The table ranks the urgency of, and local expertise and resources for,

Question

The table ranks the urgency of, and local expertise and resources for, various actions a certain nonprofit environmental group is considering in order to address potential local effects of climate change. Higher numbers indicate greater urgency, greater amounts of expertise, and greater amounts of resources. Principle: When comparing any two actions, X and Y, if X ranks at least as high as Y by all three standards, and higher than Y by one or more standards, then X will take priority over Y.
    Action    Urgency    Local expertise    Local resources     1. Advise city on comprehensive plan  3  3  1    2. Assess watershed vulnerability to climate change  2  I  2    3. Create planning and discussion forum  3  1  1   
  4. Incorporate dimate change effects in habitat
restoration plans  2  2  1    5. Research dimate change impact on fishery
sustain ability  1  2  3   
  6. Restore tidal wetlands  2  1  1     ( Sort ↕  the table by clicking on the headers)

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

Firstly, this is an official question, and its wording is as good and precise as it gets.

Forget about X and Y. The highlighted part in the stem means that when comparing any two actions, if an action has at least as high standards as the second action in all three standards, and it surpasses the second action in one or more standards, then the first action takes priority over the second action.

We are comparing Action 4 with Actions 1, 2, and 3:

Action 1 has all three standards higher than Action 4. Hence, Action 1 will take priority over Action 4.

Action 2 does NOT have all three standards as high as and higher than Action 4: Local expertise for Action 2 is not at least as high as that of Action 4. Hence, Action 2 will NOT take priority over Action 4.

Action 3 does NOT have all three standards as high as and higher than Action 4: Local expertise for Action 3 is not at least as high as that of Action 4. Hence, Action 3 will NOT take priority over Action 4.

Hope it's clear.

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nazii · Answer

can someone help pls? In action 2 and 3 , they are greater in one category from action 4, so it seems they can take piorority, why answer is no?? I got confused!

Omkar_GMAT · Answer

Action 1 will take priority over 4 as numbers for Action 1 (Urgency 3, Local expertise 3 and Local resources 1) is greater than Action 4 (Urgency 2, local experise 2 and Local resources 1)

Action 2 might not take priorities as numbers for action 2 and action 4 are the same

Similarly action 3 might not take priority over action 4 as 3 has only one task which is greater in number whereas action 4 has 2 tasks greater in number

JoeAa · Answer

I am confused by action 3 since it's said - if X is higher than Y by one or more standards, then X will take priority over Y. Urgency of action 3 already higher than action 4 so why the answer is maynot

jack5397 · Answer

Firstly in  all the categories  ranking should match  atleast  and to make it apple to apple comparison.

Secondly in order to take priority it any one or more category ranking should exceed in order to take the priority.

So simply said it ranking should be similar in all three categories and higher in order to take the priority.

Hope this clarifies

JoeAa · Answer

Thanks for the reply and in that case does it mean the second line is totally irrelevant? 'higher than Y by one or more standards, then X will take priority over Y.'

or another scenario I could think of is when two categoryies having items rank the same, except for one and that determines the decision? Is that what you are trying to say?

jack5397 · Answer

Firstly in  all the categories  ranking should match  atleast  and to make it apple to apple comparison.

Secondly in order to take priority it any one or more category ranking should exceed in order to take the priority.

So simply said it ranking should be similar in all three categories and higher in order to take the priority.

Hope this clarifies

Thanks for the reply and in that case does it mean the second line is totally irrelevant? 'higher than Y by one or more standards, then X will take priority over Y.'

or another scenario I could think of is when two categoryies having items rank the same, except for one and that determines the decision? Is that what you are trying to say?

Yeah second line is irrelevant and just to make the question stem confusing.

In simple terms all the 3 categories need to have same ranking to qualify.

For e.g.

Action  Category - 1 Category - 2 
A-1.   2 3 
A-2.   3 3

In the above example A-2 will have priority over A-1. A-2 ranks are => A-1 ranks in both the categories.

Hope this helps.

Fish181 · Answer

Can someone say the directions in simple english? I think the difficulty of this problem stems from it being so convoluted in its description of the directions.

Jake7Wimmer · Answer

This is such a poorly written question in my opinion. How are we supposed to know that the comparison is from Action 4 (X) to either Action 2 or 3 (Y). The way the question is written it sounds like we are being asked if either action 2 or 3 would take action over action 4, and thus making action 2/3 the X variable and action 4 the Y variable.  Bunuel  any input or am I clearly missing something. (I am also disregarding the action 1 question as that is straight forward)

anushree01 · Answer

Language was a little difficult for me to understand.

cheshire · Answer

This is an official question and the wording, while it might seem confusing, is actually as logically sound as it could be. That being said, it's intentionally not a simple word structure and takes more effort to read.

anushree01

Language was a little difficult for me to understand.

ledzep10 · Answer

I think knowing what to take as X and what to take as Y is important because while comparing Action 2 with Action 4, if we consider 'Local Expertise' Action 2 (1) < Action 4 (2) and if we consider 'Local Resource' Action 2 (2) > Action 4 (1). Based on whether Action 2 is X or Action 2 is Y we can know whether it takes priority over Action 4 or not.

The table ranks the urgency of, and local expertise and resources for,

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Action	Urgency	Local expertise	Local resources
1. Advise city on comprehensive plan	3	3	1
2. Assess watershed vulnerability to climate change	2	I	2
3. Create planning and discussion forum	3	1	1
4. Incorporate dimate change effects in habitat restoration plans	2	2	1
5. Research dimate change impact on fishery sustain ability	1	2	3
6. Restore tidal wetlands	2	1	1

Will take priority over Action 4	Might not take priority over Action 4
		Action 1
		Action 2
		Action 3

GMAT Graphs and Tables (G&T) Questions

The table ranks the urgency of, and local expertise and resources for,

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards