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Mark yeah I meant D. Thanks for explaining.

Leaving aside this question,are the statements not supposed to be contradicting each other in any DS problem? That's news to me.
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kalaivana
Mark yeah I meant D. Thanks for explaining.

Leaving aside this question,are the statements not supposed to be contradicting each other in any DS problem? That's news to me.

That's right. All DS problems from GMAC are carefully written so that the statements don't contradict each other. They do this so that you're able to try the statements together (even if the answer is A, B, or D) without creating a contradiction.

This has a couple of important consequences. First, if you ever think that two statements are sufficient by themselves (answer choice D) for different reasons (e.g., a Yes/No question where Statement 1 gives you YES only while Statement 2 gives you NO only), you know you made a mistake and should recheck the statements.

Second, if you're sure that Statement 1 is sufficient, the answer you get for Statement 1 must be a possible answer for Statement 2. For example, if you're sure that Statement 1 is YES only, you can assume that YES is a possible answer for Statement 2. Then, you just need to check if NO is also possible for Statement 2. If a NO is also possible, the answer is A; otherwise, the answer is D.

Occasionally you'll see unofficial questions, like the one you posted, where the statements do contradict each other, but GMAC has always been very consistent about avoiding such contradictions with official questions in the OG and online question sets.

Let me know if that answers your question.
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kalaivana
The first term in a sequence S is 108. Is the 19th term in S equals 0?

(1) Every term in S is 6 less than its preceding term.

(2) The tenth term in the S is 33.


Official correct answer provided is (D) - each statement alone is sufficient.
But the second statement doesn't mention whether it's a arithmetic progression, then how can we assume and arrive at the answer. Or is this the norm in sequence based questions
Pure algebraic questions are no longer a part of the DS syllabus of the GMAT.

DS questions in GMAT Focus encompass various types of word problems, such as:

  • Word Problems
  • Work Problems
  • Distance Problems
  • Mixture Problems
  • Percent and Interest Problems
  • Overlapping Sets Problems
  • Statistics Problems
  • Combination and Probability Problems

While these questions may involve or necessitate knowledge of algebra, arithmetic, inequalities, etc., they will always be presented in the form of word problems. You won’t encounter pure "algebra" questions like, "Is x > y?" or "A positive integer n has two prime factors..."

Check GMAT Syllabus for Focus Edition

You can also visit the Data Sufficiency forum and filter questions by OG 2024-2025, GMAT Prep (Focus), and Data Insights Review 2024-2025 sources to see the types of questions currently tested on the GMAT.

So, you can ignore this question.

Hope it helps.

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Hi there,
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