Following several years of declining advertising sales, the Greenville Times reorganized its advertising sales force two years ago. Before reorganizat...
GMAT Critical Reasoning : (CR) Questions
Following several years of declining advertising sales, the Greenville Times reorganized its advertising sales force two years ago. Before reorganization, the sales force was organized geographically, with some sales representatives concentrating on city-center businesses and others concentrating on different outlying regions. The reorganization attempted to increase the sales representatives' knowledge of clients' businesses by having each sales representative deal with only one type of industry or of retailing. After the reorganization, revenue from advertising sales increased.
In assessing whether the improvement in advertising sales can properly be attributed to the reorganization, it would be most helpful to find out which of the following EXCEPT:
Passage Analysis:
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
| Following several years of declining advertising sales, the Greenville Times reorganized its advertising sales force two years ago. |
|
| Before reorganization, the sales force was organized geographically, with some sales representatives concentrating on city-center businesses and others concentrating on different outlying regions. |
|
| The reorganization attempted to increase the sales representatives' knowledge of clients' businesses by having each sales representative deal with only one type of industry or of retailing. |
|
| After the reorganization, revenue from advertising sales increased. |
|
Argument Flow:
The passage presents a potential cause-and-effect scenario: declining sales led to reorganization, which was followed by increased sales. It's structured as problem → solution → positive result.
Main Conclusion:
There isn't actually a stated conclusion here - the passage just presents facts that suggest the reorganization might have caused the sales increase, but doesn't explicitly claim this.
Logical Structure:
This is more of a case study setup than a complete argument. The implied suggestion is that the reorganization caused the sales increase, but we're given the raw timeline without the author definitively making that causal claim.
Prethinking:
Question type:
Evaluate EXCEPT - We need to identify what would NOT be helpful in determining if the reorganization caused the sales increase
Precision of Claims
The key claim is a causal relationship: reorganization led to increased advertising revenue. We need to assess what information would be irrelevant to evaluating this cause-and-effect connection
Strategy
For EXCEPT questions, we skip the normal prethinking process since we're looking for what doesn't fit the pattern. The correct answer will be something that doesn't help us evaluate whether the reorganization actually caused the sales improvement. The wrong answers will all be things that would genuinely help us assess this causal relationship
This asks about what proportion of total revenue came from advertising sales two years ago. This information tells us about the relative importance of ad sales in the company's revenue mix, but it doesn't help us determine whether the reorganization caused the sales increase. Knowing that ad sales were, say, 30% or 70% of total revenue doesn't eliminate alternative explanations for the improvement or confirm the reorganization's effectiveness. This is purely descriptive financial information that's irrelevant to assessing causation. Since this would NOT be helpful, this is our answer for the EXCEPT question.
This asks whether circulation increased substantially in the last two years. This would be very helpful in evaluating the reorganization's impact because increased circulation provides an alternative explanation for higher ad sales. If circulation went up dramatically, that could explain the revenue increase without crediting the reorganization. Conversely, if circulation stayed flat while ad sales rose, it would strengthen the case that the reorganization was responsible. This clearly helps assess causation.
This asks about personnel turnover in the sales force over the last two years. This information would be crucial for evaluation because high turnover could undermine the reorganization's benefits (new people wouldn't have developed industry expertise yet), while low turnover would suggest the reorganization had time to work properly. Understanding staffing stability helps us assess whether the reorganization could realistically have caused the improvement.
This asks whether sales reps had difficulty keeping up with developments in all business types before reorganization. This directly addresses the reorganization's underlying logic - that specialization would improve performance. If reps were indeed struggling with the broad knowledge requirements of the old system, it supports the reorganization as a solution. If they weren't having trouble, it weakens the case for the reorganization's effectiveness. This is highly relevant to causation assessment.
This asks about economic growth in Greenville and surrounding regions over the last two years. This would be extremely helpful because a booming economy provides a strong alternative explanation for increased ad sales. Businesses advertise more when the economy is strong. If the economy was growing rapidly, that could explain the revenue increase without crediting the reorganization. If the economy was stagnant or declining, it would strengthen the case that the reorganization was responsible for the improvement.