Manufacturing technicians and engineers favor product teardowns, the

1. The information in the passage provides the most support for which of the following statements about what the salespeople reported having observed in relation to customer behavior (see highlighted text)?

A. The senior executives of the medical products company had previously been aware of what the salespeople reported having observed.
B. The salespeople, in reporting their observations, were focused primarily on generating new customer segments for the marketers.
C. The salespeople's observations called into question one of the engineers' assumptions about the design of the company's device.
This is the correct answer because as mentioned in the 3rd Paragraph the modular design was not as advantageous as assumed
D. The salespeople were themselves surprised by what they had observed.
E. In reporting as they did, the salespeople did not intend to advocate changes in the design of the company's device.

2. Which of the following actions does the passage most strongly suggest helped the medical products company lower the cost of manufacturing its electronic device?

A. Adding novel high-performance features to the product
B. Using the same electronic circuit board designs as its competitors
C. Ensuring that changes to the device were invisible to customers
D. Redirecting its marketing strategies
E. Scaling back the options given to customers
The modular design let customers select various options however after simplifying the design this option was taken away.

3. Based on the passage, it is most likely that the senior executives of the medical products company mentioned in the second paragraph

A. believed prior to implementing teardowns that the electronic circuitry of their device needed to be simplified
B. were unaware of the engineers' modular approach to the design of their device
C. had little experience with the successful implementation of teardowns
D. did not believe teardowns were bound to be unsupervised exercises for engineers or cost-cutting tactics by the purchasing department
The senior executives called engineers and people from the purchase department to foster new ideas.
E. were motivated to implement teardowns primarily by customer feedback

Can someone explain the answer to Q3?

My approach to solve 2
Please feel free to correct if need be

2. Which of the following actions does the passage most strongly suggest helped the medical products company lower the cost of manufacturing its electronic device?

A. Adding novel high-performance features to the product
=> not done, not mentioned, doesnt lower cost, eliminated
B. Using the same electronic circuit board designs as its competitors
=> not mentioned in the paragraph about modifying to competitors devices, therefore not strictly true eliminated
C. Ensuring that changes to the device were invisible to customers
=> (this is what i selected in my actual mock.) Purchasing team identified changes that would be invisible to customer but lower manufacturing cost. Making these changes reduced the costs. Ensuring the changes were invisible in itself didnt reduce costs. Or to eliminate this option we could argue, that if those changes were made and no effort was taken to ensure they would be invisible to the customer, we would still succeed in lowering costs. wrong
D. Redirecting its marketing strategies
=> Not talked about eliminate
E. Scaling back the options given to customers
=> this helped simplify board design. Therefore helped lower the manufacturing costs. Like in option C we cant argue that scaling back initself didnt reduce costs, but simplifying of the circuit board did. As the process of simplification of the board was equal to scaling back the customer option. Therefore correct.

­

Hi please can someone correct me if I'm wrong. I got it wrong at the beginning but finally I understood my errors.

2. Which of the following actions does the passage most strongly suggest helped the medical products company lower the cost of manufacturing its electronic device?

A. Adding novel high-performance features to the product
Nowhere in the passage the author talk about it, so we can eliminate this option.

B. Using the same electronic circuit board designs as its competitors
Same as option A

C. Ensuring that changes to the device were invisible to customers
"Seeing the products together allowed the purchasing department to quickly identify simple design changes that, while invisible to customers, significantly lowered manufacturing costs.
I'm not sure that changes to the device were invisible to customers was the strongest actions leading to reduction of cost. According to the passage, it's the identification of the design which led to lower the manufacturing costs.

D. Redirecting its marketing strategies
At the beginning I thought it's was the answer because of this part of the passage: "Yet the salespeople reported that customers rarely took advantage of the capability. The conversations ultimately led to simplifications in the product's circuitry, significantly lowering costs, and also helped marketers identify a new customer segment where the product might command a higher price."
For me this part was an inference of this options but as i was wrong. It was simply the consequence of the good implementation of the "teardown" not the strongest element leading the reduction of cost. Moreover i badly infer this option. Nowhere we talk about redirecting the strategy as a way to lower cost.

E. Scaling back the options given to customers
"Yet the salespeople reported that customers rarely took advantage of the capability. The conversations ultimately led to simplifications in the product's circuitry, significantly lowering costs"
So the reduction of options consequently leads to a scaling down of costs.­

Hi please can someone correct me if I'm wrong. I got it wrong at the beginning but finally I understood my errors.

2. Which of the following actions does the passage most strongly suggest helped the medical products company lower the cost of manufacturing its electronic device?

A. Adding novel high-performance features to the product
Nowhere in the passage the author talk about it, so we can eliminate this option.

B. Using the same electronic circuit board designs as its competitors
Same as option A

C. Ensuring that changes to the device were invisible to customers
"Seeing the products together allowed the purchasing department to quickly identify simple design changes that, while invisible to customers, significantly lowered manufacturing costs.
I'm not sure that changes to the device were invisible to customers was the strongest actions leading to reduction of cost. According to the passage, it's the identification of the design which led to lower the manufacturing costs.

D. Redirecting its marketing strategies
At the beginning I thought it's was the answer because of this part of the passage: "Yet the salespeople reported that customers rarely took advantage of the capability. The conversations ultimately led to simplifications in the product's circuitry, significantly lowering costs, and also helped marketers identify a new customer segment where the product might command a higher price."
For me this part was an inference of this options but as i was wrong. It was simply the consequence of the good implementation of the "teardown" not the strongest element leading the reduction of cost. Moreover i badly infer this option. Nowhere we talk about redirecting the strategy as a way to lower cost.

E. Scaling back the options given to customers
"Yet the salespeople reported that customers rarely took advantage of the capability. The conversations ultimately led to simplifications in the product's circuitry, significantly lowering costs"
So the reduction of options consequently leads to a scaling down of costs.??

Bunuel Please change the tag to Focus.

______________________
Added the tag. Thank you!

Hey!
Can someone explain Q1 and why C is a better option than E ?
Thanks

GMATNinja Bunuel

1. The information in the passage provides the most support for which of the following statements about what the salespeople reported having observed in relation to customer behavior (see highlighted text)?

The correct answer is: C. The salespeople's observations called into question one of the engineers' assumptions about the design of the company's device.

✅ Why C is correct:
The passage states:
This indicates that the salespeople’s report challenged the engineers' assumption that customers valued the product's modularity and options. Their observations thus called into question that design choice, making C the best-supported statement.

❌ Why the other options are incorrect:
A. "The senior executives of the medical products company had previously been aware of what the salespeople reported having observed."
→ There's no evidence in the passage that senior executives knew about the salespeople’s observations before the teardown session. The passage doesn’t say whether this was new or known information to them.
B. "The salespeople, in reporting their observations, were focused primarily on generating new customer segments for the marketers."
→ This misrepresents the sequence and focus. The salespeople’s reporting led to simplifications in circuitry and helped marketers afterward identify a new segment. The salespeople’s primary focus was not marketing—this was a result, not their intent.
D. "The salespeople were themselves surprised by what they had observed."
→ The passage says nothing about the salespeople being surprised. It just reports what they observed. So this is unsupported speculation.
E. "In reporting as they did, the salespeople did not intend to advocate changes in the design of the company's device."
→ Again, their intent isn't discussed. While their observation did lead to design simplification, the passage doesn't say what their intentions were when sharing their findings.


2. Which of the following actions does the passage most strongly suggest helped the medical products company lower the cost of manufacturing its electronic device?

The correct answer is: E. Scaling back the options given to customers

✅ Why E is correct:

The passage states:
This means that scaling back customer options (i.e., reducing modularity) led to simpler circuitry, which in turn lowered manufacturing costs. This is directly supported in the text, making E the best answer.

❌ Why the other options are incorrect:
A. "Adding novel high-performance features to the product"
→ The passage does not mention adding new features, and such an action would more likely increase costs, not lower them.
B. "Using the same electronic circuit board designs as its competitors"
→ The company was inspired by competitors’ configurations, but did not copy them directly. The key outcome was internal simplification, not duplication.
C. "Ensuring that changes to the device were invisible to customers"
→ This is mentioned in another context:
D. "Redirecting its marketing strategies"
→ The marketers identified a new customer segment, but this was a byproduct, not the action that lowered manufacturing costs.

3. Based on the passage, it is most likely that the senior executives of the medical products company mentioned in the second paragraph

The correct answer is: D. did not believe teardowns were bound to be unsupervised exercises for engineers or cost-cutting tactics by the purchasing department

✅ Why D is correct:

In contrast to the “many senior executives” who discourage teardowns or see them narrowly as cost-cutting or unsupervised engineer activities, the passage states:
This clearly implies that the senior executives at this company did not share the narrow, limiting view of teardowns. Instead, they saw teardowns as a collaborative, creative process, and actively facilitated them across departments.

❌ Why the other options are incorrect:
A. "believed prior to implementing teardowns that the electronic circuitry of their device needed to be simplified"
→ The need for simplification emerged during the teardown discussions, not beforehand. There's no indication they already believed this.
B. "were unaware of the engineers' modular approach to the design of their device"
→ There is no evidence the executives were unaware of the modular design. The passage doesn't say this.
C. "had little experience with the successful implementation of teardowns"
→ Again, no mention of their prior experience level is given. What’s described is a successful implementation, not how familiar they were before.
E. "were motivated to implement teardowns primarily by customer feedback"
→ There is no reference to customer feedback being a motivator. The teardown process was driven internally to spark innovation, not based on customer complaints or suggestions.