Some/most/all Q's.

[mford]

There is a particular question type that, for whatever reason, I have a hard time with. Even though, in retrospect the answers look obvious, during the time-crunch, the abstract nature of the questions tend to catch me off-guard. They are the some/most/all question type. I'm not sure what exact question type they would fall under in the full course books. I know they are a must be true, but a very special type. The questions are all sort of like this: 'some lawyers are golfers, most golfers were highschool athletes. Some highschool athletes were very competitive. If the above is true, what can be concluded on the basis of it?' Is there a system that Powerscore has devised for this type of question? Is diagramming the best strategy, and if so, does it look like conditional reasoning? If you are looking for an example of this question, I came across one in the December 2000 test; section 3 q.#8
Thanks!

[Jon Denning]

Thanks for the question. The question type that I believe you're referring to is what we commonly call Formal Logic. It is an extremely rare question type (a little over 2% of questions in Logical Reasoning contain FL) that is often thought of as almost an extension/type of conditional reasoning, in that relationships between "conditions" are given in definitive ways ("some As are Bs," or "most Cs are not Ds," etc). The key to Formal Logic questions is recognizing the inferences that are possible from various, commonly-encountered relationships. For instance, the phrase "some As are Bs, and all Bs are Cs" would give the inference "some As are Cs," whereas something like "all As are Bs, and some Bs are Cs" would not yield any inferences.

I notice that you mention the full-length course books. If you are in a full-length course, or have access to the online resources from a previous course, you will find a very lengthy discussion of Formal Logic in the Online Student Center as part of your Lesson 8 HW Supplement section. Take a look at that and I think you'll feel MUCH more comfortable with these ideas.

Thanks again!

[mford]

Wow. This is super-extensive, and just what I was looking for. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction, Mr. Denning!