V01-22

Question

Financial Analyst: Healthcare professionals, such as doctors, nurses, and pharmacists, often have very poor quantitative skills, which are required to be successful in finances, and they do not succeed when they try to deal with financial projects. In fact, almost all of these healthcare professionals are less skilled in dealing in financial projects than is the average management professional who does not work in a healthcare field. Generally, medical talent and quantitative skills rarely go hand in hand. 
 
If the Financial Analyst's argument is taken as true, which of the following statements can properly be concluded?

A. No successful finance professionals have medical knowledge. 
B. Some healthcare professionals are not less skilled at finance than is the average management professional who does not work in a healthcare field.
C. Healthcare experience precludes success in financial projects.
D. Any management professional who is not into healthcare is more successful in financial project than any healthcare professional.
E. Financial projects are not related to healthcare.

Bunuel · Answer

Official Solution:

Financial Analyst: Healthcare professionals, such as doctors, nurses, and pharmacists, often have very poor quantitative skills, which are required to be successful in finances, and they do not succeed when they try to deal with financial projects. In fact, almost all of these healthcare professionals are less skilled in dealing in financial projects than is the average management professional who does not work in a healthcare field. Generally, medical talent and quantitative skills rarely go hand in hand. 
 
If the Financial Analyst's argument is taken as true, which of the following statements can properly be concluded?

A. No successful finance professionals have medical knowledge. 
B. Some healthcare professionals are not less skilled at finance than is the average management professional who does not work in a healthcare field.
C. Healthcare experience precludes success in financial projects.
D. Any management professional who is not into healthcare is more successful in financial project than any healthcare professional.
E. Financial projects are not related to healthcare.

The Financial Analyst presents several points about the quantitative skills of healthcare professionals. In drawing a conclusion from the Financial Analyst's argument, we must be careful to choose a provable claim, whether or not this claim pulls together all the premises. We also must avoid extending the Financial Analyst's argument or selecting statements that are too extreme. Moreover, we should not allow this process to be clouded by reactions to the content of the argument; whether or not we agree with the premises, we have to find a provable conclusion.
 
A. This choice takes the passage's claim that medical talent and quantitative skills rarely go hand in hand to an extreme. The Financial Analyst does not assert that absolutely no successful finance professionals have medical knowledge.
 
 B. CORRECT.  The passage states that most healthcare professionals are less skilled in finance than the average management professional who does not work in a healthcare field. This implies that some healthcare professionals are not less skilled than the average management professional who is not into healthcare.
 
C. This choice again takes the passage's claim that medical knowledge and quantitative skills rarely go hand in hand to an extreme. Healthcare experience and financial skills are not mutually exclusive.
 
D. The passage does not say that all management professionals are successful, nor does it say that no healthcare professionals are successful.
 
E. The passage makes a distinction between medical knowledge and quantitative skills, which are required in financial projects. This does not mean that there are no aspects of finance that fall under the realm of healthcare.

Answer: B

Bunuel · Answer

The question or/and solution has been revised and edited. Thank you  sayantanc2k  !!!

SatvikVedala · Answer

Hey  Bunuel

May i know, How "almost all" from the statement is similar to "most" in option B

swathi_1103 · Answer

the option B states that "Some healthcare professionals  are not less skilled  at finance than is the average management professional who does not work in a healthcare field" which means " some healthcare professionals are skilled at finance than is the average management professional who does not work in healthcare field" . There are double negative in the above sentence which I have highlighted. So, doesn't the option is weakening? 
Please help me understand. Thanks in advance

dnguyen1203 · Answer

I think the question should be what can be inferred, not "concluded".

bb · Answer

Thank you for the question.

Sometimes concluded and inferred can be tricky to assign and sometimes (i feel) they can be almost interchangeable but there is a difference. Here is a quick guide I follow: conclude - more immediate and logical. Infer - a more distant conclusion if that makes sense.

In  Conclude  you're drawing a direct, logical conclusion from what's stated in the argument.

Infer  is more about reading between the lines and making connections that aren't directly spelled out.

Since the question asks you to pick a statement that directly follows from the Financial Analyst's points,  concluded  is the better choice.

bb · Answer

Hi. It looks like there's a mixup in your statement about the double negative in Answer Choice B.

The option says, "Some healthcare professionals are not less skilled at finance than is the average management professional who does not work in a healthcare field." This phrase effectively means that some healthcare professionals are  at least as skilled  in finance as the average non-healthcare management professional. It doesn't necessarily imply they are more skilled, just not less skilled.

paulgiam · Answer

I don’t quite agree with the solution. While i understand the solution i don't agree with the reasons stated. I feel that more plausible explanation would be that the correct answer uses language in a very balanced manner - words like "some", "average", avoids any sort of extreme statement, allowing it to be most true among the options.

JoeKassab · Answer

I like the solution - it’s helpful.

monkinaferrari · Answer

I did not quite understand the question. Hi , in the question it is mentioned that "almost all of these healthcare professionals are less skilled in dealing in financial projects than is the average management professional who does not work in a healthcare field."

i often get confused with this "almost all" in many questions. Should we assume 100% or should we understand it as not 100%. if we have to consider 100% of the sample will it be mentioned in the question as "all" instead of "almost all"

chattyyee · Answer

I have a question here, if this is a conclusion Question, the moment I read B, I can say this is in line with what the passage states, but is it really the conclusion? One reason why I would not be immediately inclined for B, is because it sounds like an inference as someone pointed above. I believe all the other options are wrong with out of scope modifiers, however if option C " Healthcare experience precludes success in financial projects." had a less stronger wording than precludes, would that be the correct answer? also in general while solving conclusion questions, should I be open to a statement that is not the conclusion but is just an inference?

hr1212 · Answer

Inference and conclusion questions often overlap, but my approach is to start with inference and then move toward broader ideas that could support a more forward-looking conclusion. In my experience, it's generally safer to stick closely to the content mentioned in the passage. The main distinction I’ve noticed is that inference questions typically involve unstated ideas that can be directly supported by specific parts of the passage, while conclusion or main idea questions often aim to capture the overall message or the final direction of the argument, rather than focusing on a single part of the discussion.

In this case, I think either conclude or infer might work, as neither is an incorrect usage.

As for Option C, I think it’s hard to say that it always precludes success. The passage mentions that most healthcare professionals struggle, but it’s entirely possible that a management professional with healthcare experience could be successful, which would contradict the absolute nature of C’s conclusion. So it feels a bit too rigid to be fully supported.

V01-22

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