A good CR

[srikant]

Source: Barron's GMAT

Q) The fact that more and more women are working has placed stress on marriages. The census published data showing the divorce rate for married women earning over $75000 annually is twice the national average and four times the national average for women in the $150000 bracket.
Which of the following, if true, would weaken the statement?

A. Fifteen percent of married women earn over $75000 per year.
B. Married couples are more stressed because of their careers.
C. When both spouses work married couples have less time to spend together.
D. Sixty percent of married women earn over $75000 per year.
E. The average divorce rate for unemployed women is 40 percent.

[StaceyKoprince]

Did you type the problem in exactly the way it appeared in the Barron's book? The second sentence is constructed poorly - it could be interpreted a couple of different ways. I assume they're trying to say that women earning 150k have a divorce rate 4 times the national average. However, you could read it to mean that women earning 75k have a divorce rate 4 times higher than that of women earning 150k.

Also? I don't like any of the answers. In general, I really don't like this question. Personally, I would not study from this source. I don't find the questions very representative of the GMAT.

[srikant]

Thanks for replying Stacey. However I felt that Barron's CAT test was pretty good. I don't know about the material as I have never followed it and have never heard anything good about it!
But I was just trying to work on as many tests as possible.
Having said that, yes the question posted is as stated in CAT test and the OA is A. IMO the answer should be E.

My explanation is:
Fact: divorce rate among unemployed women is 40%
Fact: divorce rate among $150K earning women is 4 times the national average. Since divorce rate cannot be 100%, the national average has to be less than 25%. Therefore national average is less than that of unemployed women.
What brings this average low?
Definitely there are other women, in fact a majority of women, in different earning brackets among whom the divorce rate is pretty low. Therefore this weakens the conclusion!

Please let me know if you agree.

I will also post one Kaplan Math Question, which IMO is wrong. Either the question is wrong or the solution is wrong!! Both cannot be true.

[srikant]

OK the divorce rate can be 100%. :wink:
But that doesn't change anything!

[srikant]

Ooops... just realized that Kaplan's questions are not allowed!! :shock: