varotkorn wrote:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/veritas-prep-cr-forum-expert-karishma-ask-me-anything-about-cr-278026-300.html#p2348776
VeritasKarishma wrote:
varotkorn wrote:
Dear
VeritasKarishmaIn Strengthening Question, when I negate an option and the negated version weakens the conclusion, will that option be considered a correct strengthener?Thank you for all your replies
Not necessarily. The option could be neutral but negating it could weaken the conclusion. To look for a strengthener, negating does not help because strengtheners are not necessary for the conclusion to hold. Even if they don't hold, the conclusion could still hold. The only time we use negating is in assumption questions. That said, I prefer to look for a gap between premises and conclusion in assumption questions. Negating can get too tiresome so I use it in very few questions.
Dear
VeritasKarishma,
I've found that the OE for this Strengthen question
https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-spacing- ... 59671.html states that: (I've also attached the picture for your reference)
Quote:
One way to approach this [strengthen] question is to ask yourself, "If this option were FALSE, would the hypothesis be LESS likely to be true?
(IMO, FALSE = negate & LESS likely to be true = WEAKEN)
In a way, OE implies that if the NEGATED version WEAKENS the conclusion, that option will be considered a correct strengthener.
This is similar to what I had in mind when I asked Ma'am before. The highlighted portions of OE and my previous question posted topmost are of quite similar ideas.
I'm very confused here.
Please help
Side note: some expert also uses the negation in Strengthen Question (
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... reasoning/). Two quotes below are from the aforementioned link:
Quote:
So let’s say the opposite of each statement were true
Quote:
This reasoning also works in Weakening or Assumption type questions. If my job is to weaken the conclusion, then I want to find evidence that would strengthen the conclusion and then prove that this is not true.
Yes, I did understand what you meant when you asked the question last time and I do see what you mean now too. Here is the deal - negating statements takes time, brings in additional sources of error (if negation is not done properly) and does not add much value even in the best case scenario. Also, it may not necessarily give you the right perspective except in assumption questions because real world problems could be worded in a million different ways.
Take a very simple real world example:
Conclusion: She will agree to marry him.
Option (A): She likes him.
Well, I would say that is a strengthener, right? But its negation would be "she does not have a liking for him". She may be neutral.
Just like the negation of "Everyone will come" is "Not everyone will come" and not "No one will come".
If she is neutral, it doesn't impact the conclusion in either way. So technically, I wouldn't say that the negation weakens the conclusion.
I would not use this strategy since it does not add much value. If the negation of a statement weakens a conclusion and I can see it, I can very well see that the statement strengthens the conclusion too. Normally, I would steer clear of bringing in additional complications and negating does just that. First you negate, then you figure out the impact of negation, then you try to reverse that impact and figure out if that works for you!
Instead, try to think simple and straight forward. Negation can help in some tricky assumption questions because assumptions are necessarily true but that's about it. For others, try to keep your approach more straight forward.
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Karishma
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03 May 2020, 22:19
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