The table shows a jazz critics rankings of the sixteen best jazz

Question

The table shows a jazz critic’s rankings of the sixteen best jazz albums.

Rank    Main artist    Title    Label    Style    Year     1  Miles Davis   Kind of Blue   Columbia  modal  1959    2  John Coltrane   A Love Supreme   Impulse!  avant-garde  1964    3  Charles Mingus   Mingus Ah Um   Columbia  soul jazz  1959    4  Dave Brubeck   Time Out   Columbia  West Coast  1959    5  Cannonball Adderly   Somethin' Else   Blue Note  hard bop  1958    6  Sonny Rollins   Saxophone Colossus   Prestige  mixed  1956    7  John Coltrane   Giant Steps   Atlantic  hard bop  1959    8  Art Blakely   Moanin'   Blue Note  hard bop  1958    9  Herbie Hancock   Maiden Voyage   Blue Note  modal  1965    10  Thelonious Monk   Brilliant Corners   Riverside  bebop  1956    11  Bill Evans   Waltz for Debby   Riverside  modal  1961    12  Keith Jarrett   The Köln Concert   Universal  free jazz  1975    13  Stan Getz, João Gilberto   Getz/Gilberto   Verve  bossa nova  1963    14  Eric Dolphy   Out to Lunch!   Blue Note  avant-garde  1964    15  John Coltrane   Blue Train   Blue Note  hard bop  1957    16  Louis Armstrong   Hot Fives & Sevens   Columbia  Dixieland  1928

For each of the following statements, select  Yes  if the statement is true based on the information provided. Otherwise select  No .

ID: 100325

Bismuth83 · Accepted Answer

Sure thing!

I believe that there might be some confusion as how to compare the chronology of "most" albums.

We can do this by considering the median. For Columbia, we have: 1928, 1959, 1959, 1959  \rightarrow  1959. For Blue Note: 1957, 1958, 1958, 1964, 1965  \rightarrow  1958.

3 Blue Note (most) albums were released before 1959 (1957, 1958, 1958), which means that most Blue Note albums weren't released later than most Columbia albums.

asmba · Answer

Yes - Sort by year - most recent hard bop style was released in 1959 by John Coltrane
No - Sort by year - 1 C (1928), 3 BN (1957, 1958 x2), BUT 3 C (1959) vs. only 2 BN (1964, 1965)
No - Sort by year - only 4 out 9 albums released during 1950s were hard bop style

chini · Answer

This question should be in the table analysis category, not the graphs category

Bunuel · Answer

Changed the tag. Thank you.

Nonbiryani · Answer

Hi, can someone please explain how we got the answer to Q2.

Nonbiryani · Answer

Thank you so much for your response!

jnxci · Answer

Hi! I'm one of those confusing people

Using the median seems like a logical way to get this one right, but I find it hard to get my mind around that idea. For example: - If we compare the bottom half of Columbia albums (1928, 1959 - still most) with the top three of Blue Note albums (1958, 1964 & 1965), we have the "YES" answer. - If we compare the latest dates of Columbia albums with those of Blue Note Albums, we have the "NO" answer Could you please point out the flaws in my thinking? Thank you

Bismuth83 · Answer

I agree with you that using the median is weird. I'm a little bit stuck on "If we compare the bottom half of Columbia albums (1928, 1959 - still most) with the top three of Blue Note albums (1958, 1964 & 1965), we have the "YES" answer." This part we wouldn't get any answer since you can't compare the two sets (1958 < 1959 but 1964 & 1965 are larger).

Think of this as 2 cases. We can consider each case and try to see if it'll work.
Case#1 is most Blue Note albums were released later than most Columbia albums. Here, we want to pick the newest majority of Blue Note albums and the oldest majority of Columbia albums. This would be sets (1958, 1964, 1965) and (1928,1959). However, they merge and thus the case won't work.

Case#2 is most Blue Note albums weren't released later than most Columbia albums. Here, we want to pick the oldest majority of Blue Note albums and the newest majority of Columbia albums. This would be sets (1957, 1958, 1958) and (1959,1959). These two sets don't merge and clearly match the inequality. So, this case works.

jnxci · Answer

Your case #1's description perfectly captures my predicament in the quotation. Only when I listed out the data just as you showed in case#2, I instantly recognized the right answer. It is strange but I guess its a good lesson to learn writing data out in order. Incidentally, do you think it's because the concept of time (release later), we must take the comparison with the most latest date (in order) of the released Columbia albums. 
For example, considering this alternative data set:
- Columbia Albums (1959, 1958, 1958, 1928) vs Blue Note Albums (1964, 1965, 1958, 1958, 1957)
Would the answer still be "NO" in this case?

p/s: it has been a very productive discussion with you. appreciate very much for your time

Hitesh0701 · Answer

Most of the Blue Note albums listed were released later than most of the Columbia albums listed.
Solution:
To answer this, please understand that we need to compare the timeline of both the albums listed.
Release year Album
1928 Columbia
1957 Blue Note
1958 Blue Note
1958 Blue Note
1959 Columbia
1959 Columbia
1959 Columbia
1964 Blue Note
1965 Blue Note

We can see that 3 Blue note albums were released prior to Columbia.
Hence, No.

Let me know if you didn't follow.

Bismuth83 · Answer

I see where you are going. When the question asks to compare the majority of 2 sets, there is no criteria given to pick the majority. So, we'd have to assume that if it works for a chosen 2 majorities then it fulfills the inequality.

In your example, I'd say that there isn't enough information to decide. Since you have 2 different band albums in the same year, you can't compare them and thus you can't compare the majorities.

shwetakoshija · Answer

Given:  A table listing a jazz critic’s rankings of 16 jazz albums, including each album’s main artist, title, label, style, and year of release.

To find:  For each statement, determine whether it is true based on the table.

Solution:

Statement 1 : The most recent hard bop album listed is a John Coltrane album.
 
 First, sort by “Style” and identify hard bop albums. There are 4 hard bop albums. 
 Compare their release years to find the latest year. The latest year among them is 1959. 
 Check the artist of the 1959 hard bop album. It is John Coltrane (Giant Steps).

Mark 'Yes'

Statement 2 : Most of the Blue Note albums listed were released later than most of the Columbia albums listed.
 
 Sort by Label. Identify all albums by ‘Blue Note’ and ‘Columbia’: Blue Note albums = 5, Columbia albums = 4 
 Note the year of release, one label at a time- Blue Note: three albums from 1957–1958, two from 1964–1965 and Columbia: three albums from 1959, one from 1928 
 If we consider the 3 Blue Note albums from 1957-58, they were released later than just one Columbia album. That is  not  MOST of Columbia albums. 
 Similarly, if we consider the two Blue Note albums from 1964-65, were released later than all Columbia albums. But this time it is  not  MOST of Blue Note albums.

Mark 'No'

Statement 3 : At least half of the albums listed as being released in the 1950s were in the hard bop style.
 
 Sort by Year and count albums from 1950–1959. There is a total of 9 albums. 
 Count hard bop albums within those 9. Total = 4. 
 Half of 9 would be at least 4.5 --- requires at least 5. Since only 4 are hard bop, the statement is false.

Mark 'No'

Correct Answer: Yes, No, No

Shweta Koshija  
  GMAT, GRE, SAT Coach for 10+ years

egmat · Answer

Hi jnxci,

Great question! You're really digging into the logic here, which is exactly the right approach.

The phrase  'Most of the Blue Note albums were released later than most of the Columbia albums'  requires a two-step check:

Step 1:  Determine what 'most of the Columbia albums' means as a benchmark. 'Most' means more than half. So a Blue Note album qualifies as 'released later than most Columbia albums' if it was released later than more than half of the individual Columbia albums.

Step 2:  Check whether more than half of the Blue Note albums pass that test.

Now let's apply this to your alternative dataset:

Columbia albums:   1928 ,  1958 ,  1958 ,  1959  ( 4  albums). To be 'later than most,' a Blue Note album must be later than at least  3  of these  4  — meaning it must be released after  1958 , so  1959  or later.

Blue Note albums:   1957 ,  1958 ,  1958 ,  1964 ,  1965  ( 5  albums). Which ones are later than  1958 ?
-  1957  → No (later than only  1  of  4 )
-  1958  → No (later than only  1  of  4 , since  1958  is not later than  1958 )
-  1958  → No (same reason)
-  1964  → Yes (later than all  4 )
-  1965  → Yes (later than all  4 )

So only  2  out of  5  Blue Note albums pass the test. Since  2  is  NOT  most of  5  (you'd need at least  3 ), the answer would still be  NO .

Key Takeaway:  You don't compare to the latest Columbia date — you compare each Blue Note album against the whole set of Columbia albums individually, checking if it beats more than half of them. Then you see if more than half of the Blue Note albums achieved that.  It's a  nested 'more than half' check .

Common mistake : comparing only against the single highest or median Columbia date, rather than checking each Blue Note album against all individual Columbia albums.

Answer: Yes, No, No

Adit_ · Answer

Question 2:
If you notice only 1964 one and 1965 of BlueStone clearly outshine that of Columbia, the remaining are stuck before 1959 and since Columbia has 3 years listed as 1959 you need to have values above 1959 to exceed the "most" category.
We only have two for BlueStone which is again not "most" it is 2/5 
Thus answer is NO.

The table shows a jazz critics rankings of the sixteen best jazz

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Rank	Main artist	Title	Label	Style	Year
1	Miles Davis	Kind of Blue	Columbia	modal	1959
2	John Coltrane	A Love Supreme	Impulse!	avant-garde	1964
3	Charles Mingus	Mingus Ah Um	Columbia	soul jazz	1959
4	Dave Brubeck	Time Out	Columbia	West Coast	1959
5	Cannonball Adderly	Somethin' Else	Blue Note	hard bop	1958
6	Sonny Rollins	Saxophone Colossus	Prestige	mixed	1956
7	John Coltrane	Giant Steps	Atlantic	hard bop	1959
8	Art Blakely	Moanin'	Blue Note	hard bop	1958
9	Herbie Hancock	Maiden Voyage	Blue Note	modal	1965
10	Thelonious Monk	Brilliant Corners	Riverside	bebop	1956
11	Bill Evans	Waltz for Debby	Riverside	modal	1961
12	Keith Jarrett	The Köln Concert	Universal	free jazz	1975
13	Stan Getz, João Gilberto	Getz/Gilberto	Verve	bossa nova	1963
14	Eric Dolphy	Out to Lunch!	Blue Note	avant-garde	1964
15	John Coltrane	Blue Train	Blue Note	hard bop	1957
16	Louis Armstrong	Hot Fives & Sevens	Columbia	Dixieland	1928

Yes	No
		The most recent hard bop album listed is a John Coltrane album.
		Most of the Blue Note albums listed were released later than most of the Columbia albums listed.
		At least half of the albums listed as being released in the 1950s were in the hard bop style.

GMAT Graphs and Tables (G&T) Questions

The table shows a jazz critics rankings of the sixteen best jazz

Prep Toolkit

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745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

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