Q1

[mitrakhanom1]

I was able to narrow it down between D and E and then got stuck. For A, B and C I eliminated them because they lacked a girl, and the rules say if the locker is shared it requires one boy and one girl. So, Juan has to share a locker with a girl. What confused me about D is that Mark is a floater. What confused me about E is that even though Juan must share a locker with Trista or Nita he can't share it with both of them. The question sounded like those in this list must share a locker. Meaning, Juan Trista AND Nita must share a locker. Can somebody please clarify why E is correct and D is wrong? I picked D just by guessing. Thanks.

[ohthatpatrick]

There is an annoying linguistic nuance going on in the question stem that we need to sort out first so that you’re clear on the actual question you’re asking.

Let’s use an analogy for a sec ... let’s list out a few possible Presidential candidates for 2016:
Dems: Clinton, Biden, Kardashian
Reps: Christie, Rubio, Trump

And we’ll just add that in a Presidential election, you only have one Dem nominee and one Rep nominee. Furthermore, Kim Kardashian and Donald Trump will NOT be the nominee for either party.

Consider the difference between these two questions (especially which answer choices, in each case, you can eliminate)

1. Which of the following is a complete and accurate list of the candidates who could be nominated?

(A) Clinton, Rubio, Trump
(B) Biden, Kardashian, Trump
(C) Clinton, Biden, Christie, Rubio
(D) Clinton, Christie
(E) Biden, Rubio


2. Which of the following could be a complete and accurate list of the candidates who are nominated?
(A) Clinton, Rubio, Trump
(B) Biden, Kardashian, Trump
(C) Clinton, Biden, Christie, Rubio
(D) Clinton, Christie
(E) Biden, Rubio


For #1, they want a complete list of everyone who COULD be nominated. Well, we know that Trump and Kardashian CAN’T be, so we’d get rid of (A) and (B).

For #2, they want an answer that COULD be the list of nominees. Well, we know there are only two nominees, so we can get rid of (A), (B), and (C)

Do you see the difference?

Why, in #1, is (C) okay? Are we saying that 4 people will be the nominees? No. We’re saying that these four are the complete list of people who COULD BE the nominee.

Why, in #2, is (C) broken? Because we can’t say that these 4 people COULD BE the list of nominated candidates. The list of nominated candidates can only be two names long.

It matters where the COULD/MUST shows up.

When you say "give me a complete and accurate list of all who could be", then you’re saying consider all possibilities and put them in a list.

When you say "which of these could be a complete and accurate list", then you’re talking about one scenario, one possibility.

So you were interpreting Q1 incorrectly as "which of the following COULD BE the complete list of people in shared lockers".

Something should have struck you about that interpretation. How many people are sharing lockers in this game?

We have 7 people and 5 lockers. That means that we’ll have 3 single lockers and 2 double lockers.

1 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 2 = 7 people

Well if this question was asking "which of these could be a list of all the people sharing a locker", then it would have to have four names. In any possible scenario for this game, four people are assigned to shared lockers (2 double lockers).

Instead, this question was asking "do any people in this game ALWAYS end up being assigned to shared lockers"?

So (A) and (B) were actual contenders. Maybe the only people who ALWAYS get assigned to shared lockers are boys. In that case, the answer choice would only contain boys. That doesn’t mean that the boys aren’t sharing lockers with a girl. It just means that for the girls, sometimes they ARE in shared lockers, sometimes they AREN’T.

So we start by asking ourselves, "do I know anyone who MUST be assigned to a shared locker"? If so, he/she must be in our correct answer.

Juan MUST always be in a shared one. We can eliminate anything without Juan. Unfortunately, they didn’t give us any easy eliminations.

"Do I know anyone who CAN’T be in a shared locker"? If so, he/she can NOT be in our correct answer. Rachel can’t share a locker. Is she in any choice? No. Darn, no easy eliminations.

Well, if we’re stumped at this point, then we needed to do more with the game setup and initial deductions.

I know that I will have 2 shared and 3 single lockers. Furthermore, I know that each shared locker has to be a boy/girl split.

So I’ll have
1 - boy+girl shared
1 - boy+girl shared
1 - girl single
1 - boy single
1 - boy single

That’s how my 3 girls and 4 boys will be split up, every time.

Who do I know needs to be my 1 girl single?

Rachel, because she can’t be the girl in either shared locker. Well that means that the two girls in the shared lockers are the only two girls left, Nita and Trisha.

Since Nita and Trisha will ALWAYS be in the shared lockers, they need to be in our correct answer choice. (E) is the only one that has those two girls, so it’s correct.

Hope this helps.