CR boundary words

[cyoo1987]

In Chapter 3 of the CR Strategy Guide (4th Edition) - the book mentions the use of "boundary words" in GMAT CR sentences.

I am still a bit fuzzy on the exact meaning of these types of words. Are boundary words related to specific characteristics about certain subjects? Or are they less extreme version of "extreme words"?

[jnelson0612]

In Chapter 3 of the CR Strategy Guide (4th Edition) - the book mentions the use of "boundary words" in GMAT CR sentences.

I am still a bit fuzzy on the exact meaning of these types of words. Are boundary words related to specific characteristics about certain subjects? Or are they less extreme version of "extreme words"?

Hi cyoo,
Boundary words are important because they limit the scope of a premise. Let's look at this example:

"This year Tiger Records has increased the percentage of its budget used for marketing."

In this case the boundary word is "percentage". All we know is that in the budget Tiger Records put together for this year, the percentage of money set aside for marketing has increased.

Notice we do NOT know that the amount of money has increased. We only know about percentages. The GMAT test writers know that people often miss these boundary words and make wrong assumptions, such as that the amount of money has increased. But no, that's out of scope. We ONLY know about the percents here.

I hope that this is helping; let me know if you need more clarification.