Critical Reasoning Strategies:
I will list my strategies to solve CR. Before you embark on this, make sure that you are fairly comfortable with the following things -
1. How to recognize the weakening, strengthening, and assumption questions? - if not, you may need to refer to Manhattan, Veritas or Powerscore CR Bible.
2. How to identify the conclusion and evidence in the argument? If you are having difficulty, you may need to refer to Powerscore CR bible ( refer to beginning chapters)
3. What weakening and strengthening really mean? In the weakening question, you weaken the conclusion ( and not necessarily destroy it). Similarly, in the strengthening question, you strengthen the conclusion. I will write this post in blocks. And will edit as I get comments or suggestions.
How to identify wrong answers?
PART A
1.
Scope of the argument and answer choices - This is a toughest part of the CR, according to me. How you will determine the scope of the argument? And once you determine the scope of the argument, how you will use to eliminate the answer choice? Let me give some examples. Later I will add
OG CR question to evaluate this.
Example 1 : Scientist found a virus that could be used to cure the lyme disease. The virus called H5R is found in the mountain of Himalayas. Thus, the lyme disease could be cured in near future.
Scope : Read the conclusion. You need the eagle eye view on the conclusion. Now let's find out the scope. The scope of this argument is focused on lyme disease. It's not scientist or mountain or to some extent virus ( depends on the CR). Now let's consider some wrong answer choices.
Example 2 : Scientist found a virus that could be used to cure the lyme disease. Because of some concern, FDA advised to not to perform any animal testing. Hence, Scientist will test on human, preferably anyone who is a scientist.
Score : The scope of the argument has been slightly changed from the cure of lyme to testing on human. Again, read the conclusion. Do to lost in any other information.
Now let’s solve one
OG 12 Question
11. Wood smoke contains dangerous toxins that cause changes in human cells. Because wood smoke presents such a high health risk, legislation is needed to regulate the use of open-air fires and wood-burning stoves.
Which of the following, if true, provides the most support for the argument above?
(A) The amount of dangerous toxins contained in wood smoke is much less than the amount contained in an equal volume of automobile exhaust.
(B) Within the jurisdiction covered by the proposed legislation, most heating and cooking is done with oil or natural gas.
(C) Smoke produced by coal-burning stoves is significantly more toxic than smoke from wood-burning stoves.
(D) No significant beneficial effect on air quality would result if open-air fires were banned within the jurisdiction covered by the proposed legislation.
(E) In valleys where wood is used as the primary heating fuel, the concentration of smoke results in poor air quality.Conclusion: legislation is needed to regulate the use of open-air fires and wood-burning stoves.
Scope : Look at the score of the conclusion. Also, pay close attention to action and subject. “Legislation” is required to “regulate the use of open-air and wood-burning stoves”. Now, we are focusing on legislation (broad term) and open-air and wood-burning stoves (narrow terms). The wrong scope choices may be “Judicial”, “US legislation”, “coal-burning stoves”, “closed air stoves”,etc.
Looking at the scope, we can eliminate choices A (wrong scope – automobile exhaust), B (wrong scope – oil or natural gas), and C (wrong scope – coal-burning). D is also out of scope, but I will cover under the strengthen question.
2.
Wrong Comparison – This is one choice that I find most often. When you find the word “less than” or “more than”, you know that something is being compared. In my test preparation, I found out that this choice is almost wrong. ( Mind it – I use “almost” as I only encountered one question when this choice was correct. I don’t remember the question). Now, if you look at the above
OG question, you will find the choices A and C are being compared with something. So you can knock out those two choices.
Let’s consider another
OG 12 example.
20. In recent years, many cabinetmakers have been winning acclaim as artists. But since furniture must be useful, cabinetmakers must exercise their craft with an eye to the practical utility of their product. For this reason, cabinetmaking is not art.
Which of the following is an assumption that supports drawing the conclusion above from the reason given for
that conclusion?
(A) Some furniture is made to be placed in museums, where it will not be used by anyone.
(B) Some cabinetmakers are more concerned than others with the practical utility of the products they produce.
(C) Cabinetmakers should be more concerned with the practical utility of their products than they currently are.
(D) An object is not an art object if its maker pays attention to the object’s practical utility.
(E) Artists are not concerned with the monetary value of their products.Looking at the above choices, I can blindly eliminate B and C.