TrapQuantitative · Verbal · Data Insights

Requirement Misread: When correct work answers the wrong question

A Requirement Misread occurs when your work answers a nearby question rather than the exact one asked. The arithmetic or logic may be valid. The target is wrong.

This trap appears across the GMAT because questions often place a tempting intermediate value in the answer choices. The test is not only whether you can calculate. It is whether you can keep the requested object stable while calculating.

What it feels like

You finish the work, see your number among the choices, and select it with unusual confidence.

The number may be:

the difference rather than the percentage difference
one group rather than the total
a component rather than the final expression
a statement that is supported when the stem asks which is not supported
the value of a variable when Data Sufficiency asks only whether the value can be determined

The distractor feels earned because it is earned. It is simply not the answer.

A small example

A subscription price rises from $80 to $92. By what percent is the new price greater than the original?

The increase is $12. But $12 answers “by how many dollars?” The question asks “by what percent?”

The required result is:

12 ÷ 80 = 15%

The denominator is the original price because the increase is being measured relative to where the price started.

Signals in your work

You may be making a Requirement Misread when:

your answer is a clean intermediate value
your units do not match the stem
you cannot finish the sentence “My answer represents…”
you read the stem once and never return to it
the explanation requires one small final step after the value you found

The target-label protocol

Before solving, write a short target label. It should include the object and, when relevant, the reference:

“percent increase relative to original”
“employees in neither group”
“statement not supported”
“whether x is uniquely determined”

After solving, attach meaning and units to your result. If you found 12, say “$12 increase.” That phrase makes the mismatch with “percentage increase” visible.

Problem Solving Very Hard · percent / fractions, decimals

A courier service charges a base fee of $5.00 plus $1.20 for each 0.75 kilogram or fraction thereof. For every number x, [x] is defined to be the least integer greater than or equal to x. Which of the following represents the charge, in dollars, for a package weighing w kilograms?

Answer: B

The number of 0.75-kilogram increments is w ÷ 0.75, so the rounded number of increments is [w/0.75]. The variable charge is 1.20[w/0.75], and the total is 5.00 + 1.20[w/0.75], so B is correct. Choice A multiplies by 0.75 instead of dividing, undercounting the increments. Choice C rounds 0.90w, which incorrectly multiplies the rate by the unit size before rounding. Choice D rounds 1.60w, the total variable charge before rounding, but omits the outside $1.20 per-increment multiplier. Choice E charges only for whole kilograms.

Original GMAT-style question written for Premiergrad and checked by an independent blind solve. Not an official GMAT question.

What Lumen should look for

What Lumen looks for

Lumen reads the answer you chose, not just whether it was wrong. On a question like this it separates three things that all look identical in a score: a concept you have not met, a reasoning step that went sideways, and a correct method pointed at the wrong target. Those need three different next weeks, and only the third one is fixed by re-reading the topic.

A single answer is weak evidence and Lumen says so. It becomes a diagnosis when the same shape shows up across several questions — which is the part a page like this cannot do for you.

A strong diagnosis distinguishes target loss from a concept error. If you correctly found the price difference but stopped, reviewing the percentage formula is not the first intervention. The correction is to preserve the target through the final step.

Percentages: how the GMAT tests the reference base
Denominator or Base-Rate Confusion: when the target is correct but the comparison base is not
Premature Calculation: when work begins before the target is clear
Data Sufficiency: when the task is certainty rather than numerical solution

Correct the process, not your personality

Do not record this as “careless.” Record the exact divergence:

I found the absolute increase and selected it without converting to the requested percentage.

Then write the portable rule:

Before selecting, state what the result means and compare its units with the target.

Want to see whether this pattern repeats across topics? Take the free diagnostic quiz and let Premiergrad connect your answer choices to likely traps.

Diagnose my mistakes →

Concept Percentages
The GMAT rarely tests whether you remember:

The concept whose reference base this trap most often costs you.
Trap Denominator or Base-Rate Confusion
Denominator or Base Rate Confusion occurs when a rate, percentage, or relative change is interpreted without preserving…

The neighbouring failure: right target, wrong comparison base.
Concept Data Sufficiency
Data Sufficiency asks whether the supplied information determines one answer to the question. It does not ask you to…

Where the target is certainty rather than a number.
Practice GMAT Percentage Practice Questions
These questions focus on the decisions percentages conceal: the correct base, the requested quantity, and whether the…

Five questions that reward a written target label.

Does this one recur in your answers?

You may well have handled the example above. The useful question is whether the same pattern shows up elsewhere in your work — across topics, where you are not expecting it. That is what the diagnostic measures.

Check my answers for this trap Everything on this page stays free and open — no account needed to read it or to attempt the questions above.

Last reviewed 2026-09-17