XAT 2017 — Decision Making Question 5
Analyse the following caselet and answer the question that follows:
Mrs Biswas was to retire in one year after serving in the construction department of the Gujarat government for more than thirty years. After retirement, she wanted to spend her retired life along with Mr Biswas, a retired school teacher in a small town in Kerala. They had two children, both studying in Bengaluru. The Biswas’ wished to construct a house in Kerala with their life savings.
The couple gathered information about owning a house in Kerala. They had four options:
- Buy a fully furnished house from a big developer.
- Buy a semi-furnished house from big developer and furnish it.
- Get a local unregistered contractor to construct a house and furnish it.
- Mr Biswas with inputs from the family could supervise the construction of a house back in Kerala by employing the best material, engineers, masons and labourers.
Which of the following additional information, IF TRUE, would improve the chances of the third option being preferred?
Answer & solution
- A
Based on the current information, with no additional information, the third is the best option.
Among local property holders, the contractor in the third option enjoys a good reputation.
- C
Big developers are less open to changes in design.
- D
Mr Biswas cannot stay back alone to supervise the construction.
- E
The Biswas’ want to select the furniture on their own.
Option 3 makes first and second options (in the caselet) less attractive, but does not make third option (in the caselet) as attractive as option 2 does. Option 4 makes first option (in the caselet) and second option (in the caselet) attractive but does not improve the chances of preferring the third option (in the caselet). Option 5 makes first option (in the caselet) less attractive and second option most attractive. Based on arguments presented in the previous question, it is clear that third option (in the caselet) was not the best. Hence, 1 is not the right answer. If the builder had good reputation among the local house owners, it means that the builder has been constructing houses to the satisfaction of the local house owners which probably would mean that the builder should be able to assure good quality.
Hence, the correct answer is option 2.