OG - CR - #35

[MBA Applicant 2007/8]

Advertisement: Today's Customers expect high quality. Every advance in the quality of the manufactured products raises customer expectations. The company that is satisfied with the current quality of its products will soon find that its customers are not. At Mega Corp, meeting or exceeding customer expectations is our goal.

Which of the following must be true on the basis of the statements in the advertisement above?

A) MegaCorp's competitors, will succeed in attracting customers only if those competitors adopt MegaCorp's goal as their own.
B) A company that does not correctly anticipate the expectations of its customers is certain to fail in advancing the quality of its products
C) Mega corp's goal is possible to meet ONLY if continuing advances in product quality are possible
D) If a company becomes satisfied with the quality of its products, then the quality of its products is sure to decline.
E) MegaCorp's customers are currently satisfied with the quality of its products.

MY comment: I quickly eliminated Ans. Choices A, D,E. However, I debated for almost 2 min between B and C. I chose B because
Choice C had the extreme "ONLY". But as you know, my answer was INCORRECT.

My Questions: Given that I had Diagrammed this CR, knew that I to select the conclusion that is Closely Tied to the conclusion and to eliminate extreme choices for Draw a Conc Type Question, How could i have possibly arrived at the correct answer. What are some clues embedded in the correct and/or in the incorrect choices that I could have used to arrive at the correct answer.

For me its not important why my answer choice was incorrect, but the application of 'trick'/ techniques to converge on the right answer.

General Strategy for 'Draw a Conclusion' Question: Finally, can you offer the modified CR strategy that you use for Draw Conclusion type questions. My current strategy is (Read Question stem, briefly Diagram, draw A B C D E grid, and Eliminate)

I understand this is a long question but your detailed will help nail my biggest weakness CR type questions.

Thank you,

[MBA Applicant 2007/8]

THe Source is : OG 11th edition.

[dbernst]

I think your approach to this problem was solid; the error was in the elimination rather than in the initial read. A rule of thumb on Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension answer choices (especially for draw a conclusion/inference question types) is that the GMAT normally prefers soft, "wishy-washy" answers to those with extreme wording. However, there are exceptions to this rule. When the text of the passage or argument expresses a particular concept or notion in extreme terms, answer choices with extreme wording that reinforces the text are fine.

In this particular argument, the text states Every advance in the quality of the manufactured products raises customer expectations. Thus in order to meet or exceed customer expectations, MegaCorp MUST be able to continuously improve the quality of its products.

***Hint: When I approach inference/draw a conclusion questions, I often add the phrase "It is true that..." before each answer choice. This helps me to recognize whether a particular answer choice is directly supported by evidence from the text. As I already discussed, It is true that Mega corp's goal is possible to meet ONLY if continuing advances in product quality are possible(Choice C).

Let's apply the same process to answer choice B: It is true that A company that does not correctly anticipate the expectations of its customers is certain to fail in advancing the quality of its products. According to the text, advances in product quality raise customer expectations. Nothing in the text discusses a company's anticipating the expectations of its customers and then acting in response to these expectations. Moreover, in this case certain to fail is too extreme, since the argument never supports this assertion.

Hope that helps.
-dan

MY comment: I quickly eliminated Ans. Choices A, D,E. However, I debated for almost 2 min between B and C. I chose B because
Choice C had the extreme "ONLY". But as you know, my answer was INCORRECT.

My Questions: Given that I had Diagrammed this CR, knew that I to select the conclusion that is Closely Tied to the conclusion and to eliminate extreme choices for Draw a Conc Type Question, How could i have possibly arrived at the correct answer. What are some clues embedded in the correct and/or in the incorrect choices that I could have used to arrive at the correct answer.

For me its not important why my answer choice was incorrect, but the application of 'trick'/ techniques to converge on the right answer.

General Strategy for 'Draw a Conclusion' Question: Finally, can you offer the modified CR strategy that you use for Draw Conclusion type questions. My current strategy is (Read Question stem, briefly Diagram, draw A B C D E grid, and Eliminate)

I understand this is a long question but your detailed will help nail my biggest weakness CR type questions.

Thank you