When is it safe to make assumptions on strengthen and weaken questions

[Raptorfan1526]

Hey powerscore, my question is, when is it safe to make assumptions on strengthen and weaken questions. Take question 4 on PT 19 s.2 for example. I picked c thinking it suggests an alternative cause (for other questions this would have been warranted but it's incorrect here). D was better if I understand correctly because it was more in line with the logic of the passage.

Now compare that to PT 28 S.3 q. 11 where for the correct A/C you have you to assume that for the correct answer C, you that this weakens the idea that the country depends on drop outs even though the sharp increase logically speaking may not impact the dependency on the drop outs (ik we aren't trying to destroy the argument but just weaken it).

Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

[Raptorfan1526]

As a follow-up question, is it common for the test makers to design the test in a way where you come down between three questions for most strengthen and most weaken questions and leave it up to the test taker to see if they can identify which a/c does it the most from choices that are not obvious at a first glance?

I like to think of these questions in a way where I'm a lawyer and I'm given five random facts based on my case before me and I have to pick the one that is most in line with the logic/ fact pattern of the case in front of me. I feel like this is the practical/ real world idea behind them.

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi Raptorfan,

The questions and situations you are talking about are different, so I'm going to address them all in turn.

Let's start with that PT19 question. There, the problem isn't that answer choice (C) required assumptions. It's that the answer choice, even if it was true, wouldn't weaken the stimulus. The fact that there were other minerals in the ice has no bearing on argument. It even acknowledges that the ice still contained the ferrous material. Imagine a situation where you are trying to find the cause of an accident. You suspect based on speed data that the driver mistakenly pushed the gas instead of the brakes. Your partner says "well, the car also contains a glove compartment." Sure. That has no impact on the hypothesis you made. It's fine, it's probably true, but it's irrelevant. Just like answer choice (C) there.

The PT28 question would impact the conclusion. The conclusion suggests that the increase in recruitment was because of the increase in drop outs. But if it was true that the recruits were a higher percentage of graduates than previously, it's
probably not the drop out increase that's changing the recruitment numbers.

In any case, with strengthen and weaken questions, we aren't making assumptions. We are following the directions given. It tells you to treat the answer choices as true. We aren't bringing in an outside assumptions. We are using the information given by the stimulus/question.

For your last question, sometimes the test makers do have strengthen/weaken questions that come down to a matter of how much something weakens or strengthens. But in 95%+ of those questions, it will either strengthen/weaken or not. There's no matter of degree. If you are frequently feeling tempted between two/three choices on these, that indicates that you need to take a closer look at the argument. What are you missing? Typically, it's because you think there's an impact on the stimulus where there isn't.

Hope that helps!