PT 31, Section 2 Question 15 Forum

[alexroark]

Can anyone clarify the issue I have at the bottom for this question?

Clearly this question is testing our ability to understand what we can properly infer from shifts in #'s and %'s. A very common theme on the LSAT.

Fact 1 states that for a ten month period total sales of new cars in Calistan have remained constant. So all this is saying is that the total size of the overall Pie has not changed. Got it.

Fact 2 states the total sales of MA company doubled, and its share of the new car market increased correspondingly.

Ok so combining Fact 1 (that size of pie is constant) and Fact 2 (total sales for MA doubled and share increased) we can definitely conclude that the aggregate new car sales of the other companies necessarily decreased. Got it.

Then, after that 10 month period where the size of the pie remained constant, emission standards were imposed.

Fact 3, in these three months following the enforcement of new emission standards, MA's share of the market decreased.

Fact 4, MA's share decreased despite the fact that its sales within Calistan remained constant at the level reached in the last month of the ten-month period.

Combining Fact 3 (that MA's share decreased) and Fact 4 (although MA's sales remained constant) we can properly infer that it must be the case that the aggregate new car sales of the other companies must have increased. Got it. So answer choice A is credited, it CAN'T be true that the total monthly sales of the other companies during the 3 months following the enforcement of the emission standards decreased.

I have couple of things in here that I don't understand however, which led me to hesitate and waste more time than I should have for this question that really should be destroyed quickly.

1. Here is where I got uncertain. Say that before the 10 month period, MA was selling 10 cars a month. Are we supposed to assume then that for the next ten months MA was selling exactly 20 cars each month. Or are we supposed to assume that over those ten months MA AVERAGED selling 20 cars each month (maybe they sold 60 one month and only 5 another month), or are we supposed to assume that MA sold 10, then 20, then 40, then 80, and kept doubling each month for ten months. Obviously this would affect what we can properly infer from the last sentence in the stimulus that states MA's shared declined despite its monthly sales remaining constant in the last month of the ten month period.

Do you see what I am saying? I selected A because I felt pretty confident I knew what they were testing but I really hesitated (wasted probably an additional 90 seconds) just thinking about how I was supposed to interpret doubling of monthly sales increases and how that relates to the last month of the ten month period.

[js1663]

Sales are broken down by month here, so if they started the 10 month period selling 10 cars, by the end of the 10 months it's quite clear they are selling at least double (20) per month. After that they continue to sell that. It wasn't an average and it didn't double and compound each month, nor are they talking about aggregate sales. It states quite clearly that the number it started with doubled by the 10th month, and that doubled number is what the question is based off of. With that in mind and with what you wrote out, A was both an easy answer and the others were easy cross-outs.

[Christine (MLSAT)]

I don't think it actually matters which way you read it. All the stuff about what happened in the 10 month period prior to the emissions standards is irrelevant.

The point is, if you took a snapshot of the market at the moment that the emissions standards were imposed, then looked at the three months that followed, you would see two things:
1) Marvel's sales remained at some constant level.
2) Marvel's market share declined.

All the thought you're putting into the other pieces of information would only determine what that constant sale level was - but it doesn't matter.

Does that make sense?

[alexroark]

Thanks, yes I think you are both right. It seems clearer to me now that in the tenth month their car sales doubled. And also, Christine is right in that it really doesn't matter. Thanks for your input guys!