{"id":10787,"date":"2012-04-11T12:21:57","date_gmt":"2012-04-11T19:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/?p=10787"},"modified":"2012-03-29T13:03:45","modified_gmt":"2012-03-29T20:03:45","slug":"assumptions-gmat-and-otherwise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/assumptions-gmat-and-otherwise\/","title":{"rendered":"Assumptions: GMAT and Otherwise"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> By Lucas Weingarten<\/p>\n

Sometimes you stumble upon something that is too full of coincidence to pass up.\u00a0\u00a0Inc.<\/em><\/a> <\/em>recently published an online article that seems written with the GMAT in mind:\u00a0Have you checked your assumptions lately?<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

I have concluded that you\u2019ll find this editorial particularly interesting because of two pieces of evidence:<\/p>\n

(1) you are reading a\u00a0GMAT blog, and (2) the\u00a0GMAT verbal section<\/a> contains Critical Reasoning questions.\u00a0 Of course, now I have to ask\u00a0why<\/em>, based on those two pieces of evidence, have I come to the conclusion that you will find this\u00a0Inc.<\/em> e-snippet interesting?\u00a0 Well, the\u00a0only<\/em> way that\u00a0this evidence<\/em> will lead to\u00a0this conclusion<\/em> is because of my underlying\u00a0assumptions<\/em>.\u00a0 Can you tease out those assumptions?\u00a0 If so, then you are looking good for assumption family CR questions come\u00a0Test Day<\/a>.\u00a0 If not, let me help you\u2026<\/p>\n

For all Critical Reasoning arguments presented on the\u00a0GMAT<\/a>, the author always gives evidence and forms a conclusion based on that evidence (not necessarily in that order but those parts are always there).\u00a0 However, there is a third portion of an argument\u2019s construction that the author does not give, and that third portion is precisely what test takers must identify in order to get 70% of GMAT CR questions correct:\u00a0the assumptions<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

In order for evidence to lead to a conclusion, an author must fundamentally believe certain things to be true.\u00a0 We are never explicitly told what those beliefs are, but we can identify them because of the two parts of the argument we are always given.\u00a0 Assumptions build a bridge between presented evidence and presented conclusion.<\/p>\n

For me to conclude that you will like the article mentioned above as a result of the evidence I presented must mean that I assume you (1) reading a GMAT blog signals that you are interested in things I find interesting, at least in regard to the GMAT, and (2) you are at least somewhat familiar with what is on the GMAT itself and that familiarity is deep enough to mean you know about Critical Reasoning questions and the patterns within them\u2014namely, the patterned way Assumption, Strengthen\/Weaken, and Flaw questions are constructed and what it takes to deconstruct them.\u00a0 If I did not believe those two things were true, then I would have to come up with different evidence from which to derive my conclusion about your piqued interest.\u00a0 Get it?\u00a0 Great, now onto the article\u2026<\/p>\n

In the end, the author, a Harvard management professor by the name Robert S. KAPLAN (no relation, but what a great name), is simply making a case to identify and then weaken assumptions in order to avoid making poor decisions.\u00a0 Or, on the flip side, ensure that the decision you are making is a good one.<\/p>\n

This is a lovely notion and it is one that studying for the GMAT will prepare you to undertake.\u00a0 It is always nice to be able to link, with support, items tested on the GMAT to real life beyond the admissions test.\u00a0 That sugar makes the medicine go down a little easier.\u00a0 See past posts for thoughts on\u00a0GMAT Validity<\/a> (here\u2019s another<\/a>),\u00a0Sentence Correction<\/a>, and the new\u00a0Integrated Reasoning<\/a> section.\u00a0 More to come on the usefulness and appropriateness of Data Sufficiency and Reading Comprehension questions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lucas Weingarten Sometimes you stumble upon something that is too full of coincidence to pass up.\u00a0\u00a0Inc. recently published an online article that seems written with the GMAT in mind:\u00a0Have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,558,243,721,735],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gmat","category-kaplan-blog","category-blog","category-critical-reasoning-gmat","category-verbal-gmat-blog","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10787"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10789,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10787\/revisions\/10789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}