CR - 94% - Guiding Star - Answer Analysis Flashcards
Must Be True
Which answer “HAS TO BE IN EVERY CASE TRUE”
Family Type 1: Stimulus is true and complete and answers based on stimulus.
Recognize Question: Some form of: “If above is true”
Correct Answer: 100% justifiable by the stimulus. Each word is important here because this is the only game the test makers can play with. A paraphrased answer will ALWAYS be correct and closely related, answers that sum 2 or more of the stimulus statements will be correct
Incorrect Answers:
- Bring in new ideas (remember the stimulus is complete)
- Correct up to 99.9% of the time
- Exaggerated close wording (high value does NOT = rising value)
- Opposite (trap quick readers that miss detail)
- Reverse answer (many and some switched to some and many)
NOTE: if the stimulus only contains opinions then a direct assertion can therefore not be the answer. Conversely, if the stimulus is fact based (only premises but no conclusion), the answer can not be an opinion.
I just did 4 practice problems from PowerScore and got 3 of the 4 incorrect. The 3 I got incorrect were all because each was so likely to happen that I assumed it as fact, when in fact 99.9% likely is the wrong answer for this question type. In this questions type, even if an answer can be true, but doesn’t 100% have to be true, it’s wrong. This makes the correct answer so simple, its like paraphrasing what the stimulus just said.
Skill: “If” is in and “Then” is out
Recognize conditional statements: Smaller circle (Conditional Situation) If, When, Whenever, Every, All, Any, Each, In order to, people who:
Bigger Circle (Necessary): Then, Only, Only if, Must, Required, Unless, Except, Until, Without
All conditional statements can be turned into what if, therefore:
Circle diagram to assess conditional statements like,
if it is a bus, then it is yellow.
“Bus” would be in and “Yellow” would be out.
Main Point
Family Type 1: The Stimulus is accepted as true (subtype of MUST BE TRUE: See why?)
Recognized by “what is the purpose, main point, authors intent…(not frequent on CR but essential skill for strengthen and weaken, therefore know well :)
Correct Answer: Paraphrase of the conclusion.
The only real tool the writer has here is to try to disguise the real conclusion by adding sub-conclusions and not using any key words to indicate conclusions. Use the therefore/because test if needed.
Incorrect Answers: Will restate premise (tricky because true, yet not intent of author. )
Skill: Fill in the blank
Sometimes the stimulus will follow the question and ask the test taker to ________ fill in the blank. The way you know what they are asking for is by the indicator that is typically the first word/phrase of the sentence containing the blank.
Thus, Therefore, Hence would indicate conclusion (main point question)
Because, Since indicate Premise and then need question to see if they ask to strengthen or weaken.
You will only see this question type of Main Point, Must Be True, Strengthen and Assumptions
Weaken
Family 3: Statements accepted as true and selecting 1 that weakens the conclusion
Recognize by…“which of the following if true, weakens, undermines, casts doubt, calls into questions, contradicts, is evidence against…
Correct Answer: Most often done by attacking an assumption because they are harder to see or by adding new information that would make one consider the validity of their reasoning.
Incorrect: S,N
State opposite, out of scope,
NOTE: On 2 that I got wrong, after going through PowerScore, I noticed that I had to make at least 2 assumptions to be able to weaken the conclusion. Only 1 assumption needs to be able to weaken the conclusion. (Make the author rethink his answer :)
Process: The answer is most likely going to attack an assumption, therefore, identify the assumption and then ask, based on that assumption, to the author, questions about any other options to get to the desired conclusion.
Skill: Causality
When their is causality in the conclusion, A must have caused B when the stimulus says that both A and B happen, the author accepts the conclusion to be 100% true. Typically I need to weaken this…
In truth, just because A and B happen doesn’t mean A cause B or B caused A.
It could be that C caused and A and B to happen or simply that A and B are correlated, but don’t actually cause (trigger) the other.
For weaken, ask the author if any other way that B and A happened. Did something else cause A?
Assumptions
Family Type 2: Info in Stimulus is Suspect. The answer choices will strengthen/resolve the paradox/fill in the assumption or weaken the argument.
Recognize: Which of the following is assumed or ‘the above conclusion cannot be true unless which of the following are true?’ An Assumption is an unstated premise that the other assumes to be true even before writing the argument. Therefore, an assumption is taken to be 100% true by the other whereupon his conclusion is based.
Correct Answer: Supporter or Defender
Supporter: Connects rouge info to conclusion (more common when argument is weak). This will basically confirm the Assumption as true
In Causality the Answer will do 1 of the following: A -> B /A -> /B C -/> B B -/> A
Defender: Eliminates any other path to better conclusion (more common when argument is close to air tight). This will eliminate the possibility of some other option leading to conclusion. Because this eliminates the option, wording such as “no, not and never” are used here. This will make it really easy to negate to check :) See negation tricks below.
Example:
Assumption is: Learning X will allow tourists to be most effective when communicating with locals.
NOTE: A defender statement would say something like ‘no other way to be more effective than learning X’ See correct answer below:
Learning both X and Y languages would NOT allow tourists to better communicate with the residents of country Z than would only learning X.
Double Check your Answer: Only for assumptions questions to you check your answer…If you negate the answer, it will weaken the conclusion. (The fact that the assumption must be true for the conclusion to be true…if we negate the assumption, it will crumble the argument…)
Remember when negating that “Some” is negated by “None” but “All” is negated by “Not All”.
“Will” happen is negated by “might not” happen.
If “not” is in the assumption, negate it by simply pulling out the “not”. With this trick, I should get assumptions questions correct 100% of the time :) Yeeha!
Strengthen
Family Type 2: Stimulus is suspect, the correct answer will strengthen the assumption or eliminate other options to the conclusion.
Recognize by: if true, most helps, supports, strengthens, justifies the conclusion.
Correct Answer: Will help by 1% or by 100%
In Causality the Answer will do 1 of the following:
A -> B
/A -> /B
C -/> B
B -/> A
Incorrect Answer: Will not support at all
Process:
Identify conclusion
Write Assumption
Look for weakness (this is most likely where they will provide support to fill the gap).
NOTE: If a strengthen option repeats a premise, or gives an example of the premise, just provides an example for the premise already stated. It doesn’t do more to strengthen the argument.
A strengthen is going to actually add info to connect P to C or deny the option of something else being the cause of C.
Example: Which is the correct answer for the conclusion that “Microwave ovens shouldn’t be standard appliance until certified to be completely safe, because there have been several injuries”?
- > There have been many reported incidences of people who have been scalded by liquids super-heated in microwave ovens.
- > Absolute safety is the only criterion by which an appliance should be judged to be acceptable as “standard.”
Skill: Weak or Strong Argument?
Key: When the author makes a conclusion, (GMAT FACT), they are saying they have considered all other alternatives, and the only one possible is the one given. They consider their conclusion “well considered and airtight” meaning that every other possible objection has been considered and rejected.
Therefore, in order to…
Weak (introduce rouge info) and Question asks to strengthen = Fill Gap
Weak and Question asks to weaken = alternate path to Conclusion
Strong and Question asks to strengthen = No alternate to Conclusion OR example of how Premise is tied to C. (remember minted coins made before 365AD were found, but no others after :))
Strong and Questions asks to weaken = Alternative path to Conclusion
Resolve the Paradox
Family 2: (Stimulus is Suspect and Answers will be correct).
Recognize by:
Which if true, resolves, explains, reconciles, accounts for the paradox…
Correct Answer: Make both (2) scenarios make sense
Incorrect Answer:
Explain 1 or none of the scenarios. (1 is trickier as it looks good to the skimmer).
Process: Two columns, write the scenario 1 and scenario 2 as headers. Put check boxes if it makes that scenario make sense.
The one line item with 2 checks is the correct answer
Method of Reasoning
Family Type 1 Stimulus is true. Questions are suspect and the answer must be 100% true (just like Must be True).
Recognize By:
The argument derives it’s conclusion by, the argument proceeds by, uses which reasoning technique. (Note, the answer choices will clue me in if I don’t recognize by the question stem. Again, looking at big picture…Author refutes the claim by explaining an analogy….)
Correct Answer: 100% true. The author of the question will use very subtle wording here.
Incorrect Answer: "New" info presented Partial Scope (1/2 correct) Exaggerated answers Opposites Reversal
Once I prethink the answer, the answer many times will be a paraphrase of that…
TRICK: Some of these arguments can be difficult to understand, but you can rule out many answers immediately based on 1 word/phrase in each incorrect answer. Remember, it has to be 100% true!
If it says that the claim in undermined by an incorrect analogy. There has to be an incorrect analogy in the argument.
SKILL: Reasoning Errors (Very valuable for Flaw and Method of Reasoning Questions)
Evidence Based Errors:
Giving irrelevant evidence to try to prove the claim
Giving contradicting evidence to prove the claim
Giving a only couple evidences generalizing they prove the claim
Giving no evidence and thus proving something is false
Giving a lack of evidence against thus proving something is true
Giving some evidence thus proving claim always false
Giving some evidence thus proving claim is always true
Source Argument Errors:
Attacking the person giving the argument, not the argument itself
Circular Reasoning:
restating the premise as the conclusion (visa-versa). One does not lead to the other, but can be continually looped…EX. “I am not lying because I’m telling the truth”
Conditional Reasoning:
Confuses a Necessary condition (if) with the Sufficient condition (then)
Confuses a Sufficient condition (then) with the Necessary condition (if).
HINT: If you can spot a conditional reasoning error in the stimulus, the correct answer choice will have words like “necessary, assured, required, sufficient”.
Mistaken Cause and Effect:
Assuming causal relationship based on a sequence of events.
Assuming cause when only a correlation exists
Failing to consider alternative cause to stated effect
Failing to consider the effect may actually be the cause
Straw Man:
The critic of the argument will respond by saying, “so what you’re saying is…” then slightly change the meaning to weaken the argument.
Appeal Fallacies:
- Appeal to Authority - use an authority as means to persuade.
- Appeal to Popular Opinion/Numbers - majority believe is to be true thus must be true.
- Appeal to Emotion - emotionally charged language used to persuade reader
Survey Errors:
- Survey uses biased sample -
- Survey questions are confusing (double negatives) -
- Respondents give inaccurate information -
Errors of Composition and Division:
Incorrectly attributing group characteristics to an individual body or visa-versa.
Uncertain Use of a Term:
Using the world “values” as in morals and continuing on with “value” in the monetary sense.
False Analogy:
The compared analogy isn’t close enough to the original to be valid.
False Dilemma:
Assumes that only 2 courses of action could be taken when in fact there could be another.
Time Shift Errors:
Mistakenly thinking that what was the case in the past will be the case in the future.
Numbers and Percentage Errors:
Mistakes attributes a definite quantity to a percentage.
Mistakenly saying if percent goes down then revenue must be down…
Method of Reasoning: Bold Face
Family Type 1 (Stimulus is true. Answer choice are suspect.
Recognize by: Bold face phrases in stimulus
Correct Answer: Accurately reflect the X, P, C, Sub C relationship of the bold face statements.
Incorrect Answer: Will explain the role of other parts of the argument, just not the one that is boldfaced.
Process: Label B, P, X, MP, or SP.
The author plays around with these to confuse the reader. They like to through in X,P,MP and SP to complicate the issues :)
Parallel Reasoning
Family Type 1 (Answer must be 100% correct in form (not in topic)). These answers will more likely have nothing to do with the topic. The test is to match the method of reasoning in the answer choices.
Process of elimination:
1. Match the method of reasoning.
(If uses circular reasoning, conditional reasoning, straw man etc, then the answer will have the same method of reasoning, (flawed or correct). You can see quickly if the argument will be sound or flawed by the question stem.)
- Match the conclusion
If the conclusion says “thus, this should be the case”, then the conclusion of the correct answer will follow this same type of the language…“this should be the case”… - Match the premise
If still not able to eliminate 4, use premise matching. This is similar to conclusion matching, but with the premise. I just did an example where both premises were independent, thus both independently supporting the conclusion. I had to rule out the incorrect answer where the 2nd premise was built off of the first premise. - Match the validity
If still not able to eliminate 4, if the argument is sound, the answer will be sound. If flawed, it will be flawed.
IF ALL ELSE FAILS:
Make an abstract sentence from the stimulus without details. The abstract sentence should closely relate to an abstract sentence from the correct answer choice.
Skill: Numbers and Percentages
The GMAT test makers use these common assumptions as traps for number and percent problems.
- If the percent goes up, then sales go up (visa-versa)
- If the number goes up, then the percent must have gone up (visa-versa)
The truth is, I have to know the total amount (pool) the percentage is based on. If I do 80% market share this year out of 10 projects, I have done 8 projects. If my market share decreases to 10% next year, but the pool increases to 100 projects, then I actually increase in project sales (10).
Rule: Anytime only a percentage is given in the problem, the answer won’t contain hard numbers. If stimulus contains hard numbers then avoid answers with proportionate data.
Remember, we need both the pool and the percentage to tell if “sales” actually changed.
