The ChildCare Center (CCC) is a medium-sized child care facility that offers daytime supervision and instruction on weekdays (Monday through...
GMAT Multi Source Reasoning : (MSR) Questions
The ChildCare Center (CCC) is a medium-sized child care facility that offers daytime supervision and instruction on weekdays (Monday through Friday) for children up to the age of 5. There are many children who attend CCC every weekday, and a relatively small number attend fewer than 3 days per week.
The classroom assignment and daily fee paid to CCC for each child are determined by the child's age on Friday of the previous week.
From the Saturday before Week 2 through the Friday of Week 2, exactly eight of the children in attendance at CCC had birthdays. Two children turned 1, one child turned 2, one child turned 3, and four children turned 4. All changes to classroom attendance from Week 2 to Week 3 were due to these birthdays. For each of the following classrooms, select More staff if more classroom staff members were assigned to that classroom on the Monday of Week 3 than on the Monday of Week 2. Otherwise, select Same/fewer staff.
OWNING THE DATASET
Understanding Source A: CCC Operations and Pricing Structure
| Information from Dataset | Analysis |
|---|---|
| "The ChildCare Center (CCC) is a medium-sized child care facility that offers daytime supervision and instruction on weekdays (Monday through Friday) for children up to the age of 5" |
|
| "There are many children who attend CCC every weekday, and a relatively small number attend fewer than 3 days per week" |
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| "The classroom assignment and daily fee paid to CCC for each child are determined by the child's age on Friday of the previous week" |
|
| Daily fees: Infant/Ones: \(\$48\), Twos: \(\$41\), Threes/Fours/Four-Fives: \(\$33\) |
|
Summary: CCC is a weekday childcare center serving ages \(0-5\) with age-based classrooms and daily fees that decrease significantly as children get older (from \(\$48\) to \(\$33\)).
Understanding Source B: Staffing Regulations
| Information from Dataset | Analysis |
|---|---|
| "The ratio of the number of classroom staff in a particular classroom to the number of children in that classroom is subject to local regulations" |
|
| "certain minimum staff-to-child ratios are to be met or exceeded in every classroom" |
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| "The minimum ratio for a particular classroom is determined by the age of the youngest child in the classroom" |
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| "Each day, CCC assigns to each classroom the least number of staff members needed to comply with the local regulations" |
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| Ratios: Age \(\lt 2: 1:4\), Age \(2: 1:6\), Age \(3: 1:10\), Age \(4: 1:15\), Age \(5: 1:19\) |
|
Summary: CCC must follow strict age-based staffing ratios that require much more staff for younger children, which explains why younger children have higher daily fees.
Understanding Source C: Week 2 Attendance Patterns
Table Analysis:
- What it shows: Daily attendance for each classroom during Week 2
- Key patterns observed:
- Friday has lowest attendance in every single classroom
- Mid-week (Tuesday-Thursday) generally shows highest attendance
- Attendance ranges: Infant \((9-11)\), Ones \((10-13)\), Twos \((6-10)\), Threes \((12-16)\), FourFives \((8-12)\)
- Inference: Friday drops range from \(20-40\%\) across classrooms - some families consistently use 4-day schedules
- Linkage to Source A: The Friday attendance drops contradict the claim that "many children attend every weekday" - clearly Friday is different
- Linkage to Source B: With minimum staffing practices, CCC saves money every Friday when fewer children attend
Additional Key Information:
"The roster of children attending CCC—as well as the days of the week each child attended—was unchanged from Week 1 through Week 3"
- Analysis: Same kids came on same days for 3 weeks straight
- Inference: Families have fixed weekly schedules
- Linkage to Source A: This stable pattern enables the Friday age assessment system to work efficiently
Classroom Structure Observation:
- Only 5 classrooms shown (no separate "Fours" classroom)
- Linkage to Source A: Contradicts the fee schedule which lists 6 classrooms - in practice, Fours and Fives are combined
Summary: Week 2 attendance shows consistent Friday drops across all classrooms, revealing that many families use 4-day schedules despite CCC's claim of mostly full-week attendance, while the combined FourFives classroom shows operational reality differs from the fee structure.
Overall Summary
- Younger children cost much more (\(\$48\) vs \(\$33\)) because they legally require much more staff (\(1:4\) ratio vs \(1:19\) ratio)
- Friday is consistently a low-attendance day with \(20-40\%\) drops, contradicting the stated norm of full-week attendance
- CCC operates efficiently by staffing at minimum legal levels and likely saves significantly on Fridays
- The Threes classroom appears most viable with highest attendance, moderate fees (\(\$33\)), and manageable staffing ratios (\(1:10\))
- Age 3 represents a major transition point where both fees drop significantly and staffing requirements become more favorable
Question Analysis
The question examines whether eight children having birthdays between Saturday before Week 2 and Friday of Week 2 resulted in more staff being needed in the Twos, Threes, and FourFives classrooms on Monday of Week 3. The birthday distribution was: 2 turned 1, 1 turned 2, 1 turned 3, and 4 turned 4, causing them to move to new age-based classrooms. We need to compare staffing requirements between Monday of Week 2 versus Monday of Week 3, with CCC staffing at minimum legal ratios each day.
Connecting to Our Analysis
Our analysis contains the necessary attendance data, age-based classroom movements, and staffing ratios to determine staffing changes. We need to extract Week 2 Monday attendance, apply the birthday movements to calculate Week 3 attendance, then determine staffing changes based on minimum ratios. The birthday movements create: 2 children Infant→Ones, 1 child Ones→Twos, 1 child Twos→Threes, and 4 children Threes→FourFives.
Extracting Relevant Findings
The baseline Monday Week 2 attendance was: Twos = 9 children, Threes = 15 children, FourFives = 12 children. The net changes from birthday movements result in: Twos (+1-1 = 0 change), Threes (+1-4 = -3 decrease), FourFives (+4 = +4 increase). This gives Week 3 attendance of: Twos = 9 children, Threes = 12 children, FourFives = 16 children.
Individual Statement/Option Evaluations
Statement 1 Evaluation: "More staff"
- Criterion: Whether any of the three classrooms (Twos, Threes, FourFives) requires additional staff from Week 2 to Week 3
- Evidence from Twos: 9 children both weeks, \(\mathrm{9÷6=1.5}\) rounds up to 2 staff both weeks
- Evidence from Threes: 15→12 children, \(\mathrm{15÷10=1.5}\) and \(\mathrm{12÷10=1.2}\) both round up to 2 staff
- Evidence from FourFives: 12→16 children, \(\mathrm{12÷15=0.8}\) rounds up to 1 staff, \(\mathrm{16÷15=1.07}\) rounds up to 2 staff
- Key finding: FourFives classroom increases from 1 staff to 2 staff (net increase of 1 staff member)
- Conclusion: Correct - the FourFives classroom requires one additional staff member
Statement 2 Evaluation: "Same/few staff"
- Criterion: Whether the overall staffing requirement across the three classrooms stays the same or decreases
- Evidence: Twos maintains 2 staff, Threes maintains 2 staff, but FourFives increases from 1 to 2 staff
- Overall calculation: Week 2 total = 2+2+1 = 5 staff, Week 3 total = 2+2+2 = 6 staff
- Net change: +1 additional staff member needed overall
- Conclusion: Incorrect - more staff is needed, not same or fewer
Systematic Checking
Verification using minimum staffing ratios confirms our calculations:
- Twos uses 1:6 ratio → 9 children require 2 staff both weeks (no change)
- Threes uses 1:10 ratio → 15 children and 12 children both require 2 staff (no change)
- FourFives uses 1:15 ratio → 12 children require 1 staff, 16 children require 2 staff (+1 increase)
The analysis confirms that exactly one additional staff member is needed specifically in the FourFives classroom due to the influx of four children turning 4 years old.
Final Answer
- Statement 1: More staff - Correct
- Statement 2: Same/few staff - Incorrect
Twos
Threes
FourFives