ARGUMENT FROM 41 TO 45

41. Humans arrived in the Kaliko Islands about 7,000 years ago, and within 3,000 years most of the large mammal species that had lived in the forests of the Kaliko Islands had become extinct. Yet humans cannot have been a factor in the species' extinctions, because there is no evidence that the humans had any significant contact with the mammals. Further, archaeologists have discovered numerous sites where the bones of fish had been discarded, but they found no such areas containing the bones of large mammals, so the humans cannot have hunted the mammals. Therefore, some climate change or other environmental factor must have caused the species' extinctions.

42. The following appeared in a newspaper feature story.
"At the small, nonprofit hospital in the town of Saluda, the average length of a patient's stay is two days; at the large, for-profit hospital in the nearby city of Megaville, the average patient stay is six days. Also, the cure rate among patients in the Saluda hospital is about twice that of the Megaville hospital. The Saluda hospital has more employees per patient than the hospital in Megaville, and there are few complaints about service at the local hospital. Such data indicate that treatment in smaller, nonprofit hospitals is more economical and of better quality than treatment in larger, for-profit hospitals."

43. The following appeared as a letter to the editor of a farming publication.
"With continuing publicity about the need for healthful diets, and with new research about the harmful effects of eating too much sugar, nationwide demand for sugar will no doubt decline. Therefore, farmers in our state should use the land on which they currently grow sugar cane to grow peanuts, a food that is rich in protein and low in sugar. Farmers in the neighboring country of Palin greatly increased their production of peanuts last year, and their total revenues from that crop were quite high."

44. The following appeared in a recommendation from the president of Amburg's Chamber of Commerce.
"Last October the city of Belleville installed high intensity lighting in its central business district, and vandalism there declined almost immediately. The city of Amburg has recently begun police patrols on bicycles in its business district but the rate of vandalism there remains constant. Since high intensity lighting is apparently the most effective way to combat crime, we should install such lighting throughout Amburg. By reducing crime in this way, we can revitalize the declining neighborhoods in our city."

45. The following appeared in a letter to the editor of the Parkville Daily Newspaper.
"Throughout the country last year, as more and more children below the age of nine participated in youth-league softball and soccer, over 80,000 of these young players suffered injuries. When interviewed for a recent study, youth-league softball players in several major cities also reported psychological pressure from coaches and parents to win games. Furthermore, education experts say that long practice sessions for these sports take away time that could be used for academic activities. Since the disadvantages apparently outweigh any advantages, we in Parkville should discontinue organized athletic competition for children under nine."

ARGUMENT 21 - 25

21.Butter has now been replaced by margarine in Happy Pancake House restaurants throughout the southwestern United States. Only about 2 percent of customers have complained, indicating that 98 people out of 100 are happy with the change. Furthermore, many servers have reported that a number of customers who still ask for butter do not complain when they are given margarine instead. Clearly, either these customers cannot distinguish margarine from butter, or they use the term 'butter' to refer to either butter or margarine. Thus, to avoid the expense of purchasing butter, the Happy Pancake House should extend this cost-saving change to its restaurants in the southeast and northeast as well.


22.Many employees of major United States corporations are fearful that they will lose their jobs in the near future, but this fear is largely unfounded. According to a recent study, a majority of companies expected to make new hires in the coming year, while fewer companies expected to lay off employees. In addition, although it is very disturbing to be laid off, the proliferation of programs and of workshops designed to improve job-finding skills has made being laid off far less painful than it once was.


23.In the Bayhead Public Library, books that are rarely borrowed continue to take up shelf space year after year, while people who want to read a recent novel frequently find that the library's only copy is checked out. Clearly, the library's plan to replace books that are borrowed no more than once a year with sufficient copies of more recent books will solve this problem. The protest we have heard since this plan was made public has come from a small, and thus unrepresentative, group of some thirty people and so should therefore be ignored.


The following appeared in a letter from the owner of the Sunnyside Towers apartment building to its manager.

24."One month ago, all the showerheads on the first five floors of SunnysideT owers were modified to restrict the water flow to approximately 1/3 of its original force. Although actual readings of water usage before and after the adjustment are not yet available, the change will obviously result in a considerable savings for Sunnyside Corporation, since the corporation must pay for water each month. Except for a few complaints about low water pressure, no problems with showers have been reported since the adjustment. Clearly, restricting water flow throughout all the 20 floors of Sunnyside Towers will increase our profits further."


The following is a recommendation from the director of personnel to the president of Professional Printing Company.

25."In a recent telephone survey of automobile factory workers, older employees were less likely to report that having a supervisor present increases their productivity. Among workers aged 18 to 29, 27 percent said that they are more productive in the presence of their immediate supervisor, compared to 12 percent for those aged 30 or over, and only 8 percent for those aged 50 or over. Clearly, if our printing company hires mainly older employees, we will increase productivity and save money because of the reduced need for supervisors. "

BYE!!!!!

GRE Quants - Sample Questions

Quantitative Comparisons


7x² = 21

Column A --> x

Column B --> 2

• A. The quantity in Column A is greater
• B. The quantity in Column B is greater
• C. The two quantities are equal
• D. The relationship cannot be determined from the information given

Answer: B


Problem Solving

In the fig shown, if CP=BP and x=120, then y=

• A. 30
• B. 45
• C. 60
• D. 75
• E. 90

Answer: C


Data Interpretation

In which of the following years did the number of graduate student applications increase the most from that of the previous year?

• A. 1985
• B. 1986
• C. 1988
• D. 1990
• E. 1991

Answer: B

QUANTITATIVE SECTION - STRATEGIES AND QUESTION TYPES

The Quantitative section can have questions only of these three types. They are :

• Quantitative Comparisons
• Problem Solving
• Data Interpretation

Quantitative Comparisons

It measures your ability to :

• Determine the relative sizes of two quantities
• Perceive that not enough information is provided to make such a decision

Problem Solving

Each of the questions GRE Math problem solving is followed by five answer choices. You have to select the best of the answer options given. This tests your :

• Knowledge of maths involving percentages, simultaneous equations, polygons, probability, etc.
• Ability to read, understand, and solve problems quickly and accurately.

Data Interpretations

This is the toughest section in GRE Math. Many have poor Math scores because of the high difficulty of Data interpretation GRE questions. Practice with lots of tough DI questions to do get a good GRE Math score. Data interpretation in GRE Math section measures your ability to:

• Read and interpret data
• Perform statistical calculations on the data provided

The data interpretation questions in GRE Math usually appear in sets and are based on data presented in tables or graphs.

STRATEGIES

1. Quantitative Comparisons

• Convert algebraic expressions to a standard form
• Avoid calculations such as how much larger or smaller one quantity is than the other.
• Do not assume all variables represent positive integers - be aware of negative numbers, fractions, and zero as possible numbers.
• Geometric figures are not always drawn to scale, so do not make assumptions simply based on the appearance of a figure given
  

2.Problem Solving

The basic strategies are :

• Determine what is given and what is being asked
• Scan options to decide the level of approximation required
• Avoid long computations
• Scan all options before answering a question

3.Data Interpretation

The strategies to be adopted are :

• Look carefully at the data and understand how it is presented
• Try to make visual comparisons and estimate products and quotients rather than perform computations.
• For graphs, pay attention to the scales as well as read any accompanying notes
• Answer questions only on the basis of data given.

QUANTS SECTION

Hello Everyone, I think we had enough of verbal section, and its high time we need to know something about Quantitative section. In the previous section, we discussed about the strategies to solve, or make the verbal section easier by following some key ideas. Finally, we even saw some Sample Questions which can be solved through those key points to get the desired answer.Like verbal section, it is also graded on a scale of 200-800, in 10 point increments. In a quantitative section, you may have 28 questions, every test taker is ensured that he has 45 minutes to complete the section.

Now, moving ahead to this section, which involves basically good mathematical skills of higher secondary levels. It starts from the great 'Srinivasa Ramanujam' and the inherits from him are passed on to us, so basically we Indians are proud to say that maths is in our blood. This makes us very special when it comes to GRE quants section since it is relatively easier.

We will move further into the Quantitative section and it needs to cover these topics:

• Arithmetic
• Algebra
• Geometry
• Data Analysis

Arithmetic

The arithmetic is a vast topic which includes the following :

• Arithmetic Operations
• Powers
• Radical Expressions
• Estimation
• Percent
• Absolute Value
• Number Property
  
• Factoring

Algebra

The algebra has the following sub-topics:

• Exponential Rules
• Factoring and Simplifying
• Relations and Functions
• First and Second degree equations
  
• Simultaneous equations
• Word Problems

Geometry

The geometry is classified into:

• Parallel lines
• Circles
• Triangles
• Rectangles
• Other Polygons
• Area
• Perimeter
• Volume
• Pythagoras Theorem
• Angles
• Co-ordinate Geometry

Data Analysis

The data analysis involves with:

• Basic Probability
  
• Basic Statistics
• Mean
• Median
• Mode
• Range
• Standard Deviation
• Percentiles
• Data Interpretation
• Line Graphs
• Bar Graphs
• Circle Graphs
• Frequency Distributions

Lets see what are the type of questions asked in this section in the coming posts and how to tackle them. See you later.