Start here · the first lesson of DS on numbers, ages, dates and relations
DS on numbers, ages, dates and relations
Data Sufficiency · for IPMAT Indore, IPMAT Rohtak and JIPMAT
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The idea
A data-sufficiency (DS) item asks a question and gives two statements. You decide whether statement I alone, statement II alone, either alone, both together, or not even both together fix the answer. JIPMAT 2021 asked one (is a + b odd, with 8 < a < 11 and 7 < b < 10); coaching analyses report two to five a year in recent Rohtak papers. The answer choices are a fixed format: read the option list once, since the order differs between papers.
Textbook vs exam method
Textbook method
- Read the question and decide what would fix it (a number, a yes/no, a name).
- Statement I alone: is the answer forced in every situation I allows? Then II alone, forgetting I.
- If neither alone works, combine them.
- Map the result to the option: I only / II only / either alone / both needed / not even both.
Exam method
- Count unknowns. Turnover = units × price + other products: I gives units and price, II rules out other products → both.
- Look for a counter-example. "Is the average above 70?" with only the highest and lowest scores: 50, 60, 90 (no) and 50, 90, 90 (yes) → not sufficient.
- Yes/No. Thomas has 50 books; David has 26 to 49 → always "Yes" → sufficient together.
- Dates and days. Intersect ranges; "yesterday started with T" leaves two days.
- Relations. Check that the gender needed for the relation word is given.