- PowerScore Staff
- Posts: 1169
- Joined: Oct 19, 2022
- Thu Oct 09, 2025 11:45 am
#121790
Hi Kristina,
The conditional reasoning in this stimulus is rather complex, so I certainly understand your confusion. Often when conditional statements involve more than two terms/ideas, there can be multiple ways of correctly diagramming the sentence to capture the meaning of the sentence.
For example, (ignoring the word "unique" for the time being), the statement: "Whenever highly successful entrepreneurs see a solution to a problem, they implement that idea" could be diagrammed:
HSE + SSP -> II
which basically means "if someone is a highly successful entrepreneur and they see a solution to a problem, then they implement that idea."
You could also diagram this as a nested conditional, which is basically a conditional statement contained within a larger conditional statement, such as:
HSE -> (SSP -> II)
which basically means "if someone is a highly successful entrepreneur, then (if they see a solution to a problem, then they implement that idea).
Nested conditionals are rather confusing for most students, so it is usually easier to simplify the diagram by combining the nested conditional into one term.
So diagraming this sentence as:
HSE -> IISSP
which basically means "if someone is a highly successful entrepreneur, then they implement that idea whenever they see a solution to a problem," is perfectly fine in capturing the meaning of the sentence.
As for the word "unique," I would describe that word as indicating a necessary condition, so it is the combination of how it is used in conjunction with the word "whenever" that creates the biconditional.
As for the final sentence in the stimulus, while it turns out to be unnecessary to solving the question (due to the word "unique" in the other conditional statement), it can actually be used to solve the question if someone does not realize that the word "unique" (in conjunction with the word "whenever") creates that biconditional.
The term "all other people" in this sentence means people who are not highly successful entrepreneurs and the second part of the sentence means they do not always implement their ideas whenever they see a solution.
The diagram this would be:
Not HSE -> Not IISSP
and the contrapositive would be:
IISSP -> HSE
which basically means "if someone always implements that idea whenever they see a solution to a problem, then that person is a highly successful entrepreneur."
This contrapositive could be linked to the first conditional sentence in the stimulus, HSE -> DLM to create the conditional chain (IISSP -> HSE -> DLM) that proves Answer C. In other words, there's two different ways to arrive at Answer C in this question.
More information on conditional reasoning, including conditional statements with multiple terms and nested conditionals, can be found in "The Logical Reasoning Bible."
The conditional reasoning in this stimulus is rather complex, so I certainly understand your confusion. Often when conditional statements involve more than two terms/ideas, there can be multiple ways of correctly diagramming the sentence to capture the meaning of the sentence.
For example, (ignoring the word "unique" for the time being), the statement: "Whenever highly successful entrepreneurs see a solution to a problem, they implement that idea" could be diagrammed:
HSE + SSP -> II
which basically means "if someone is a highly successful entrepreneur and they see a solution to a problem, then they implement that idea."
You could also diagram this as a nested conditional, which is basically a conditional statement contained within a larger conditional statement, such as:
HSE -> (SSP -> II)
which basically means "if someone is a highly successful entrepreneur, then (if they see a solution to a problem, then they implement that idea).
Nested conditionals are rather confusing for most students, so it is usually easier to simplify the diagram by combining the nested conditional into one term.
So diagraming this sentence as:
HSE -> IISSP
which basically means "if someone is a highly successful entrepreneur, then they implement that idea whenever they see a solution to a problem," is perfectly fine in capturing the meaning of the sentence.
As for the word "unique," I would describe that word as indicating a necessary condition, so it is the combination of how it is used in conjunction with the word "whenever" that creates the biconditional.
As for the final sentence in the stimulus, while it turns out to be unnecessary to solving the question (due to the word "unique" in the other conditional statement), it can actually be used to solve the question if someone does not realize that the word "unique" (in conjunction with the word "whenever") creates that biconditional.
The term "all other people" in this sentence means people who are not highly successful entrepreneurs and the second part of the sentence means they do not always implement their ideas whenever they see a solution.
The diagram this would be:
Not HSE -> Not IISSP
and the contrapositive would be:
IISSP -> HSE
which basically means "if someone always implements that idea whenever they see a solution to a problem, then that person is a highly successful entrepreneur."
This contrapositive could be linked to the first conditional sentence in the stimulus, HSE -> DLM to create the conditional chain (IISSP -> HSE -> DLM) that proves Answer C. In other words, there's two different ways to arrive at Answer C in this question.
More information on conditional reasoning, including conditional statements with multiple terms and nested conditionals, can be found in "The Logical Reasoning Bible."