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A new drug, taken twice daily for one month, is an effective treatment 09 Apr 2018, 19:52
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A new drug, taken twice daily for one month, is an effective treatment for a certain disease. The drug now most commonly prescribed for the disease occasionally has serious side effects such as seizures; the new drug has side effects much more frequently, but the worst of them is mild nausea. Therefore, the new drug is clearly preferable as a treatment.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

A) It is possible that the drug now most commonly prescribed has side effects that have not yet been attributed to it.
B) People who experience nausea are prone to discontinue use of the new drug prematurely.
C) Other drugs for the disease have typically been prescribed only for patients allergic to the most commonly prescribed drug.
D) People who have received effective treatment for disease do not generally contract the disease again.
E) There is a nonprescription medication that when taken with the new drug prevents the onset of nausea.


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A new drug, taken twice daily for one month, is an effective treatment 10 Apr 2018, 04:19
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prashant6923
Why A is not right? Isn't it true that the patients might be having some side effects which are yet not attributed to the drug in question?
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Answer choice A is strengthening the argument. The new drug is not the most commonly prescribed drug.

Essentially what this answer choice implies is that the most commonly used drug (so not the new one) could be worse than it was thought, making the new drug appear preferable, which would strengthen the conclusion.

I hope it was helpful !
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A new drug, taken twice daily for one month, is an effective treatment 09 Apr 2018, 20:56
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Why A is not right? Isn't it true that the patients might be having some side effects which are yet not attributed to the drug in question?
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A new drug, taken twice daily for one month, is an effective treatment Updated on: 12 Apr 2018, 06:15
Originally posted by renjana on 10 Apr 2018, 06:58.
Last edited by renjana on 12 Apr 2018, 06:15, edited 1 time in total.
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Understood the question now .


It looks like the new drug causes nausea and if nausea causes people the stop taking drugs then it wont be preferred drug for treatment .
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A new drug, taken twice daily for one month, is an effective treatment 10 Apr 2018, 09:03
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NandishSS
A new drug, taken twice daily for one month, is an effective treatment for a certain disease. The drug now most commonly prescribed for the disease occasionally has serious side effects such as seizures; the new drug has side effects much more frequently, but the worst of them is mild nausea. Therefore, the new drug is clearly preferable as a treatment.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

A) It is possible that the drug now most commonly prescribed has side effects that have not yet been attributed to it.
B) People who experience nausea are prone to discontinue use of the new drug prematurely.
C) Other drugs for the disease have typically been prescribed only for patients allergic to the most commonly prescribed drug.
D) People who have received effective treatment for disease do not generally contract the disease again.
E) There is a nonprescription medication that when taken with the new drug prevents the onset of nausea.

Show Spoiler
OA: B

Similar Question :

A new drug, taken twice daily for one month
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NandishSS, is this in fact a question from the GMATPrep software, or is it simply an edited version of this question from EP2?

We want to make sure that questions with the "GMAT Prep EP2" tag are ACTUAL questions from EP2. Questions BASED on official questions should be tagged with the actual source (i.e. "Self-made question", "Other - Please specify", etc.).
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A new drug, taken twice daily for one month, is an effective treatment 10 Apr 2018, 09:43
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Yes I agree A and B are close contenders and A is a bit more appropriate answer. I don't think it is an official question.... Seems poorly designed as A and B both cannot be eliminated with a good reason.

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A new drug, taken twice daily for one month, is an effective treatment 10 Apr 2018, 10:38
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NandishSS
A new drug, taken twice daily for one month, is an effective treatment for a certain disease. The drug now most commonly prescribed for the disease occasionally has serious side effects such as seizures; the new drug has side effects much more frequently, but the worst of them is mild nausea. Therefore, the new drug is clearly preferable as a treatment.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

A) It is possible that the drug now most commonly prescribed has side effects that have not yet been attributed to it.
B) People who experience nausea are prone to discontinue use of the new drug prematurely.
C) Other drugs for the disease have typically been prescribed only for patients allergic to the most commonly prescribed drug.
D) People who have received effective treatment for disease do not generally contract the disease again.
E) There is a nonprescription medication that when taken with the new drug prevents the onset of nausea.

Show Spoiler
OA: B

Premise: New drug has freq. side effect but their intensity is less therefore new drug is preferable
Missing Link: Freq. of side effect(new drug) does not affect more than the side effect(old drug)

A) It is possible that the drug now most commonly prescribed has side effects that have not yet been attributed to it. - 180 option, it is rather strengthing the argument
B) People who experience nausea are prone to discontinue use of the new drug prematurely.- Bingo!if the sheer one time nausea can make the drug usage discontinued, then this drug can not be preferred for prescription
C) Other drugs for the disease have typically been prescribed only for patients allergic to the most commonly prescribed drug. - we are not at all bothered about other drugs, it is a leap of faith
D) People who have received effective treatment for disease do not generally contract the disease again. - what about the new patients? and even if they do not contract it again then on what grounds we can negate the effectiveness of new drug
E) There is a nonprescription medication that when taken with the new drug prevents the onset of nausea.-we are not at all bothered about the new drug. Also, even if the new drug can be taken into account it would rather strengthen the argument
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A new drug, taken twice daily for one month, is an effective treatment 10 Apr 2018, 19:59
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NandishSS
A new drug, taken twice daily for one month, is an effective treatment for a certain disease. The drug now most commonly prescribed for the disease occasionally has serious side effects such as seizures; the new drug has side effects much more frequently, but the worst of them is mild nausea. Therefore, the new drug is clearly preferable as a treatment.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

A) It is possible that the drug now most commonly prescribed has side effects that have not yet been attributed to it.
B) People who experience nausea are prone to discontinue use of the new drug prematurely.
C) Other drugs for the disease have typically been prescribed only for patients allergic to the most commonly prescribed drug.
D) People who have received effective treatment for disease do not generally contract the disease again.
E) There is a nonprescription medication that when taken with the new drug prevents the onset of nausea.

Show Spoiler
OA: B

Similar Question :

A new drug, taken twice daily for one month
NandishSS, is this in fact a question from the GMATPrep software, or is it simply an edited version of this question from EP2?

We want to make sure that questions with the "GMAT Prep EP2" tag are ACTUAL questions from EP2. Questions BASED on official questions should be tagged with the actual source (i.e. "Self-made question", "Other - Please specify", etc.).
Show more

HI GMATNinjaTwo ,

Please find the attachment of Question. This not the only question which GMAC have twisted and asked for, but have come across few more question, which are in GMATPrep as Strengthen but in EP2 they have asked to weaken.

I hope it is clear now, Please change the Tag to GMATPrep EP2
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File comment: GMATPrep EP2 Question
GMATPrep EP2.jpg
GMATPrep EP2.jpg [ 112.22 KiB | Viewed 17252 times ]

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A new drug, taken twice daily for one month, is an effective treatment 10 Apr 2018, 20:25
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NandishSS
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NandishSS
A new drug, taken twice daily for one month, is an effective treatment for a certain disease. The drug now most commonly prescribed for the disease occasionally has serious side effects such as seizures; the new drug has side effects much more frequently, but the worst of them is mild nausea. Therefore, the new drug is clearly preferable as a treatment.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

A) It is possible that the drug now most commonly prescribed has side effects that have not yet been attributed to it.
B) People who experience nausea are prone to discontinue use of the new drug prematurely.
C) Other drugs for the disease have typically been prescribed only for patients allergic to the most commonly prescribed drug.
D) People who have received effective treatment for disease do not generally contract the disease again.
E) There is a nonprescription medication that when taken with the new drug prevents the onset of nausea.

Show Spoiler
OA: B

Similar Question :

A new drug, taken twice daily for one month
NandishSS, is this in fact a question from the GMATPrep software, or is it simply an edited version of this question from EP2?

We want to make sure that questions with the "GMAT Prep EP2" tag are ACTUAL questions from EP2. Questions BASED on official questions should be tagged with the actual source (i.e. "Self-made question", "Other - Please specify", etc.).

HI GMATNinjaTwo ,

Please find the attachment of Question. This not the only question which GMAC have twisted and asked for, but have come across few more question, which are in GMATPrep as Strengthen but in EP2 they have asked to weaken.

I hope it is clear now, Please change the Tag to GMATPrep EP2
Show more
Done! Thank you NandishSS for the confirmation!
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A new drug, taken twice daily for one month, is an effective treatment 10 Jun 2020, 06:28
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Type: Weaken the conclusion

Conclusion: the new drug is clearly preferable as a treatment.

A) It is possible that the drug now most commonly prescribed has side effects that have not yet been attributed to it. - the conclusion is concerned with the ''new drug'', not the drug that is currently prescribed.
B) People who experience nausea are prone to discontinue use of the new drug prematurely. - from the passage, we know that the new drug is known to cause nausea. So, if people discontinue the usage of this new drug as soon as they experience nausea, then we can reasonably infer that their preference for this new drug will decline. Hence, (B) weakens the conclusion. Therefore, (B) is the right answer to this question.

C) Other drugs for the disease have typically been prescribed only for patients allergic to the most commonly prescribed drug. - the conclusion is not at all concerned with ''other drugs''
D) People who have received effective treatment for disease do not generally contract the disease again. - irrelevant to the conclusion cited.
E) There is a nonprescription medication that when taken with the new drug prevents the onset of nausea. - the conclusion is not at all concerned with ''nonprescription medication''.
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A new drug, taken twice daily for one month, is an effective treatment 06 May 2022, 20:51
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prashant6923
Why A is not right? Isn't it true that the patients might be having some side effects which are yet not attributed to the drug in question?
Show more


Please note that Option A actually strengthens the argument.

The argument, in a nut shell, is that the new drug should be preferred over the "present common drug". It is preferred because although the frequency of side effect of the common drug is less, it is very serious, whereas even though the frequency of the side effect of the new drug is more, it is not so serious.


So Option A says that there could be some other side effect of the common drug that has not yet been discovered. If that is the case, then the frequency of side effect of common drug will increase, including severe side effects. That should in fact promote the use of new drug and hence strengthens the argument.

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A new drug, taken twice daily for one month, is an effective treatment 08 Oct 2024, 20:24
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Because the presence of other side effects does not necessarily lead to discontinuing the use of the drug. Option B, on the other hand, mentioned discontinuing the usage of the drug by people experiencing nausea. So, option B is correct.
prashant6923
Why A is not right? Isn't it true that the patients might be having some side effects which are yet not attributed to the drug in question?
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A new drug, taken twice daily for one month, is an effective treatment 10 Oct 2024, 08:53
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KarishmaB GMATNinjaTwo MartyMurray

I am lil confused about the correct answer (B)

Stimulus says:
''new drug'' is effective, side effect much frequent but worst is ''mild nausea''
''Drug now'' has serious side effects such as seizures
Hence, new drug is clearly preferable as a treatment

I have two concerns about (B):
1. How big is the population of people who ''experience nausea''? Maybe they are 5 out of 10 million or maybe 5million out of 10 million?
2. Stimulus conclusion is based on facts, how can we weaken it by saying that a small subset won't prefer it?
Even if people who ''experience nausea'' reject the new drug, we can still say that ''new drug is a preferable treatment, right?
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A new drug, taken twice daily for one month, is an effective treatment 10 Oct 2024, 18:41
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Contropositive
I am lil confused about the correct answer (B)

Stimulus says:
''new drug'' is effective, side effect much frequent but worst is ''mild nausea''
''Drug now'' has serious side effects such as seizures
Hence, new drug is clearly preferable as a treatment

I have two concerns about (B):
1. How big is the population of people who ''experience nausea''? Maybe they are 5 out of 10 million or maybe 5million out of 10 million?
2. Stimulus conclusion is based on facts, how can we weaken it by saying that a small subset won't prefer it?
Even if people who ''experience nausea'' reject the new drug, we can still say that ''new drug is a preferable treatment, right?
Show more
What we need to keep in mind to understand why (B) works is that, to weaken an argument, an answer choice does not have to destroy the argument or prove the conclusion incorrect. It has only to cast doubt on the conclusion.

In the case of this question, as you suggested, the fact that "People who experience nausea are prone to discontinue use of the new drug prematurely," does not prove that the new drug is not preferable.

At the same time what (B) says combined with "the new drug has side effects much more frequently, but the worst of them is mild nausea," from the passage indicates that IT COULD BE that, relatively "frequently," people who use the new drug experience nausea and discontinue using it.

So, (B) indicates that there may be a major drawback to use of the new drug, and thus (B) casts doubt on the conclusion that the new drug is preferable as a treatment.

The new drug could still be preferable, but (B) provides reason to wonder whether it is, and that's all the correct answer to this Weaken question has to do.
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A new drug, taken twice daily for one month, is an effective treatment 10 Oct 2024, 23:33
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NandishSS
A new drug, taken twice daily for one month, is an effective treatment for a certain disease. The drug now most commonly prescribed for the disease occasionally has serious side effects such as seizures; the new drug has side effects much more frequently, but the worst of them is mild nausea. Therefore, the new drug is clearly preferable as a treatment.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

A) It is possible that the drug now most commonly prescribed has side effects that have not yet been attributed to it.
B) People who experience nausea are prone to discontinue use of the new drug prematurely.
C) Other drugs for the disease have typically been prescribed only for patients allergic to the most commonly prescribed drug.
D) People who have received effective treatment for disease do not generally contract the disease again.
E) There is a nonprescription medication that when taken with the new drug prevents the onset of nausea.


Similar Question: A new drug, taken twice daily for one month
Show more

For a drug to be an effective treatment, it is important that people take it. Say there is a drug that is very effective at eliminating a disease and has no side effects, but it tastes awful. So much so that after the first dose, people refuse to take it. They are ok with living with the disease instead. Can we say that the drug is even a viable treatment then, forget preferable?
If people refuse to take it, for whatever reasons, it is not a treatment. This is what this question talks about.

Premises:
A new drug is effective at treating a disease.
The current drug occasionally has serious side effects such as seizures;
The new drug has side effects much more frequently, but the worst of them is mild nausea (supposedly a far milder side effect).

Conclusion: The new drug is clearly preferable as a treatment.

How can we weaken it?

A) It is possible that the drug now most commonly prescribed has side effects that have not yet been attributed to it.

It says that it is possible that the current drug has side effects that have not been identified yet. This strengthens our conclusion, if anything - that the new drug is preferable to the current drug.

B) People who experience nausea are prone to discontinue use of the new drug prematurely.

Exactly. It says that the side effect is such that people refuse to take the drug. Then it is not an effective treatment. It weakens our conclusion.

C) Other drugs for the disease have typically been prescribed only for patients allergic to the most commonly prescribed drug.

This tells us that drugs other than the current one have been prescribed only for patients allergic to the current one. This statement has no impact on the efficacy of the new drug.

D) People who have received effective treatment for disease do not generally contract the disease again.

Irrelevant.

E) There is a nonprescription medication that when taken with the new drug prevents the onset of nausea.

This strengthens our argument. The new drug is effective if whatever side effects it has can also be easily preemptively handled by a nonprescription medication (which implies a mild medication).

Answer (B)
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A new drug, taken twice daily for one month, is an effective treatment 10 Oct 2024, 23:46
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Contropositive
KarishmaB GMATNinjaTwo MartyMurray

I am lil confused about the correct answer (B)

Stimulus says:
''new drug'' is effective, side effect much frequent but worst is ''mild nausea''
''Drug now'' has serious side effects such as seizures
Hence, new drug is clearly preferable as a treatment

I have two concerns about (B):
1. How big is the population of people who ''experience nausea''? Maybe they are 5 out of 10 million or maybe 5million out of 10 million?
2. Stimulus conclusion is based on facts, how can we weaken it by saying that a small subset won't prefer it?
Even if people who ''experience nausea'' reject the new drug, we can still say that ''new drug is a preferable treatment, right?
Show more

1. Since the side effects occur much more frequently with the new drug, we are given the impression that a big chunk of people experience nausea.
2. A drug is a treatment if it is accepted by the masses and then works effectively. It could have the potential of being a great treatment but still may not be viable (as discussed above in my solution)
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