The president of a consulting firm analyzed the decisions made about

Question

The president of a consulting firm analyzed the decisions made about marketing by her clients and concluded that the decisions were correct only about half of the time.

The conclusion above depends on the presupposition that

(A) companies can be successful even when about half of the decisions they make about marketing prove to be wrong

(B) companies hiring her consulting firm make no more incorrect marketing decisions than do companies in general

(C) executives consistently making correct marketing decisions rarely enlist the aid of a consulting firm

(D) marketing decision are just as likely to be correct as they are to be incorrect

(E) it is possible to classify a marketing decision properly as being either right or wrong

LordStark · Accepted Answer

Pre-thinking:In what scenario the conclusion made by the consulting firm is wrong. 
1. what if it was not possible to clearly define a decision as correct or incorrect. Assumption: It is possible to define a decision as correct or incorrect.
2. what if consulting firm's criteria for defining correct or incorrect was not along the lines of what the clients criteria is. Assumption: The consulting firm's criteria for defining correct or incorrect decision matches the criteria of its client.

(A) companies can be successful even when about half of the decisions they make about marketing prove to be wrong. Irrelevent. We are not concerned about success of the company

(B) companies hiring her consulting firm make no more incorrect marketing decisions than do companies in general Irrelevent

(C) executives consistently making correct marketing decisions rarely enlist the aid of a consulting firm. Irrelevent

(D) marketing decision are just as likely to be correct as they are to be incorrect. irrelevent

(E) it is possible to classify a marketing decision properly as being either right or wrong correct

gmat1393 · Answer

+1 for E Negating E shatters the conclusion "the decisions were correct only about half of the time". A question similar to this one https://gmatclub.com/forum/cr-a-teacher ... 38329.html

Hesham123 · Answer

(E), during prethinking the assumption, I questioned whether the president already knows the objectives for which the decisions where made in order to evaluate them!

Also Negation test shatters the conclusion.

suhanisinghal · Answer

hello sir/maam,
i was quite confused between d and e..even though e is the right answer..why cant B be the underlying assumption to this?

venkateshradiant · Answer

CORRECT AND INCORRECT, RIGHT AND WRONG HAVE SAME MEANING? THE QUESTION MENTIONS 'CORRECT' AND THE CHOICE E MENTIONS RIGHT AND WRONG. ARE WE SAFE TO ASSUME BOTH ARE SAME.

LunaticMaestro · Answer

Option D implies that "anything can be everything" to put simply, decision X can be both correct and incorrect at same time, but the option is contradiction to the consultants opinion that the companies' decisions were correct half of the time.

bronaugust · Answer

The president of a consulting firm analyzed the decisions made about marketing by her clients and concluded that the decisions were correct only about half of the time.
 
To solve this question, we shall adopt the    IMS's four-step technique   .

STEP #1  -> IDENTIFY THE QUESTION TYPE BY READING THE QUESTION STEM

The stem states, 'The conclusion above depends on the presupposition that'; we are clearly dealing with an assumption question. Now that we have identified the question type, we may proceed to the second stem.

STEP #2  -> DECONSTRUCT THE ARGUMENT

In an assumption question, it is a must to deconstruct the argument by figuring out the conclusion and the premise.

CONCLUSION:   The decisions (made about marketing by her clients) were correct only about half of the time. (WHY/HOW SO? - Remember, the answer to this why or how will tell you what the premise is.)

PREMISE:   The decisions made about marketing were analysed.

STEP #3  -> FRAME A SHADOW ANSWER/KNOW WHAT THE RIGHT ANSWER SHOULD BE DOING

In an assumption question, the right answer must bridge the gap between the conclusion and the premise. The argument makes it clear that the analysis done by the president led to her arriving at the claim, meaning it is possible for marketing decisions to be categorised as either correct or incorrect by doing an analysis. This is the unstated evidence or the presupposition/assumption. We shall now eliminate all answer options that either go beyond the scope of the argument or in no way make a difference to the argument.

(A) companies can be successful even when about half of the decisions they make about marketing prove to be wrong -   OUT OF SCOPE   -  The argument does not deal with the success of companies.  -    ELIMINATE

(B) companies hiring her consulting firm make no more incorrect marketing decisions than do companies in general -   OUT OF SCOPE   -  The comparison with other companies is irrelevant.  -    ELIMINATE

(C) executives consistently making correct marketing decisions rarely enlist the aid of a consulting firm -   OUT OF SCOPE   -   The argument does not deal with what executives making correct marketing decisions do.  -    ELIMINATE

(D) marketing decisions are just as likely to be correct as they are to be incorrect -   MAKES NO IMPACT   -  The argument deals with the decisions made by clients of a specific firm, so whether or not marketing decisions are just as likely to be correct as they are to be incorrect will have no impact on the president's argument.  -    ELIMINATE

(E) it is possible to classify a marketing decision properly as being either right or wrong -   BRIDGES THE GAP/MATCHES THE SHADOW ANSWER   -  If it was not possible to classify a marketing decision properly as being either right or wrong, the argument will fall flat, meaning what is stated in this option has to be the assumption of the author in order for the author to logically arrive at the stated conclusion.    -    MARK AND MOVE

Therefore, E is the right answer.

bronaugust · Answer

Yes. You should be focussed on idea matching, not word matching. Hope that helps!

rishabh1105 · Answer

The president of a consulting firm analyzed the decisions made about marketing by her clients and concluded that the decisions were correct only about half of the time.
The conclusion above depends on the presupposition that

Question stem - Ask us to find the assumption
Background - President of consulting firm analyzed the decisions 
Conclusion - Decision were correct only about half of the time
Assumption - ??

Assumption is the glue between premises and conclusion. If that glue is not present, the argument will fall apart.

(A) companies can be successful even when about half of the decisions they make about marketing prove to be wrong
Do we need to assume it? No. Even if company wasnt successful, the decisions could be wrong half of the times

(B) companies hiring her consulting firm make no more incorrect marketing decisions than do companies in general
Do we need to assume it? No. If her consulting firm make more incorrect marketing decisions that do companies in general. Here the topic of discussion is the company and the argument will still hold good.

(C) executives consistently making correct marketing decisions rarely enlist the aid of a consulting firm
Do we need to assume it? No. Even if they dont enlist consulting firm, the marketing decisions of the client can still be wrong

(D) marketing decision are just as likely to be correct as they are to be incorrect
Is it necessary to assume the probability of right or wrong is 50/50 . Even if probability is skewed and 80/20 still, there could be case when 50% of the decisions are incorrect.

(E) it is possible to classify a marketing decision properly as being either right or wrong
If this isnt true the argument will break. If it isnt possible to classify as right or wrong then how did the president make that conclusion.

The president of a consulting firm analyzed the decisions made about

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GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

The president of a consulting firm analyzed the decisions made about

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