Psychologists observing a shopping mall parking lot found that, on average, drivers spent 39 seconds leaving a parkin...

SamA on March 15, 2020

Hello @zia305,

It might be difficult for me to type out a diagram for this sort of sequencing game, as we will be creating a long sequencing chain. I will do my best to explain how to approach these questions.

I'll start with February 1992. Every rule is a sequencing rule, so I have diagrammed the variables in relation to one another. Hopefully the formatting turns out ok, and you should be able to see that Kohn has the highest possible salary.

I - F - M - G - J - H
K<
L - N

1. Who cannot have the third highest salary? Here is how I want you to think of this one. If you pick a variable, you should see how many other variables must come before it. For instance, N must come after K and L. The person with the 3rd highest salary cannot have more than two variables ahead of them. This is why D is the correct answer. M must come after K, I, and F. The highest M can be is 4th.

2. Malloy and Nassar earn the same salary. What does this really mean? We already know that Lopez earns more than Nasser. Now we know that Lopez earns more than Nasser and Malloy, since N and M are equal. Therefore, Lopez also earns more than Glassen, Jacoby, and Hae. Follow the sequencing chain. The correct answer is C, 5.

3. Which piece of information completely solves our sequence? Notice that, after K, there is a split in our chain. We know the order for each part, but not how they relate to one another. For example, the only thing that N and H have in common is that they come after K. N could be 3rd, or N could be 9th. This is the uncertainty we need to eliminate. We must do so by connecting these two parts of the chain. Consider answer choice D. This is the connection I am looking for, because it gives us this:
K - L - N - I - F - M - G - J - H

4. We are told that N is tied with another person, but we do not know which. What we do know is that no matter who that person is, L will have a higher salary than they do, as well as everyone else behind them. The lowest salary that N could have would be shared with H. No matter what, L will have a higher salary than H. This is why D must be false, making it the correct answer.

5. Remember that the only ties can be between people of opposite branches of the chain. K, I, F, M, G, J, and H all must have different salaries. This gives us our minimum, which is 7. L and N could be tied with anyone after K, leaving us with a total of 7 different salaries.

6. This question has now eliminated the possibility of a tie. Similar to the first question, I want you to think of who must come before Glassen: K, I, F, and M. At best, Glassen is 5th. What if Lopez makes more than Glassen? Then Glassen would be 6th. What if Nassar makes more than Glassen? Then Glassen would be 7th. 5th, 6th, and 7th are the only options, making D the correct answer.

I'm not sure if I have given any new insights that weren't in the video explanation. If this is helpful, I'll come back and go through December 2000 as well. Understanding sequencing relationships is very important on this test, so it is worth practicing. If there is one thing I want you to learn from this, it is how to deal with the diverging branches of our chain. Remember that M and N, for example, have no relationship other than they must both come after K. N could take any spot from 3rd through 9th.