A physician who is too thorough in conducting a medical checkup

(A) Some serious diseases in their early stages have symptoms that physicians can readily detect.
This means that having medical checkups when patients don't feel ill may save them from developing a serious disease.

(B) Under the pressure of reduced reimbursements, physicians have been reducing the average amount of time they spend on each medical checkup.
We aren't concerned with how much time each physician spends with a patient on average.

(C) Patients not medically trained are unable to judge for themselves what degree of thoroughness is appropriate for physicians in conducting medical checkups.
Whether a patient can judge the degree of thoroughness that is appropriate for a physician is irrelevant.

(D) Many people are financially unable to afford regular medical checkups.
This would strengthen the conclusion as it provides another reason for patients to not get medical checkups regularly.

(E) Some physicians sometimes exercise exactly the right degree of thoroughness in performing a medical checkup.
The key words here are "some" and "sometimes," this is very vague and can't lead to a solid conclusion.

The correct answer is A.


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A physician who is too thorough in conducting a medical checkup is likely to subject the patient to the discomfort and expense of unnecessary tests. One who is not thorough enough is likely to miss some serious problem and therefore give the patient a false sense of security. It is difficult for physicians to judge exactly how thorough they should be. Therefore, it is generally unwise for patients to have medical checkups when they do not feel ill.

Which one of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the argument in the passage?

(A) Some serious diseases in their early stages have symptoms that physicians can readily detect. - CORRECT. If such is a case then patients are not wrong for seeking medical checkups because serious disease would get detected, if it's there.
(B) Under the pressure of reduced reimbursements, physicians have been reducing the average amount of time they spend on each medical checkup. - WRONG.
(C) Patients not medically trained are unable to judge foe themselves what degree of thoroughness is appropriate for physicians in conducting medical checkups. - WRONG. Those who are not trained are certainly not right about checkups. But the passage is about a conclusion in general not this specific set. Also, their judgment about thoroughness is not useful, rather irrelevant.
(D) Many people are financially unable to afford regular medical checkups. - WRONG. Not the right set of patients passage is about.
(E) Some physicians sometimes exercise exactly the right degree of thoroughness in performing a medical checkup. - WRONG. Exception but this doesn't concern the patients as in whether they are right or wrong.

Answer A.