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Vivek4Dadhich
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DS Question - How to know when to assume? 21 Oct 2022, 18:44
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Hi All,

Hope you're keeping well. For data sufficiency questions, how to know when to account for unwritten items and when to go with information?

Sample Question below:

The Financial News Daily has 25 reporters covering Asia, 20 covering Europe, and 20 covering North America. Four reporters cover Asia and Europe but not North America, 6 reporters cover Asia and North America but not Europe, and 7 reporters cover Europe and North America but not Asia. How many reporters cover all three continents (Asia, Europe, and North America)?

(1) The Financial News Daily has 38 reporters in total covering at least 1 of the following continents: Asia, Europe, and North America.

(2) There are more Financial News Daily reporters covering only Asia than there are Financial News Daily reporters covering only

So, in this question, I thought Statement 1 will not be sufficient since we don't know if there are any reporters who are NOT in any of the continents (set questions tend to focus on grouping and exclusions). But, here the answer is in fact Statement 1

So, there is my dilemma in DS Questions.

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DS Question - How to know when to assume? 21 Oct 2022, 19:08
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Hey, if you look closely in Statement 1, you will see that it's mentioned

The Financial News Daily has 38 reporters in total covering at least 1 of the following continents: Asia, Europe, and North America.

This part of the statement tells us that there are NO reporters who are not in any of the continents

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gmatophobia
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DS Question - How to know when to assume? 21 Oct 2022, 23:06
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Vivek4Dadhich

So, in this question, I thought Statement 1 will not be sufficient since we don't know if there are any reporters who are NOT in any of the continents (set questions tend to focus on grouping and exclusions).
Show more

We should not assume anything in GMAT. Any information that the test makers want us to infer would be stated in the question stem , and this applies both to quant and verbal.

For example, if its given that x is a integer, its is correct to assume that x will not be a fraction or an irrational number. But if its given that x is an number, its incorrect to assume that x is an integer.

With that, to answer your question -

In Statement 1, the statement mentions that

The Financial News Daily has 38 reporters in total covering at least 1 of the following continents: Asia, Europe, and North America

This means among the 38 reporters that Financial News Daily has, there is no reporters who do not cover any of the three continents.

Hence statement 1 is sufficient.
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DS Question - How to know when to assume? 23 Oct 2022, 16:56
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I think all information is available in the original prompt..

Statement 1 is sufficient in that it provides the only remaining information ie, the count for the null set = 0.
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DS Question - How to know when to assume? 24 Oct 2022, 04:26
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av1901
Hey, if you look closely in Statement 1, you will see that it's mentioned

The Financial News Daily has 38 reporters in total covering at least 1 of the following continents: Asia, Europe, and North America.

This part of the statement tells us that there are NO reporters who are not in any of the continents

Posted from my mobile device
Show more

Thanks for replying, got the message - and yes, I need to read the questions carefully and thoroughly,
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DS Question - How to know when to assume? 24 Oct 2022, 04:27
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Vivek4Dadhich

So, in this question, I thought Statement 1 will not be sufficient since we don't know if there are any reporters who are NOT in any of the continents (set questions tend to focus on grouping and exclusions).

We should not assume anything in GMAT. Any information that the test makers want us to infer would be stated in the question stem , and this applies both to quant and verbal.

For example, if its given that x is a integer, its is correct to assume that x will not be a fraction or an irrational number. But if its given that x is an number, its incorrect to assume that x is an integer.

With that, to answer your question -

In Statement 1, the statement mentions that

The Financial News Daily has 38 reporters in total covering at least 1 of the following continents: Asia, Europe, and North America

This means among the 38 reporters that Financial News Daily has, there is no reporters who do not cover any of the three continents.

Hence statement 1 is sufficient.
Show more

Thanks for that detailed revert. Will internalize this note - 'Nothing should be assumed in GMAT, all information is given in question stem"
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DS Question - How to know when to assume? 24 Oct 2022, 06:47
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Vivek4Dadhich
Hi All,

Hope you're keeping well. For data sufficiency questions, how to know when to account for unwritten items and when to go with information?

Sample Question below:

The Financial News Daily has 25 reporters covering Asia, 20 covering Europe, and 20 covering North America. Four reporters cover Asia and Europe but not North America, 6 reporters cover Asia and North America but not Europe, and 7 reporters cover Europe and North America but not Asia. How many reporters cover all three continents (Asia, Europe, and North America)?

(1) The Financial News Daily has 38 reporters in total covering at least 1 of the following continents: Asia, Europe, and North America.

(2) There are more Financial News Daily reporters covering only Asia than there are Financial News Daily reporters covering only

So, in this question, I thought Statement 1 will not be sufficient since we don't know if there are any reporters who are NOT in any of the continents (set questions tend to focus on grouping and exclusions). But, here the answer is in fact Statement 1

So, there is my dilemma in DS Questions.
Show more

This question is discussed HERE.

Archived Topic
Hi there,
This topic has been closed and archived due to inactivity or violation of community quality standards. No more replies are possible here.
Where to now? Join ongoing discussions on thousands of quality questions in our Quantitative Questions Forum
Still interested in this question? Check out the "Best Topics" block above for a better discussion on this exact question, as well as several more related questions.
Thank you for understanding, and happy exploring!