Spot the flaw!

paulmv.benthem

So, I write an exam on Monday for a job opening for which I'm applying. I wrote a practice test this afternoon to get a feel for the test; apparently, I overthought the following question that appeared on the test.

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Twenty percent of your work now involves clerical duties, whereas these duties took 30 % of your time two years ago. However, the 20 % of your time spent on writing the quarterly report two years ago has now increased to 25 %. You also note that 25 % of your time is spent classifying files, as it was two years ago.

What conclusion(s) can be justified based on these findings?
1. The time you spend classifying files has remained the same
2. The time you spend on clerical duties has decreased
3. Both 1 and 2
4. Neither 1 nor 2

*

Can anybody guess which answer I "incorrectly" chose and why I chose it?

*(The full test is available to the public on the Government of Canada website.)

BinghamtonDave

Did you choose 4?

paulmv.benthem

@BinghamtonDave said:
Did you choose 4?

Yuppers! When I first read the question, I was excited that I picked up on how they were trying to trick me...yeah, not so much.

BinghamtonDave

I think absent any statement about the amount of time in our unit of measure: per day or per week etc and whether or not the amount within that unit changed over the given time, I don’t think we can infer 1,2 or 3.

I would have chosen the same answer as you. Good work.

keets993

You should tell them you're studying for the LSAT and that neither of 1,2, or 3 can be inferred since percentage of time means nothing unless you know anything about the amount of hours you put in and whether that has increased, decreased, or stayed the same in the past two years. They might be super impressed.

paulmv.benthem

@BinghamtonDave said:
I think absent any statement about the amount of time in our unit of measure: per day or per week etc and whether or not the amount within that unit changed over the given time, I don’t think we can infer 1,2 or 3.

My thoughts exactly!

@keets993 said:
You should tell them you're studying for the LSAT and that neither of 1,2, or 3 can be inferred since percentage of time means nothing unless you know anything about the amount of hours you put in and whether that has increased, decreased, or stayed the same in the past two years. They might be super impressed.

Or, they might just roll their eyes like everyone else when I get "overly logical."

keets993

Or, they might just roll their eyes like everyone else when I get "overly logical."

Fair enough, save the overly logical for our study group then