taking the practice GRE and this question makes me angry.

[ski]

http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/6103/untitledgs3.png (http://imageshack.us)

How the [censored] can we tell if its 250,000 or 270,000?? Is it just a test of how good your eyes are to read this [censored]?

Someone please tell me why I'm ignorant and these people are right.

[hmkpoker]

I am pretty ignorant here, but the only way to corrctly solve the problem is to add up all the individual months in that time, right?

[vhawk01]

Unless I'm missing the same thing you are, this seems like a really poor question. I'd actually choose 270,000. Does the 1971 average not look to be close to but a shade under 23,000? Much closer to this than 21,000 no?

[vhawk01]

[ QUOTE ]
I am pretty ignorant here, but the only way to corrctly solve the problem is to add up all the individual months in that time, right?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, thats the only way to do it accurately, but you can eyeball the region between Jan 71 and Jan 72 and sort of guess at an average, then multiply it by 12. My best guess is like 22,500, so I would have chosen 270,000 as 'approximately' the answer.

[hmkpoker]

Wouldn't any real life situation where you had to do something like this give you more information?

[John21]

300,000 (25,000 x 12mo.)
-240,000 (20,000 x 12mo.)
________
60,000 (volume of the box the line discects for 1971)

how much of that 60,000 volume is above or below the line?
looks like close to 50%

so (60,000 * .5 = 30,000) + 240,000 = 270,000

for the answer to be 250,000, the volume on the lower half of the box would have to be 16%, which it clearly isn't.

[hmkpoker]

Good point, I didn't realize that there is only one obvious MC answer.

[vhawk01]

[ QUOTE ]
Good point, I didn't realize that there is only one obvious MC answer.

[/ QUOTE ]

And its wrong? Wasnt that the point of this?

[Misfire]

[ QUOTE ]
300,000 (25,000 x 12mo.)
-240,000 (20,000 x 12mo.)
________
60,000 (volume of the box the line discects for 1971)

how much of that 60,000 volume is above or below the line?
looks like close to 50%

so (60,000 * .5 = 30,000) + 240,000 = 270,000

for the answer to be 250,000, the volume on the lower half of the box would have to be 16%, which it clearly isn't.

[/ QUOTE ]

Looks to me like the vast majority of it is well below that line. Maybe I'm squinting funny.

[Misfire]

I started training to teach GRE just today. What a [censored] useless test. Bleh.

[madnak]

[ QUOTE ]
Looks to me like the vast majority of it is well below that line. Maybe I'm squinting funny.

[/ QUOTE ]

No, you're absolutely right. It definitely makes up less than half of the box, but more than a sixth of it. The average monthly use is somewhere between 22500 and 20833.

Meaning this question is definitely [censored] up. Still, I'm 90% sure that 270,000 is the "correct" answer. It's easier to imagine that the graph is meant to fill 50% of the box than that it's meant to fill 17% of the box.

[NLSoldier]

whats the gre?

[vhawk01]

[ QUOTE ]
whats the gre?

[/ QUOTE ]

Graduate Record Examinations. Basically its a test that people have to take to get into grad school, if they aren't going to med school, dent school or law school. There are different tests you can take, including the general one everyone has to take, and maybe some topical ones, like a chemistry or biology one.

I HEAR that the general test is super easy. I've also heard that some of the subject tests are difficult. I don't know more than that.

[madnak]

How's the MCAT? Piece of cake, I'll bet.

Yeah? ...Yeah?

[vhawk01]

[ QUOTE ]
How's the MCAT? Piece of cake, I'll bet.

Yeah? ...Yeah?

[/ QUOTE ]

/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I'm sure you'd do well at it.

[George Rice]

This is obviously an error.

Each of the months is represented by tick-marks on the graph, so you can actually add them up and average them. Assuming you have a magnifying glass and a ruler, that is. lol

The answer should have been 270,000.

[Bill Haywood]

Is the practice test you are taking an actual old, retired test of the GRE, or is it one of the other brands?

I studied for a year for the GRE and found that the actual tests are FAR superior than brand X. The real GRE questions go through laborious, lengthy checking (including test runs in actual exams) to make sure there is nothing misleading about them.

Off brand tests are hammered out at breakneck speed by college professors on their summer vacations. They are FULL of pedantic, tricky, sophmoric reasons for why one answer is right and another wrong.

[Misfire]

Yes, but when only using real tests you run out of questions real quick.

[NLSoldier]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
whats the gre?

[/ QUOTE ]

Graduate Record Examinations. Basically its a test that people have to take to get into grad school, if they aren't going to med school, dent school or law school. There are different tests you can take, including the general one everyone has to take, and maybe some topical ones, like a chemistry or biology one.

I HEAR that the general test is super easy. I've also heard that some of the subject tests are difficult. I don't know more than that.

[/ QUOTE ]

lol prob. useful info since im graduating from undergrad this year....thanks