![\"Manhattan](\"http:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2017\/06\/know-the-gmat-code-translation-traps-stacey-koprince.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We\u2019re not kidding! <\/i><\/b>Check out our upcoming courses here<\/i><\/b><\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n The problem we\u2019re going to talk about today is a work of art. (Yes, I\u2019m a geek. Did you not know that already? <\/span>)<\/span><\/p>\n But I\u2019m serious: it\u2019s a thing of beauty. It looks <\/span>super<\/span><\/i> easy. It\u2019s not\u2014there are traps all over the place. The GMAT test writers have a genius for tying us into knots!<\/span><\/p>\n Try out this next problem in our <\/span>Know the GMAT Code<\/span><\/a> series and then we\u2019ll talk about the awesome lessons here. Note: this one\u2019s from the GMATPrep\u00ae<\/span>\u00a0free exams.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c*Of the 60 animals on a certain farm, \u00b2\/\u00b3 are either pigs or cows. How many of the animals are cows?<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c(1) The farm has more than twice as many cows as it has pigs.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c(2) The farm has more than 12 pigs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n (If you haven\u2019t done Data Sufficiency before or are new enough to DS that you\u2019re wondering where the answer choices are, <\/span>start here<\/span><\/a> and come back to this article later.)<\/span><\/p>\n Let\u2019s do this!<\/span><\/p>\n 1-second Glance.<\/span><\/i> DS. Story. Will need to translate. <\/span><\/p>\n Read<\/span><\/i>. The story seems pretty straightforward. I feel like this is a question they\u2019d give me in 5th grade\u2026I better be careful!<\/span><\/p>\n Let\u2019s <\/span>jot<\/span><\/i> this stuff down and see what\u2019s going on.<\/span><\/p>\n Reflect<\/span><\/i>\u2026Okay, so only two-thirds of the animals are pigs or cows. What about the rest? I don\u2019t know\u2014I guess I just know that there are other animals that aren\u2019t pigs or cows. I\u2019ll table that for now, but I\u2019ve got it in the back of my mind in case it comes up later with the statements.<\/span><\/p>\n Oh, and I can calculate one thing: two-thirds of 60 is 40, so there are 40 total animals that are either pigs or cows.<\/span><\/p>\n Statement (1) is a little confusing. I think I\u2019m going to start with statement (2).<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c(2) The farm has more than 12 pigs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Time to test some cases. If there are 13 pigs\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n At whatever point you can tell that it\u2019s possible to get more than one value for the number of cows, you can stop. Cross off the top row (BD) and move on to the other statement.<\/span><\/p>\n Note: That middle column, v?, stands for \u201cis this a valid case to test?\u201d You are only allowed to try numbers that make the statement that you\u2019re testing true. I know it seems a little silly to make a separate column for that on this problem, but if I\u2019ve learned one thing over the years, it\u2019s this: careless mistakes are the bane of any standardized test-taker\u2019s existence. Have a process. Follow the process\u2014every time. Trust the process. <\/span><\/p>\n Okay, so answers (B) and (D) are out; time to test statement (1).<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c(1) The farm has more than twice as many cows as it has pigs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Er. How does <\/span>that<\/span><\/i> get translated? If there are exactly twice as many cows as pigs, then the equation would be <\/span>c<\/span><\/i> = 2<\/span>p<\/span><\/i>. But that\u2019s not what it says. Rather, there are <\/span>more than<\/span><\/i> twice as many. Is that just an inequality?<\/span><\/p>\n Try it out. If the equation is <\/span>c<\/span><\/i> > 2<\/span>p<\/span><\/i>, do real-life, logical numbers work? If you have 4 pigs, you\u2019d have to have 9 or more cows. 9 > 2(4) is true. If you have 4 pigs, you couldn’t have just 8 cows. 8 > 2(4) is false.<\/span><\/p>\n Okay, this is the right equation (or, technically, inequality): <\/span>c<\/span><\/i> > 2<\/span>p<\/span><\/i>. If you\u2019re ever not sure, take your best guess on the translation and then test it with some real numbers to see whether it makes sense.<\/span><\/p>\n So, is this statement enough? Test it out!<\/span><\/p>\n I said earlier that you\u2019re only allowed to test numbers that make the statement that you\u2019re testing true. But there\u2019s actually one more thing you have to do. If the question stem gives you any true (or what\u2019s called \u201cgiven\u201d) information, you have to make that true, too.<\/span><\/p>\n In my first case for statement (1), <\/span>p<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>c<\/span><\/i> don\u2019t add up to 40. So let me try that again.<\/span><\/p>\n Okay, same deal as statement (2). There are at least two possible values for the number of cows, so this statement isn\u2019t sufficient, either. Cross off (A).<\/span><\/p>\n Time to try the two statements together.<\/span><\/p>\n Hmm. First, according to statement (2), <\/span>p<\/span><\/i> has to be at least 13. So, according to statement (1), <\/span>c<\/span><\/i> has to be at least 13(2) + 1 = 27. <\/span><\/p>\n Oh, and those two numbers do add up to the right total: 13 + 27 = 40. Great! So this is one possible set of values for <\/span>p<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>c<\/span><\/i>. Is there another?<\/span><\/p>\n If <\/span>p<\/span><\/i> is 14, then <\/span>c<\/span><\/i> has to be at least 14(2) + 1 = 29. So there is a second value\u2026wait! 14 + 29 = 43. That\u2019s the wrong total. And as I keep increasing <\/span>p<\/span><\/i>, I\u2019m going to keep increasing the total, so there\u2019s no other pair of numbers that will properly add up to 40.<\/span><\/p>\n This is it: <\/span>c<\/span><\/i> has to be 27. The two statements together are sufficient.<\/span><\/p>\n The correct answer is (C).<\/span><\/p>\n That wasn\u2019t crazy math or anything. Why did I say this question is harder than it looks?<\/span><\/p>\n It has to do with the traps. First of all, they tell us there are 60 animals but then go on to say that \u00b2\/\u00b3 are either pigs or cows\u2026in other words, the real total number is only 40, not 60. If you work with the number 60, you\u2019re going to think that more than one pair of numbers is possible and get (E) as your answer. <\/span><\/p>\n Even if you\u2019re fully up to speed on the 40, you have to remember to bring that fact back in as a \u201ccheck\u201d at the end. Otherwise, you\u2019re going to think: could be 13 and anything over 27, so there are multiple possible values for <\/span>c<\/span><\/i>\u2026and you\u2019re going to get (E) again.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s also super easy to roll right over the \u201cmore than\u201d in statement (1). The test has been going on for a couple of hours now, you\u2019re starting to get mentally fatigued, you might be worried about timing and thinking, \u201cYes, this is an easy one! I can save time!\u201d That\u2019s where careless mistakes pounce. <\/span><\/p>\n If you think statement (1) just says twice as many, not more than twice as many, you\u2019ll think the answer is (A). The only thing that might help you catch that mistake is if you try to do the math: if you have 40 cows and pigs, then you\u2019d have to have\u202613 pigs and 26 cows? That doesn\u2019t add up right. There\u2019s no way to get to 40 using whole numbers of pigs and cows. But you may not even try to do that math because, after all, this is Data Sufficiency! And if you think the total is 60, then the math does add up: 20 pigs and 40 cows, still leaving you with incorrect (A).<\/span><\/p>\n (1) Easier-looking does not necessarily mean easier. A lot of times, easier-looking problems have some easy-to-fall-for traps. Work carefully\u2014don\u2019t get ahead of yourself. Write everything down. Map out the problem.<\/span><\/p>\n (2) Turn any knowledge you gain into Know the GMAT Code flash cards:<\/span><\/p>\n Can\u2019t get enough of Stacey\u2019s GMAT mastery? Attend the first session of one of her upcoming GMAT courses<\/a> absolutely free, no strings attached. Seriously.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We\u2019re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here. The problem we\u2019re going to talk about today is a work of art. (Yes, I\u2019m a geek. Did you not know that already? ) But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,873,929,874,52871,930,2,8],"tags":[53019,53120],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-14267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-data-suff","category-for-current-studiers","category-gmat-prep","category-gmat-resources","category-gmat-strategies","category-gmat-study-guide","category-how-to-study","category-quant-on-gmat","tag-know-the-gmat-code","tag-translation-traps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14267"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14338,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14267\/revisions\/14338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14267"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=14267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"Manhattan](\"http:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2017\/06\/quant-process-1.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Manhattan](\"http:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2017\/06\/sk-396-image-2.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Manhattan](\"http:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2017\/06\/sk-396-image-3.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Manhattan](\"http:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2017\/06\/sk-396-image-4.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Manhattan](\"http:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2017\/06\/sk-396-image-5.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Manhattan](\"http:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2017\/06\/sk-396-image-6.png\")
<\/p>\nKey Takeaways for Knowing the GMAT Code<\/b><\/h4>\n
![\"Manhattan](\"http:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2017\/06\/sk-396-image-7.png\")
<\/p>\n*GMATPrep<\/span>\u00ae<\/span> questions courtesy of the Graduate Management Admissions Council. Usage of this question does not imply endorsement by GMAC.<\/span><\/h5>\n
\n
\n![\"stacey-koprince\"](\"https:\/\/cdn2.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2015\/06\/stacey-koprince-150x150.png\")
<\/a>Stacey Koprince<\/a> is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Montreal, Canada and Los Angeles, California.<\/strong> Stacey has been teaching the GMAT, GRE, and LSAT \u00a0for more than 15 years and is one of the most well-known instructors in the industry. Stacey loves to teach and is absolutely fascinated by standardized tests. Check out Stacey\u2019s upcoming GMAT courses here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"