Isolated Element Identity
GMAT glossary · Playbook
Definition
Naming and placing a single forced person or item into one cell, then recomputing the remaining pools around that locked placement.
Isolated Element Identity in plain English
Pull Isolated Element Identity when a single element or person is forced into one cell by the constraints. Clues sound like one person who., exactly one member, or a unique item that must. Name the forced element, place it, then recompute the remaining pools. Treating every element as fungible hides the one placement that unlocks the rest of the diagram. Once that person is locked, every other count becomes a smaller ordinary overlapping-set problem. Micro-example: among 12 committee seats, Priya must chair and therefore cannot also sit in the at-large pool. Lock Priya in Chair, reduce remaining seats to 11, and finish the count from there without pretending she is still available elsewhere.
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