CR concepts
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25 May 2015, 00:28
The Directions: These are the directions you will see for critical reasoning questions when you take the GMAT.
For these questions, select the best of the answer choices given.
These questions require you to analyze and evaluate arguments. So the first step for us is to understand what an
argument is.
Suppose in a board meeting, the CEO wants to make the point:
Ours is the most customer-centric company in the country as we received the fewest number of customer
complaints last year among all the players in our industry.
This is an argument. It contains a conclusion (ours is the most customer-centric company in the country) and a
support for the conclusion – called the premise (we received the fewest number of customer complaints last year
among all the players in our industry).
Notice that each statement by itself can’t be called an argument.
“Ours is the most customer-centric company in the country” is not an argument.
“We received the fewest number of customer complaints last year among all the players in our industry” is not an
argument.
So an argument is composed of one (or more than one) conclusion(s) and at least one premise (supporting statement
for the conclusion).
The conclusion is WHAT one wants to show, prove, manifest, validate, make a case for etc. So when we ask―“WHAT
does the CEO want to prove?―the answer must be the conclusion. In this case he wants to prove “Ours is the most
customer-centric company in the country.”
The premise is THE ANSWER TO “WHY” one feels that the conclusion is true / valid. So if we ask WHY the CEO feels
so (“Ours is the most customer-centric company in the country”), we can surely say BECAUSE he feels that “the
company received the fewest number of customer complaints last year among all the players in our industry.”
The answer to WHAT one wants to prove is the CONCLUSION.
The answer to WHY one feels that the conclusion is valid is/are the PREMISE(S).
From this point forward, we will refer to this simple relationship as the argument core, and we will diagram the
argument core using a "therefore" arrow.
Argument Core: A premise, or set of premises, used to arrive at a conclusion.
P C
Most arguments that appear on the GMAT are unsound arguments―we can find some fault with the
reasoning upon close inspection. Let’s evaluate the given argument for its soundness:
“Ours is the most customer-centric company in the country as we received the fewest number of customer complaints
last year among all the players in our industry.”
• What if the only way to register a complaint was through a phone call on a particular number and the
company’s phone line was dead for 6 out of the 12 months?
• What if this company received 5 complaints out of 10 customers whereas its rivals received 100 or fewer
complaints out of 10000 or more customers?
• What if the customers are extremely annoyed with the company because whenever a complaint is made, it is
not paid any heed? Seeing this trend, probably people didn’t even bother to make a call to register a
complaint last year even if they were extremely frustrated.
• What if last year the company paid millions of dollars in customer grievances through out-of-court
settlements?
• What if the complaints are registered only when they escalate to the highest level?
• What if receiving the fewest number of complaints is not a measure of being customer-centric?
Can you see that the argument given above is unsound?