#12 - Typically, a design that turns out well has gone

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Must Be True. The correct answer choice is (B).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):


This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[esb1244@gmail.com]

I'm trying to work through this one. I chose A initially.

A - Incorrect because this AC makes a statement about designs that "turn out best" and "best" is not a concept that appears in the stimulus. The farthest the argument takes their claim is that a design "Typically...turns out well".

B - This is the correct answer.

I initially eliminated this answer choice because of the use of the word "good. Like AC A, I was wary that "good" might be taking the argument too far based on the author's claims about designs turning out "well".

C - This AC introduces conditional logic to the mix and this initially threw me. But it seems that this is too rigid for the argument, which says this is something that "typically" happens, but not always. Is that correct?

D - This seems to be the opposite of the authors argument.

E - This AC is incorrect because it is far too strong. The author claims that drafts of sketches "usually allows a designer to see...."

Am I on the right track?

[Beatrice Brown]

Hi ESB! Happy to help you walk through why each answer choice is correct/incorrect on this one

Since this is a Most Strongly Supported question, the correct answer choice will be strongly proven by the facts in the stimulus. The other four answer choices will not be supported by the stimulus (such as an answer that is exaggerated, or one that provides information not contained in the stimulus).

Similar to your explanation, answer choice (A) is incorrect because it contains comparative language not contained in the stimulus. As you said, the most that we know is that these designs typically turn out well.

Answer choice (B) is correct because it is essentially a restatement/combination of several ideas contained in the stimulus. From the stimulus, we know that designs that turn out well (AKA good designs) go through many drafts, and that sketches of the design allow the designer to see flaws in the design and then allow them to revise the design. Combining these facts, we arrive at answer choice (B), that many designs that turn out well were originally designs that were flawed. Unlike answer choice (A), the word "good" in this answer choice does not go too far and can be viewed as synonymous with turning out well.

Answer choice (C) is wrong for a bit of a different reason than what you said, but you're on the right track here. From the stimulus, we only know about designs that typically turn out well, but nothing in the stimulus tells us about characteristics of designs that do not turn out well. Since answer choice (C) discusses designs that do not turn out well, it cannot be correct. Additionally, as you mentioned, the stimulus uses the word "typically" and the answer choice is more absolute than this, meaning it cannot be supported by the information in the stimulus.

For answer choice (D), your logic is definitely right here, but just to spell it out a bit more: the stimulus doesn't tell us anything about how the initial conceptualizations of a given design influence how the design eventually turns out.

Finally, for answer choice (E), your logic was on the right track here as well. All we know is that each sketch allows the designer to see the idea's advantages and flaws, but we do not know whether there is another way for designers to see the pros and cons of their designs as well.

Overall, great job with your reasoning on this question, and I hope this helps!

[andrewlee]

^Adding on to that explanation, "many" is a subjective term meaning more than one or at least two. So in B, we're not inferring that a ton of good designs have emerged from design ideas that were flawed, which I think was my mistake in thinking that B went too far. Instead, we can safely infer that there have been a number of good designs that have emerged from flawed designs, as B says.

[Adam Tyson]

The stimulus is even stronger than just "a number," andrewlee, because the author told us that this is what "typically" happens. That means most of the time!

[AnaSol]

Hi,

I liked answer choice B when I first read it, then I went back to the stimulus and I didn't find that it supported it. Answer choice B says: "Many good designs have emerged from design ideas that were flawed" which while it's possible I didn't see any indication in the stimulus to that effect (Typically, a design that turns out well has gone through many drafts... ). I think one can stretch that and assume it can be the case that many designs have resulted from that, but wouldn't that be an assumption on my part based on information that it's not contained in the stimulus?

Since this is a MSS question, can you correct my thought process so that I can see where I went wrong?

Thanks!

[Dana D]

Hey AnaSol,

The stimulus says "typically" a design that turns out well has gone through many drafts. Typically here means usually or mostly, so it is fair to pick an answer choice that says "many".

[miriamson07]

Hi, I'm confused about this question because I feel as if answer choice B makes a bit of an assumption.

The stimulus says that "what usually allows a designer to see an idea's...flaws is a sketch of the idea." However, doesn't this mean that it a sketch of an idea can also be used for other purposes, not just to see flaws? In that case, wouldn't it be an assumption to say a good design used to be flawed just because it has gone through many drafts?

Thank you. Looking forward to your response.

[Jeff Wren]

Hi miriamson,

I'm not sure that I completely understand your question.

The statement in the stimulus, "what usually allows a designer to see an idea's advantages and flaws is a sketch of the idea" means that designers will sketch out their idea (which would be like a rough draft) and by going over their sketch, they can see both the good and bad things about their idea. This in turn allows the designers to improve on their original ideas. Notice that the first sentence in the stimulus states that each draft is "an improvement over the previous one." What all of this means is that designers often start with ideas that have some flaws, but through multiple drafts they improve their ideas into eventually good designs. In other words, if the designs had no flaws right from the beginning, then they wouldn't need to be improved on; they'd be perfect right from the start. This is what Answer B is expressing.