Best Critical Reasoning shortcuts, notes, tips

Best Critical reasoning shortcuts, tips, and notes

Assumptions -1

• An assumption is merely an unstated (implied) premise.
• In logically correct arguments which contain an assumption, the premise + assumption = conclusion.
• If the question stem asks you “what is assumed…” then you should identify unstated premise of passage. Look for a gap in logic.

Assumptions - 2

• Ask yourself, “What must be true to make the conclusion valid?” (Using the premise + assumption = equation formula).
• Remember, since the assumption is an UNSTATED premise, any answer choice that comes from the passage to support your assumption is necessarily incorrect. The answer will be implied, not explicitly stated.

Assumption -3

• An assumption bridges the gap between argument’s stated premises and conclusion.
• Use denial test.
• Compare premise words against conclusion.
• For assumption questions, find the conclusion and determine which answer choice needs to be true for a conclusion to be valid.

Strengthen the Argument

Find the logical gap and fix it with additional information. This is the ONLY type of GMAT question where additional information (outside of the question) can/should be used.

• Correct answers to this question type will:
• Connect evidence with conclusion better.
• Make conclusion stronger.
• Strengthen the evidence with new information (perhaps an assumption is needed to make the argument work

Strengthen/Weaken

Strengthen/Weaken questions are the most common Critical Reasoning (CR) question type on the GMAT.

• Break down piece of evidence.
• Attack validity of an assumption.
• Don’t try to prove or disprove conclusion.
• Tip the scales.

Strengthen/Weaken

Don’t be careless! Wrong answer choices often have exactly opposite of desired effect.

• Double-check that your answer satisfies the ques¬tion stem, not the opposite of the question stem.
• When you compare two items, you must be sure that the two items are indeed comparable.

Inference
Inference questions are usually very basic, about one or more premises. PICK THE OBVIOUS ANSWER (even if it seems too obvious).

• Consider the evidence, draw a conclusion.
• An inference is an extension of an argument, not a necessary part of it.
• A valid inference is a conclusion, but not necessarily the conclusion, of a set of statements.
  For inference questions, determine which answer choice must absolutely, positively be true based on what you’ve read.
• Pick the obvious answer choice.
• Avoid extreme answers (too strong or too weak)

Inference vs. Assumption
An inference is a conclusion that can be drawn based on one or more of the statements in the stimulus. An inference must be true based on something that you read.
An assumption is a missing but necessary piece of evidence. An assumption is something that must be true in order for the argument to be complete

Numbers, Percentages
Watch for the distinction between NUMBERS and PERCENTAGES.


Resolve the Paradox

• To solve this type of question, look for a logically contradictory discrepancy.
• Often the correct answer will take a similar format (in terms of answer length or argument structure).

Mimic the Reasoning
Follow same line of reasoning from the passage in the answer.
Eliminate the question stem detail to create a shorthand version of the argument structure.

• Question Stem: If it rains, then I will stay at home today.”
• Shorthand: If A, then B.”
• Answer: “If A, then B.”

Statistical Assumptions
Are the statistics representative?
Is the question stem doing a lure and switch in terms of numbers?
Is the question stem using numbers to assume something is so, when the numbers aren’t actually helping explain the phenomenon given?


7 Principles of CR
1. Understand structure of argument. Identify premise (P), conclusion (C) and any unstated assumptions. Look for structural signpost words which mark P and C.
2. Preview question before reading passage.
3. Paraphrase passage’s point or main idea using one verb “i.e., explain, criticize, compare, contrast”.3
4. Judge argument’s persuasiveness while reading actively.
5. Answer question being asked.
6. Prephrase answer.
7. Keep SCOPE in mind. Moderate rather than strong words / qualifiers usually correct.

Paraphrasing and Prephrasing
Paraphrasing

• Actively translate passages into your own words.
• Pretend you are explaining the information in a passage to a 10-year-old kid.

Pre phrasing

• Think about what form the correct answer will take.
• As you do more questions, you will begin to “guess” correctly, as you start to think as the test makers do.

Strategy
Identify the conclusion and find the answer that addresses the conclusion. Most questions follow this guideline.

4-Step Method
1. Preview question stem.
2. Read stimulus and paraphrase if tricky.
3. Prephrase answer.
4. Choose an answer which answers question stem

Indicate Flaw
Use the information that is present in the passage to answer “Indicate the Flaw” CR questions.
Not about new information like “Weaken” CR questions.

Irrelevant
Watch for irrelevant or overly strong answer choices in CR.
Stay within SCOPE and TONE of passage


Negate (Counterattack)
For assumption questions, negate CR answer choice to see if the conclusion can survive

Statistics
When an argument is based on statistics, it is usually assumed that the people polled are representative of the whole
Questions Involving Surveys, Consider: Does the survey accurately represent the views of the whole group surveyed? Is there a statistics bait and switch?

Scope Shifts
Be wary of scope shifts. Look for tentmakers’ tricks:

• Sometimes a passage will begin with one group and draw a conclusion about another group. Similarly, a passage might have weak premises and then draw an overbroad conclusion.
• Other times the tone of the passage moves so far that the testtaker is left wondering, “How did that conclusion come about?”

if it helps then give me a kudos..thank u

This post would be more useful if particularly Assumption, Inference tips can be applied to an Example.

What do u mean by Premise? Can anyone explain in layman terms. I read online explanation but felt its complicated.
Mass Media decides outcome of elections, no independent or third party candidate has won any important elections in recent years, 2 major parties raised and spent more money than others -- are note points premise.

For Example in the below passage

We have heard a good deal in recent years about the declining importance of the two major political parties. It is the mass media, we are told, that decide the outcome of elections, not the power of the parties. But it is worth noting that no independent or third-party candidate has won any important election in recent years, and in the last nationwide campaign, the two major parties raised and spent more money than ever before in support of their candidates and platforms. It seems clear that reports of the imminent demise of the two-party system are premature at best.

Which of the following is an assumption made in the argument above?
(A) The amount of money raised and spent by a political party is one valid criterion for judging the influence of the party.
(B) A significant increase in the number of third-party candidates would be evidence of a decline in the importance of the two major parties.
(C) The two-party system has contributed significantly to the stability of the American political structure.
(D) The mass media tend to favor an independent or third-party candidate over a candidate from one of the two major parties.
(E) The mass media are relatively unimportant in deciding the outcome of most elections.


Based on the major tips given

Find Conclusion and see which of the answer choices must be true for the Conclusion to hold true.
Assumption is not stated, it needs to be implied.
Use Denial


So the conclusion of the above passage is "the reports that the 2 party system will fall are FALSE".
When will the conclusion be true, i.e. if the reports have are to be false and the 2 parties wont fall, what should be taken into consideration?

That in recent years no third party has won the elections and that the 2 parties spend more money than any other party.

Seeing answer choices

(A) The amount of money raised and spent by a political party is one valid criterion for judging the influence of the party.

Does it support the conclusion yes it supports it because the 2 parties spent lot of money. So this can be a criteria that can be taken into consideration in arriving at the conclusion

(B) A significant increase in the number of third-party candidates would be evidence of a decline in the importance of the two major parties.

This does not support the conclusion. So leave it.

(C) The two-party system has contributed significantly to the stability of the American political structure.

This is way out of scope. So leave it.

(D) The mass media tend to favor an independent or third-party candidate over a candidate from one of the two major parties.

If this is to be assumed then this would actually contradict the conclusion, so this wont help.

(E) The mass media are relatively unimportant in deciding the outcome of most elections.

If the mass media is unimportant then their reports that "a third party would win in this election" wont be true, so could this be assumed in stating the conclusion?

Kudos.

Very useful material. Thanks!

Kudos!

Good one. Thanks. +1Kudos.

I have a question regarding the method to use while solving a strengthen/weaken type qs.
What I do is...
1. Read qs. first.
2. Classify as Weaken/Strengthen, etc...
3. Find conclusion.
4. Identify premises.
5. Figure out the assumption that links the conclusion and the premises (i.e. what the author must have assumed, but has not mentioned in para, to get to the conclusion).
6. Look for answer choice that either invalidates/negates the assumption (on weaken qs.) or mentions the assumption/gives evidence that proves the assumption right (strengthen qs.)

Someone on another forum told me I don't need to find the assumption in weaken/strengthen type qs. Is that true? How else do you solve it then?

Thank you -

Nice one. thank you..

Thanks! Kudos!

thnx, nice material
kudos

Thanks! kudos!!

Nice post....thanks
Kudos!!!

Thanks for the valuable tips !

Nice one.. thanks for useful tips..
+1 KUDOS

hey,
Thanks for the amazing post...may be someone here can help me, I am going through the Kaplan Verbal workbook 3rd Edition, I came across a question (CR section- Q#2/ pg#101 ) where some sentences are in Bold in the stimulus, haven't come across this anywhere else, are there more question types like this in GMAT prep? or real GMAT even?
I obviously got the question wrong, as I wasn't paying attention on how it was printed, to me it was just some error in printing, and then the question is about first statement versus second statement?
now I am just paranoid about this question.
for some reason I don't pay much attention to the bold/typeface etc of questions, this is just annoying!
Any help guys?
Thanks,

Hi York101,

These are called Bold Face Questions. It is said that if you are really performing well in the Exam you probably will get one Bold Face Question(the reverse need not hold true)..

These questions are bit different from other type of questions.
Please refer this link for some Bold Face questions
advanced-search/?search_id=tag&tag_id=119

Thanks

Oh so they do exist !
Thanks alot Ravichandra

kudos

kudos!

Nice, I noticed this is basically a summary of the Kaplan Premier Program CR chapter. Do you know if the books focused on verbal have additional relevant information?

Thanks for the useful post !