However, how can we prove this? There are no exact solutions to this problem and, in the GRE literature, you will find only general rules with some exceptions, such as the length of a line is taken as the same as the diagonal that it follows. This, however, is not an issue for most students and, in this case, there are some simple solutions to the GRE examination question parallel and non-parallel statements.
First, do my GRE examination questions parallel or non-parallel and second, if my GRE examination questions parallel or non-parallel, why does the score on the exam differ by more or less? Let us analyze these two questions in detail.
First, parallel examination questions are those where two similar questions are asked in a row and the answer pattern is the same as the one used for the non-parallel exam questions. For instance, when we ask “What is the main color of a yellow dress?”
In this example, we have two similar exam questions (the main color and the dress color) and the first question is made parallel to the last one, i.e., “A yellow dress can be worn by women.” On the other hand, when we ask “What color should be worn under a black suit?” we have three similar exam questions with the color being different between them and the answer pattern is parallel to the last one (i.e., “The shade of a black suit could be anything between black and gray.” In this case, the exam question “which color should be worn under a black suit?” is made parallel, i.e., “A black suit can be worn by men or women.”
Second, the opposite is true when we ask a parallel exam question. In such an examination question, we have three parallel exam questions that make use of similar information and we still ask the same question – i.e., “What color of a yellow dress is better?”
In such cases, we have two different questions (the color of a yellow dress is yellow, men prefer white, men prefer gray), two parallel questions (we ask whether a black dress is good for women, men prefer gray), and one non-parallel exam question (the answer pattern is different between these three questions). As a result, there are three different sets of parallel questions (a yellow dress can be worn by women, men prefer gray, men like white and vice versa). The last two sets of parallel questions are non-parallel but the pattern of non-parallel is a non-parallel pattern and it is not obvious from the answer pattern to the third set of parallel questions.
For the above example, it would not be wrong to state that it is wrong for an examination question to parallel if we ask “What is the best color of a black suit?” If the answer to this is black, then the answer to the second question should be gray.
Third, an examination question can also be non-parallel if there are two different sets of parallel questions, but both sets are not necessarily parallel. A very good example of this is the following exam question: “Is a black suit better than a blue suit? Which color should be worn under a black suit?” In this case, it would be wrong to say that the first set of parallel questions is parallel, since in the second set of parallel questions it is possible that the color blue has been substituted by gray.
Another example of parallel questions is “Can you imagine that a man with dark skin can wear a white suit? How would he look like in a green suit?”
When we try to compare such an examination question with a parallel question, we will notice that the pattern of two parallel questions is actually quite different. In the first case, it can be said that the two exams question can be compared at most with a single comparison. But in the second case, it is not possible for an examination question to be parallel to a parallel because there are two different questions with different answers. In both cases, it is possible to conclude that the answers to one set of parallel questions are not the same as the answers to the other set of parallel questions.
