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655-705 (Hard)|   Assumption|         
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MANASH94
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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 1): A survey of office managers who had 06 Jul 2026, 10:27
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From what I understood is that the arguement states that 12% of lasers printers needs servicing more than 1nce. 3% of Inkjets ever needs servicing. Conclusion is offices will have less disruptions if they use inkjets.
This assumes that its because of the type of printer used and not the usage of.

From this I can see:
A. Not correct: States about print quality.
B: Seems relevant and goes with my earlier assumptions.
C. Not Correct: Sample sizes are not relevant.
D. Not Correct: Even if servicing takes longer it has nothing to do with requirement of servicing.
E. Not Correct: When the printers were purchased is irrelevant.

IMO: B.

Bunuel
A survey of office managers who had acquired new printing equipment over the previous five years found that twelve percent of laser printers in use had needed servicing on more than one occasion, compared with just three percent of inkjet printers that had ever required any servicing at all. Offices that depend on uninterrupted access to printing should therefore expect far fewer workflow disruptions by choosing inkjet over laser printers.

Which of the following is an assumption the argument relies on?

(A) Inkjet printers do not produce noticeably lower print quality than laser printers for standard office documents.

(B) Offices that use laser printers are not far more likely to operate them at substantially higher print volumes over time than offices that use inkjet printers.

(C) At least as many offices in the survey had acquired laser printers as had acquired inkjet printers.

(D) Laser printers do not generally require longer periods of downtime for each service visit than inkjet printers do.

(E) Offices that acquired printing equipment within the past year are not far more likely to have chosen laser printers than offices that acquired equipment five years ago.

 


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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 1): A survey of office managers who had 06 Jul 2026, 10:27
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assumption here is connsidered that everywhere the survey was conducted everyone has both laser and inkjet printers. And the results are consolidated. I was initally confused between A and C because A caters to the fact that it is another assumption that there is not significant difference in the quality of the print between the two.

but C seems more plausible.
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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 1): A survey of office managers who had 06 Jul 2026, 10:28
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B. If Laser printers were over-used or used more frequantly at higher volumes in same period of time then their breakdown could be more frequent because of that fact.
Bunuel
A survey of office managers who had acquired new printing equipment over the previous five years found that twelve percent of laser printers in use had needed servicing on more than one occasion, compared with just three percent of inkjet printers that had ever required any servicing at all. Offices that depend on uninterrupted access to printing should therefore expect far fewer workflow disruptions by choosing inkjet over laser printers.

Which of the following is an assumption the argument relies on?

(A) Inkjet printers do not produce noticeably lower print quality than laser printers for standard office documents.

(B) Offices that use laser printers are not far more likely to operate them at substantially higher print volumes over time than offices that use inkjet printers.

(C) At least as many offices in the survey had acquired laser printers as had acquired inkjet printers.

(D) Laser printers do not generally require longer periods of downtime for each service visit than inkjet printers do.

(E) Offices that acquired printing equipment within the past year are not far more likely to have chosen laser printers than offices that acquired equipment five years ago.

 


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Above conclusion is true only when both printer worked approximately same amount of work
In a given time interval. Option B is perfectly matching.
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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 1): A survey of office managers who had 06 Jul 2026, 10:29
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Let's analyze the original argument -
P1: Correlation: Students who participate in chess have high math score.
P2: Goal - High Math score
Conclusion: The district should mandate chess for all students.

The Flaw: It may be that those that have high mathscore also are good chess players. The causation is one way not the other.

Looking into the options (D) also displays similar flaw.
P1: Correlation- Adults who run marathons have lower rates of heart disease
P2: Goal: reduce heart disease
Conclusion: Govt. should mandate marathons for all citizens.

The Flaw: It maybe that people who have healthy hearts participate in marathons. This has causation in one way but may not have in the opposite direction just like mathscore-chess story in the prompt.
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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 1): A survey of office managers who had 06 Jul 2026, 10:49
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The argument compares the servicing needed by two kinds of printers used in offices.
1. Laser printers
2. Inkjet printers

The statement A is correct because in order to compare the the two printers and the number of servicing required the output of both of them should be the same.
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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 1): A survey of office managers who had 06 Jul 2026, 10:56
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The argument assumes that because lower % of inkjet printers required servicing, inkjet printers will cause far fewer work flow disruptions.

The key GAP in the argument here is that the higher frequency of servicing for laser printers has nothing to do with the frequency of usage or that higher frequency of usage was NOT a contributing factor to the more laser printers requiring servicing.

*** A simpler parellel example to illustrate: if I use my car more often, there is higher chances that it would require MORE maintainence repairs than if I keep my car in the garage.

A Quality of print is out of scope the conclusion is about fewer workflow distruptions by using laser printers

B Correct: This says that laser printers were NOT being used more. Higher usage was not driving the higher servicing. Negation: if higher usage not was driving the higher servicing---> then the conclusion that ink jet printers would cause lower work flow disruptions would perish. What if inkjet printers were used at a higher frequency and then they would require even more servicing ?

C This is not a required assumption. if you negate i.e there were fewer offices that accquired laser printers. This doesnt impact the conclusion because the argument is based on a % and not on the absolute numbers of laser and ink jet printers accquired.

D Out of scope: Negation --> Laser printers do not require more periods of down time ? So what ? The question is about the frequency of servicing and not on the period of down time.

E Out of scope: Again the conclusion is drawn based on the % of laser printers requiring servicing. The higher probabilty of offices accquiring laser printers is irrelavant.

Bunuel
A survey of office managers who had acquired new printing equipment over the previous five years found that twelve percent of laser printers in use had needed servicing on more than one occasion, compared with just three percent of inkjet printers that had ever required any servicing at all. Offices that depend on uninterrupted access to printing should therefore expect far fewer workflow disruptions by choosing inkjet over laser printers.

Which of the following is an assumption the argument relies on?

(A) Inkjet printers do not produce noticeably lower print quality than laser printers for standard office documents.

(B) Offices that use laser printers are not far more likely to operate them at substantially higher print volumes over time than offices that use inkjet printers.

(C) At least as many offices in the survey had acquired laser printers as had acquired inkjet printers.

(D) Laser printers do not generally require longer periods of downtime for each service visit than inkjet printers do.

(E) Offices that acquired printing equipment within the past year are not far more likely to have chosen laser printers than offices that acquired equipment five years ago.

 


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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 1): A survey of office managers who had 06 Jul 2026, 11:11
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This looked a bit tricky and though option D was tempting, carefully looking at it I eliminated it. Got confused between C & E.
However, this is what i thought.
Conclusion : Since more % of laser printers need servicing compared to less % of inkjet, author states that offices depending on inkjet should expect less disruption compared to laser.

A- Print quality is out of scope of the argumnet
B- Again print volumes are not in scope. Also nowhere its mentioned in the argument regarding print volume comparison
C- Negating this statemnet., doesnt break the conclusion, even if the distribution of printers are differnt, doesnt explain why offices depending on inkjet should have fewer disruption
D-Negating the statements actually supports the conclusion, so out.
E-IMO this is correct since Negating this statement, offices chose laser hence more likely to face disruption.

Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong! Thanks.
Bunuel
A survey of office managers who had acquired new printing equipment over the previous five years found that twelve percent of laser printers in use had needed servicing on more than one occasion, compared with just three percent of inkjet printers that had ever required any servicing at all. Offices that depend on uninterrupted access to printing should therefore expect far fewer workflow disruptions by choosing inkjet over laser printers.

Which of the following is an assumption the argument relies on?

(A) Inkjet printers do not produce noticeably lower print quality than laser printers for standard office documents.

(B) Offices that use laser printers are not far more likely to operate them at substantially higher print volumes over time than offices that use inkjet printers.

(C) At least as many offices in the survey had acquired laser printers as had acquired inkjet printers.

(D) Laser printers do not generally require longer periods of downtime for each service visit than inkjet printers do.

(E) Offices that acquired printing equipment within the past year are not far more likely to have chosen laser printers than offices that acquired equipment five years ago.

 


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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 1): A survey of office managers who had 06 Jul 2026, 11:32
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Bunuel
A survey of office managers who had acquired new printing equipment over the previous five years found that twelve percent of laser printers in use had needed servicing on more than one occasion, compared with just three percent of inkjet printers that had ever required any servicing at all. Offices that depend on uninterrupted access to printing should therefore expect far fewer workflow disruptions by choosing inkjet over laser printers.

Which of the following is an assumption the argument relies on?

(A) Inkjet printers do not produce noticeably lower print quality than laser printers for standard office documents.

(B) Offices that use laser printers are not far more likely to operate them at substantially higher print volumes over time than offices that use inkjet printers.

(C) At least as many offices in the survey had acquired laser printers as had acquired inkjet printers.

(D) Laser printers do not generally require longer periods of downtime for each service visit than inkjet printers do.

(E) Offices that acquired printing equipment within the past year are not far more likely to have chosen laser printers than offices that acquired equipment five years ago.

 


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Data says 12% of laser printers broke down while only 35 of inkjets did.
The conclusion here is that inkjets are more reliable, so busy offices should buy them!
The flaw is that the author forgot to ask how much work these printers actually did.
and only option B talks about the amount of work here.
It basically says that laser printers weren't working way harder than inkjets. Now if we flip this option and say they worked way harder, the author's logic completely falls apart. If we put a little inkject through high-volume office work, it would likely break down constantly.

Why are others wrong?
option A - talks about print quality, it doesnt matter
option C - talks about how many printers were bought
option D - talks about repair time (downtime). It does not fix the mistake about why they broke down in the first place. Instead it gives us another reason to hate laser printers.
option E - talks about when they were bought over the last 5 yrs. The exact year doesn't change the fact that we don't know how much work they did.
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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 1): A survey of office managers who had 06 Jul 2026, 11:47
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Negate (B) : Offices using laser printers are much more likely to operate them at substantially higher print volumes

Now, the higher servicing rate could be entirely due to heavier use, not poorer reliability. The conclusion that inkjets will cause fewer workflow disruptions becomes much weaker.
Bunuel
A survey of office managers who had acquired new printing equipment over the previous five years found that twelve percent of laser printers in use had needed servicing on more than one occasion, compared with just three percent of inkjet printers that had ever required any servicing at all. Offices that depend on uninterrupted access to printing should therefore expect far fewer workflow disruptions by choosing inkjet over laser printers.

Which of the following is an assumption the argument relies on?

(A) Inkjet printers do not produce noticeably lower print quality than laser printers for standard office documents.

(B) Offices that use laser printers are not far more likely to operate them at substantially higher print volumes over time than offices that use inkjet printers.

(C) At least as many offices in the survey had acquired laser printers as had acquired inkjet printers.

(D) Laser printers do not generally require longer periods of downtime for each service visit than inkjet printers do.

(E) Offices that acquired printing equipment within the past year are not far more likely to have chosen laser printers than offices that acquired equipment five years ago.

 


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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 1): A survey of office managers who had 06 Jul 2026, 11:48
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Premise : A survey found that 12% of laser printers needed servicing more than once, while only 3% inkjet printed needed servicing.
Conclusion: Offices should expect fewer interruptions by choosing inkjet printers over laser printers
Logical gap: The servicing rate is blindly considered as the main reason for workflow disruption.

Analysing answer choices
A) We are not concerned about quality, just the interruptions.
B) If laser printers are used more heavily than inkjet ones, they would naturally need more services. Thus the survey would not prove that laser printers are unreliable. The usage rates of both printers need to be at par to be compared of their service rates. Hence this option is an assumption as it is a needed statement for the conclusion to hold good.
C) The argument considers percentages, not numbers. This is not required.
D) We are concerned about the frequency of serving rather than duration.
E) This is unrelated. We are not concerned about the purchase rate of printers.
Bunuel
A survey of office managers who had acquired new printing equipment over the previous five years found that twelve percent of laser printers in use had needed servicing on more than one occasion, compared with just three percent of inkjet printers that had ever required any servicing at all. Offices that depend on uninterrupted access to printing should therefore expect far fewer workflow disruptions by choosing inkjet over laser printers.

Which of the following is an assumption the argument relies on?

(A) Inkjet printers do not produce noticeably lower print quality than laser printers for standard office documents.

(B) Offices that use laser printers are not far more likely to operate them at substantially higher print volumes over time than offices that use inkjet printers.

(C) At least as many offices in the survey had acquired laser printers as had acquired inkjet printers.

(D) Laser printers do not generally require longer periods of downtime for each service visit than inkjet printers do.

(E) Offices that acquired printing equipment within the past year are not far more likely to have chosen laser printers than offices that acquired equipment five years ago.

 


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Option B

Argument
Option (A) - There is no mention of print quality so there is no stand for this statement
Option (C) - telling about the quantity and it does not necessarily rely on servicing , the major contention here is servicing that depends on the usage
Option (D) - the statement is not addressing an issue with service time , any service time causes disruptions
Option (E) - Past 1 year does not add to the statement
Bunuel
A survey of office managers who had acquired new printing equipment over the previous five years found that twelve percent of laser printers in use had needed servicing on more than one occasion, compared with just three percent of inkjet printers that had ever required any servicing at all. Offices that depend on uninterrupted access to printing should therefore expect far fewer workflow disruptions by choosing inkjet over laser printers.

Which of the following is an assumption the argument relies on?

(A) Inkjet printers do not produce noticeably lower print quality than laser printers for standard office documents.

(B) Offices that use laser printers are not far more likely to operate them at substantially higher print volumes over time than offices that use inkjet printers.

(C) At least as many offices in the survey had acquired laser printers as had acquired inkjet printers.

(D) Laser printers do not generally require longer periods of downtime for each service visit than inkjet printers do.

(E) Offices that acquired printing equipment within the past year are not far more likely to have chosen laser printers than offices that acquired equipment five years ago.

 


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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 1): A survey of office managers who had 06 Jul 2026, 12:01
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we need to know whether they were used for the same duration B
Bunuel
A survey of office managers who had acquired new printing equipment over the previous five years found that twelve percent of laser printers in use had needed servicing on more than one occasion, compared with just three percent of inkjet printers that had ever required any servicing at all. Offices that depend on uninterrupted access to printing should therefore expect far fewer workflow disruptions by choosing inkjet over laser printers.

Which of the following is an assumption the argument relies on?

(A) Inkjet printers do not produce noticeably lower print quality than laser printers for standard office documents.

(B) Offices that use laser printers are not far more likely to operate them at substantially higher print volumes over time than offices that use inkjet printers.

(C) At least as many offices in the survey had acquired laser printers as had acquired inkjet printers.

(D) Laser printers do not generally require longer periods of downtime for each service visit than inkjet printers do.

(E) Offices that acquired printing equipment within the past year are not far more likely to have chosen laser printers than offices that acquired equipment five years ago.

 


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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 1): A survey of office managers who had 06 Jul 2026, 12:13
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option C because we are comparing 2 values ( laser printer and inkjet printers) quantities at different rates hence we need to assume that it is taken at equal levels.
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A) print quality is irrelevant to discussion of disruptions of printers in operation.
B) a key assumption author makes in comparing the service rates of laser vs inkjet printers is that they have comparable workload. If we negate this option and say that 'offices using laser printers are far more likely to operate them at high print volumes compared to offices using inkjet printers', then if offices shift from laser to inkjet printer, it might actually lead to a higher disruption in workflow, since all we know is that inkjet printers have service rate of 3% under assumption of comparable workloads.
C) This is interesting. It seems a good choice b/c it talks about the sample size of laser being at least as big as inkjet. But the inferences drawn from sample survey can be statistically sound even with unequal sample size as long as both samples are large enough to be representative of respective populations. Secondly this option mentions atleast, if let's say sample size of laser printer was very close but lower than inkjet, it would still make the inference for population i.e. the conclusion of argument valid as long as it is large enough to be representative. So it is not a necessary condition for the sample size of laser to be atleast as big as inkjet printer for the conclusion to hold true.
D) Service visit is after disruption has already occurred. the downtime thereafter is irrelevant.
E) the survey was conducted for data over past five years. focus of argument is on how frequent printers need servicing. laser printers being chosen more or less frequently in the past year has no bearing on the underlying capability of the printer and thereby servicing needs.

Answer B
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My answer is (B)

After reading stimulus, we can guess that the argument is dependent on the assumption that both printers were used equally.

Analyzing options:

A) Quality is not relevant to the argument
B) Matches our presumption
C) Argument is giving % of Laser printers (12/100) and % of Inkjet printers (3/100), hence quantity is not relevant for comparison.
D) Conclusion depends on uninterrupted access that is less breakdown, hence downtime is not relevant.
E) We are not comparing last year with 5 years ago, again not relevant.
Bunuel
A survey of office managers who had acquired new printing equipment over the previous five years found that twelve percent of laser printers in use had needed servicing on more than one occasion, compared with just three percent of inkjet printers that had ever required any servicing at all. Offices that depend on uninterrupted access to printing should therefore expect far fewer workflow disruptions by choosing inkjet over laser printers.

Which of the following is an assumption the argument relies on?

(A) Inkjet printers do not produce noticeably lower print quality than laser printers for standard office documents.

(B) Offices that use laser printers are not far more likely to operate them at substantially higher print volumes over time than offices that use inkjet printers.

(C) At least as many offices in the survey had acquired laser printers as had acquired inkjet printers.

(D) Laser printers do not generally require longer periods of downtime for each service visit than inkjet printers do.

(E) Offices that acquired printing equipment within the past year are not far more likely to have chosen laser printers than offices that acquired equipment five years ago.

 


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Rishm
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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 1): A survey of office managers who had 06 Jul 2026, 12:43
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B is the correct answer. Remember if the volume is substantially greater in other printer than inkjet, then it will give more volume too which could break the conclusion, hence this assumption is required. Note if you use negation technique, this will be the correct answer.
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ga821
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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 1): A survey of office managers who had 06 Jul 2026, 12:45
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A : not talking about the quality
B : yes, if usage of laser is more than inkjet then it makes sense why it needed servicing more so by saying usage is not higher of one over the other, their conclusion stands true.
C : tricky, almost fell for it but even if they all had equal amounts of printer who is to say they were all used equally, hence not the complete or true assumption
D : not relevant
E : not relevant
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GlassChamp
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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 1): A survey of office managers who had 06 Jul 2026, 12:53
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Original Argument:
Premise: 12% of laser printers needed servicing more than once, while only 3% of inkjet printers needed servicing at all.
Conclusion: To avoid workflow disruptions, officers should choose inkjet printers over laser printers.

The argument ignores a crucial variable: usage.
What if laser printers need more servicing because they print higher volumes than inkjet printers?

So the assumption must be that usage differences are not the real explanation for the servicing difference.

(A) Regarding Print Quality: It is irrelevant to the workflow disruptions.
(B) Regarding Print Volume: Yes, this is the correct answer.
(C) Number of offices: It is also irrelevant. Since the comparison was in percentage in the premise, so the absolute number won't matter.
(D) Downtime duration: Laser printers do not require longer downtime. Using Negation technique, if laser printers require longer downtime, it would make the conclusion stronger. Hence, not the correct answer.
(E) Purchase time: Again irrelevant.

Hence, the correct answer is (B)
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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 1): A survey of office managers who had 06 Jul 2026, 12:53
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The question assumes that there are as many inkjects as lasers, thus, giving weightage to the percentages. Thus, answer is C.
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