UCAT: Decision Making

[someday]

Hey everyone! could someone please help me with this question.
I think the answer should be C since after one white counter has been taken out their is a 2/3 chance of the counter being black and 1/3 chance of the counter being white. How is the chance of taking a white counter 0.5?

the key phrase in this question is that he doesn't look at the counters once he pulls them out. So to the best of his knowledge, there's a 1/2 chance the first counter is white or black and by the same logic (or you can prove using probability) the second counter being white is also 1/2 for him because he didn't look at the first counter

 

[Navjot]

the key phrase in this question is that he doesn't look at the counters once he pulls them out. So to the best of his knowledge, there's a 1/2 chance the first counter is white or black and by the same logic (or you can prove using probability) the second counter being white is also 1/2 for him because he didn't look at the first counter

Ohh okay it makes sense now. Thank you!

 

[Achiever]

Hey everyone! could someone please help me with this question.
I think the answer should be C since after one white counter has been taken out their is a 2/3 chance of the counter being black and 1/3 chance of the counter being white. How is the chance of taking a white counter 0.5?

Ah yes, this is a classic trick the UCAT like to pull - so i've heard. To answer this correctly you need to understand that probability theory relates to what the user knows. It specifically says "Eric doesn't know" therefore to Eric there is still an equal chance of the first counter being white or black! This means that equally there is an equal chance of the second counter being white or black, as shown:

P(BB) = 2/4x1/3 = 1/6
P(BW) = 2/4x2/3 = 1/3
P(WW) = 2/4x1/3 = 1/6
P(WB) = 2/4x2/3 = 1/3

As you can see the probability of the second counter being white is 1/3+1/6 = 1/2

 

[Achiever]

Hi, could someone help me with this probability problem, however?
How are there 3 combinations?
Is it:
Son, Son
Son, Daughter
Daughter, Son
I thought that Son, Daughter, and Daughter, Son would mean the same thing so that there were only 2 combinations.
Cheers

 

[Navjot]

Hi, could someone help me with this probability problem, however?
How are there 3 combinations?
Is it:
Son, Son
Son, Daughter
Daughter, Son
I thought that Son, Daughter, and Daughter, Son would mean the same thing so that there were only 2 combinations.
Cheers

Hey I came across that question too I think their is two possibilities since they are looking at the order in which they came. So in one instance the girl came first and the other the boy came first. The third possibility is having both boys.

 

[Jet]

imgur.com

Imgur: The magic of the Internet

imgur.com

Would someone be able to explain these two mistakes to me please? Earlier in the thread someone claimed to e-mail UCAT consortium and they said many does not include all, so is this a mistake from my prep company for the first part of the question and part three, where they assume many to include all, or am I missing something?

Kind regards, J

 

[Achiever]

Just to clarify does "many" include "all"? I assume it doesn't because "some" doesn't include "all"

 

[threefivetwo]

Just to clarify does "many" include "all"? I assume it doesn't because "some" doesn't include "all"

I would take many/most to mean above 50%, but not 100%. So, not "all"! Do check with the consortium though.

 

[SmartWorker]

Hey everyone,

For this DM question, how do you go about figuring out the answer? I tried writing it out but lost too much time and ended guessing? Thank you in advance!

 

[Scorpion]

Hey everyone,

For this DM question, how do you go about figuring out the answer? I tried writing it out but lost too much time and ended guessing? Thank you in advance!

Ok I will try to explain this using the strategy I applied in most of my UCAT practice and my actual test (it worked for me but it is a bit confusing at first).

The first thing I would do is write out the initials of the options in each category (eg. 'B' represents Ben) in rows (shown in black on the diagram)

Then I would draw lines between these initials to represent the links that can be directly observed in the question stem (eg. James teaches the flute, so a line is drawn between 'Ja' and 'f'):


This initial part seems time-consuming, but with practice you can do it in 20 or so seconds. Now we can use the process of elimination to figure out Ben's surname.

1. We can eliminate 'Hills' immediately as the question stem refers to 'Ben and Mr Hills', telling us they are not the same person.

2. We can eliminate 'Jones' as both Ben and Max teach piano, but Mr Jones does not teach the same instrument as Max.

That brings us down to two options and given the difficulty of this question, it is reasonable to guess here and return later if you're running low on time. That's why I would recommend leaving logic puzzles until the end of the decision making subtest so you know exactly how many seconds you can spare.

3. Following on from 2., the only person who does not teach the same instrument as Max is John, therefore John is Mr Jones. Mark this on your diagram.

4. As each person only teaches 2 instruments, you can see from the diagram that James cannot be Mr Hill. We already know that neither Ben nor John can be Mr Hill, so James must be Mr Hill. Mark this on your diagram.

5. The question stem refers to 'Max or Mr Richards', telling us that Max is not Mr Richards. Thus, Ben must be Mr Richards and you have your answer.

That final part is tricky, so I hope that made sense. Let me know if you have any questions or if someone can work out an easier method.

 

[saksham21]

Hi, can someone please explain the difference between 'some' and 'most' according to the UCAT. From what I've learnt, 'some' means at least one but not all, whereas 'most' means more than 50% but not all. However, I have done questions which include all in the definition of 'some' and 'most' and there have been other questions which don't. Does anyone know the definitions of 'some' and 'most' used by Pearson VUE in the actual UCAT?

 

[hazell]

Hi, can someone please explain the difference between 'some' and 'most' according to the UCAT. From what I've learnt, 'some' means at least one but not all, whereas 'most' means more than 50% but not all. However, I have done questions which include all in the definition of 'some' and 'most' and there have been other questions which don't. Does anyone know the definitions of 'some' and 'most' used by Pearson VUE in the actual UCAT?

“All” = 100%
“Some” = less than 100% but not including 0 or 100%
“At least some” is not the same as “some”, it includes 100% [1, all]
"Most" = greater than 50% (does not equal all so not including 100%)

 

[aeongg]

Hi all, sorry if this has been answered before, but is there a specific order of question types that will be seen in DM or are they completely random?
e.g. Syllogisms first, arguments second, etc.

Thanks!

 

[Scorpion]

Hi all, sorry if this has been answered before, but is there a specific order of question types that will be seen in DM or are they completely random?
e.g. Syllogisms first, arguments second, etc.

Thanks!

Yes, the question types are generally ordered as:
1. 'Simple' syllogisms
2. Logic puzzles
3. Strongest argument
4. More yes/no questions but with longer question stems/ graphs or tables
5. Venn diagrams
6. Probability

Remember this does NOT mean that you must or should answer the question types in this order! Keyboard shortcuts make questions quick to switch between, allowing you to quickly get through the questions you find easiest and you know you can get quick marks from before tackling the question types that are a little more time consuming/difficult.

 

[jinjja21]

Hey guys,
I still can't really understand why A would be the answer to this question

 

[garmonbozia]

Hey guys,
I still can't really understand why A would be the answer to this question
View attachment 4462

Aiden doesn't have to win the very next game in order to win overall.
E.g. he could still win if he lost three games in a row and then won the last one - 4:1, 4:2, 4:3, 4:4, 5:4.
In order for Thomas to win, he has to win four games in a row to get to 4:5, the probability which is (2/3)^4 ≈ 0.2. So the probability of Aiden winning is 1 - 0.2 = 0.8, which is a greater than 50% probability.
(Correct me if I'm wrong, I've never been great at probabilities)

 

[hopefullearner]

Hi guys, I've found some seemingly contradictory answer solutions. The statements are identical in terms of the relationships but the answers for 'more of the family enjoy playing tennis than football' and 'more family members love dogs than cats' are different. I put No for both of them because 'most' is anything greater than 50% but not 100% but 'some' also has the possibility of anything up to 100%. Any advice?

 

[JL538]

Hi guys, I've found some seemingly contradictory answer solutions. The statements are identical in terms of the relationships but the answers for 'more of the family enjoy playing tennis than football' and 'more family members love dogs than cats' are different. I put No for both of them because 'most' is anything greater than 50% but not 100% but 'some' also has the possibility of anything up to 100%. Any advice? View attachment 4463 View attachment 4464 View attachment 4463 View attachment 4464

Are these both from official UCAT questions? If not, I would go look at the official questions and find a similar question to see which interpretation they utilize. Personally I would agree with the first interpretation though (that most is 50 to 99 and some is 1 to 99 so it is inconclusive and you can't assume most>some)

 

[mars_02]

Hi guys, I am struggling with an 'Interpreting Information' type DM question from Official UCAT Question Bank 1.

An event was attended by 50 guests and most of them suffered from a gastroenteritis outbreak after consuming the food served.

The table shows the details of the guests taken ill at the event.

Place 'Yes' if the conclusion does follow. Place 'No' if the conclusion does not follow.

Among the guests who suffered from gastroenteritis, curried rice was consumed more than other dishes.

The solutions say 'does follow because 40 people consumed the curried rice, the highest number of guests.' I put 'No' as the answer, because I thought curried rice would be the answer only if all 50 guests suffered from gastroenteritis. However the question stem states that 'most of them suffered from a gastroenteritis outbreak'. What if the 40 people who consumed curried rice contain guests who didn't suffer from gastroenteritis? In that case how can we be so sure that curried rice was the dish most consumed by those who suffered from gastroenteritis?

That is why I put 'No' as the answer, but I'm interested to hear your thoughts.. Thanks a lot..

 

[JL538]

Hi guys, I am struggling with an 'Interpreting Information' type DM question from Official UCAT Question Bank 1.

An event was attended by 50 guests and most of them suffered from a gastroenteritis outbreak after consuming the food served.

The table shows the details of the guests taken ill at the event.
View attachment 4468
Place 'Yes' if the conclusion does follow. Place 'No' if the conclusion does not follow.

Among the guests who suffered from gastroenteritis, curried rice was consumed more than other dishes.

The solutions say 'does follow because 40 people consumed the curried rice, the highest number of guests.' I put 'No' as the answer, because I thought curried rice would be the answer only if all 50 guests suffered from gastroenteritis. However the question stem states that 'most of them suffered from a gastroenteritis outbreak'. What if the 40 people who consumed curried rice contain guests who didn't suffer from gastroenteritis? In that case how can we be so sure that curried rice was the dish most consumed by those who suffered from gastroenteritis?

That is why I put 'No' as the answer, but I'm interested to hear your thoughts.. Thanks a lot..

Yeah that's odd. The simple, blunt nature of the answer explanation suggests they potentially meant "among the 50 guests, most of whom suffered gastro, curried rice was the most consumed dish" in which the statement is obviously true. In this case, the "among the guests who suffered from gastro" just refers to the whole group of 50 in general, even though not all suffered from gastro (poor wording by UCAT??)

On the other hand, if they meant it literally, since 32 guests who ate the rice suffered from gastro, this is higher than all the other figures except sandwiches, which is also 32. Therefore, it is true that "Among the guests who suffered from gastroenteritis, curried rice was consumed more than other dishes" since it was consumed more than onion soup, brownies etc. but not sandwiches. Note that it does not say "consumed more than all other dishes", so if it was consumed more than at least 2 other dishes (since its dishes) then the statement is true.

Overall though, that is definitely some poor wording, the suggested solution points towards possibility 1 but if you take the statement at face value, it leads to possibility 2. Maybe I'm just dumb though lol, hopefully someone else can solve it and give us closure