
 To B: 7 
 To C: 3 
 To D: 4 
 To F: 1  
(A → E already done)
✅ Nearest is  F (1 km)  → next is F.
3. Now at F.
Distances from F:
 
 To B: 4 
 To C: 6 
 To D: 7  
✅ Nearest is  B (4 km)  → next is B.
4. Now at B.
Distances from B:
 
 To C: 2 
 To D: 15  
✅ Nearest is  C (2 km)  → next is C.
5. Now at C.
Only one left is  D .
✅ Go to  D .
 
✅ Final order:
 E → A → F → B → C → D

1.  Client B then Client C? 
Yes 
2.  Client C then Client D? 
Yes 
3.  Client D then Client A? 
No

Jorge travels to meet once daily with exactly six clients, Clients A

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