#18 - If the standards committee has a quorum, then the

[Administrator]

Please post your questions below! Thank you!

[Marina7]

Hello!

I think I’ve completely missed something here. I understood this to be two CR statements and then eliminated B and E because I understood them to be saying the same thing- just reversed. Could someone walk me through how to answer this/ why B/E are different questions? I think I’m missing something important to answer the question.

[mjb514]

This question was so confusing to me, and someone please explain. I don't understand at all

[smedlin]

From what i understand in review is that we have two causal statements that are both in effect. It is not possible for both to reach a quorum because the meeting can’t start at 6 and 7, so either only one happens or none happen.
(B) We can’t say for sure that awards has a quorum. It’s possible none have a quorum.
(E) If Standards have a committee, the meeting will start at 6. Awards cannot have a quorum, because standards already has one and the meeting will be at 6—not 7.

[Dave Killoran]

Good job Smedlin! I think you meant conditional, but it works as you describe. Just for anyone reading, let's break this one down in more detail and see if we can make it clearer

First, we have two conditional statements in the stimulus:

• Quorum Standards Begin 6
  
  Quorum Awards Begin 7

There is no conclusion presented, and so the Must Be True question stem that follows the stimulus should be no surprise.

Note that while it appears that the two statements are unrelated, that's not the case. They both refer to the same "general assembly," which means immediately that both quorums cannot happen because you cannot have the same meeting "start" at two different times (by definition there is only one starting time for any given meeting). If this were a Logic Game, you'd say that the two quorums cannot both occur, but that neither must occur. So, neither could have a quorum, or exactly one could have a quorum.

With the idea above, let's look at each answer choice:


Answer choice (A): While we know that both cannot have a quorum, we do not know that if one doesn't have a quorum that the other does; perhaps there's no meeting at all.

Answer choice (B): This can be eliminated for the same reason as answer choice (A). Just because the standards committee does not have a quorum does not force the awards committee to have a quorum.

Answer choice (C): This is a Mistaken Reversal of the first sentence. It sounds attractive, but we don't know about any other meetings or reasons the general assembly might begin at 6, and there could be something else happening that causes a 6 PM assembly.

Answer choice (D): If the general assembly does not begin at 7 PM, then we know that the awards committee did not have a quorum. But, that fact does not then mean that the standards committee has a quorum (as outlined above and in (A) and (B)).

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer. Since the general assembly cannot start twice, there is no way for both committees to have a quorum. Thus, once the standards committee has a quorum, then the awards committee cannot have a quorum.

This is a really tricky problem because you must realize that the necessary condition refers to the same type of event happening at two different, conflicting times. That can be difficult when you are deep in the section (this is question #18) and feeling pressed for time.

[180bound]

Hi, I am still extremely worried because I don't know how I am still confused. It seems that understanding this questions is predicated on knowing that the general assembly can't meet at 6 and then at 7. I am confused as to why this can't happen? Is this something that falls in the realm of general knowledge of how general assemblies work?

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi 180bound,

The key term to note here is "begin." The two conditionals cannot both be true because a meeting can only begin at one time. Let's think about it in another way. Instead of thinking about the general assembly, let's use an example of a concert.

If Britney Spears is an opening act, then the concert starts at 6.
If Justin Timberlake is an opening act, then the concert starts at 7.

The concert can only have one start time. It can't start at both 6 and 7. If it starts at 6, it has already started by 7. If it starts at 7, it couldn't have already started by 6.

Similarly here, there's only one time that the general assembly can begin. If it begins at 6, it can't begin at 7. If it begins at 7, it can't have started at 6.

Hope that helps!
Rachael

[180bound]

Thank you! That makes so much more sense!

[mshaheen14]

Hi Powerscore,

I had trouble with this problem in my first pass-through, but I think I found a way to diagram it and I wanted to make sure that my logic is on track.

The stimulus gives us two conditional statements each with its own CP:
SCQ GA@6. CP: NO GA@6 NO SCQ
ACQ GA@7. CP: NO GA@7 NO ACQ

Since we know that the General Assembly cannot meet at both 6 and 7, making the statements related, I was able to string togther this chain of logic:

SCQ GA@6 NO GA@7 NO ACQ
ACQ GA@7 NO GA@6 NO SCQ

This chain of the rules allowed me to arrive at the right answer, but is it valid to chain the two separate conditional statements from the stimulus together based on the fact that the General Assembly can only meet at one time?

[KelseyWoods]

Hi mshaheen14!

You're exactly right! You can absolutely chain those statements together because, as you noted, if the GA meeting begins at 6pm, that means it cannot begin at 7pm and if it begins at 7pm that means it cannot begin at 6pm.

Great job with drawing those conditional diagrams and using them to make inferences!

Best,
Kelsey