Numeric arguments often appear in verbal critical reasoning questions. Here’s a sample of the types you can expect

• Article courtesy Naveenan Ramachandran is the director of Taurus Education running 4GMAT in Mumbai.

Logic in numbers

Numeric arguments often appear in verbal critical reasoning questions. Here’s a sample of the types you can expect

Although critical reasoning questions are part of the verbal section of the GMAT, there is a surprisingly large portion of numbers involved in these questions! Let’s consider three arguments and reason which sounds more persuasive.

ARGUMENT 1: India is a highly populated country. It has to take more measures, than any other country, to make sure that the population does not skyrocket. ARGUMENT 2: India has more than 1 billion people. It has to take more measures, than any other country, to make sure that the population does not skyrocket. ARGUMENT 3: India has more than 1 billion people while the entire world has about 7 billion people. One in every 7 people in this world is an Indian. So, India has to take more measures, than any other country, to make sure that the population does not skyrocket.
Argument 1 is very plain and not too persuasive. It does not provide any evidence as to why India has to take measures to contain its population.
Argument 2 is better. It does indicate that India has more than 1 billion people – however, it does not give a perspective of whether it is a big enough for India to be ‘more’ concerned than other countries.
Argument 3 packs a lot of punch in the point that it is trying to make. It provides information about the population of India. It also provides information about the overall population of the world. It provides a comparison in the form of a ratio. This forms a conclusive argument that India really has a concern on its hands.
A lot of CR questions are based on ratios, percentages, proportions, counts, sums, quantities and aggregates. Perhaps such questions help the GMAT software to analyse your reasoning ability as well as your quantitative skills. Today, we are going to make two simple points:

A. No assumption can be made about absolute numbers on the basis of ratios
B. No assumption can be made about ratios on the basis of absolute numbers
Consider this simple premise: ‘The ratio of profit to the revenue has increased in 2012 when compared to the same in 2011.’ Does this mean that profit has increased in 2012? Not necessarily.
Any one of the following situations could have led to the improvement in the ratio of profit to the revenue:
1. The revenue could have remained the same while the profit in 2012 was GREATER than the profit in 2011. Revenue could have been R1,000 in both the years while profit could have been R100 in 2011 and R110 in 2012. OR 2. The profit could have remained the same while the revenue in 2012 was LESSER than the revenue in 2011. Profit could have been R100 in both the years while revenue could have been R1,000 in 2011 and R900 in 2012. OR 3. The revenue could have grown at a particular rate while the profit could have grown at a FASTER rate than the revenue did. Revenue could have grown from R1,000 in 2011 to R1,100 in 2012 whereas profit could have grown from R100 in 2011 to R120 in 2012. (Rate of growth of profit at 20% was greater than the rate of growth of revenue at 10%).
This exercise proves that no assumption can be made about absolute numbers on the basis of some information about ratios.