Tackling Find the Assumption CR Problems
Find the Assumption questions are very common Critical Reasoning question types. If you dont yet know the general process for tackling Critical Reasoning problems, learn how before you keep reading this article.
Ready to try a question? Set your timer for 2 minutes and try this GMATPrep problem:
In a study conducted in Canada, servers in various restaurants wrote Thank you on randomly selected bills before presenting the bills to their customers. Tips on these bills were an average of three percentage points higher than tips on bills without the message. Therefore, if servers in Canada regularly wrote Thank you on restaurant bills, their average income from tips would be significantly higher than it otherwise would have been.Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument relies?
(A) The Thank you messages would have the same impact on regular patrons of a restaurant as they would on occasional patrons of the same restaurant.(B) Regularly seeing Thank you written on their bills would not lead restaurant patrons to revert to their earlier tipping habits.
(C) The written Thank you reminds restaurant patrons that tips constitute a significant part of the income of many food servers.
(D) The rate at which people tip food servers in Canada does not vary with how expensive a restaurant is.
(E) Virtually all patrons of the Canadian restaurants in the study who were given a bill with Thank you written on it left a larger tip than they otherwise would have.
Got your answer? Lets start going through this one!
Step 1: Identify the Question
The question stem contains the word assumption, which is a pretty good clue that this is a Find the Assumption (FA) question. This question type always contains a conclusion and I know its important to find that conclusion. Also, if I can, Im going to brainstorm any assumptions I can think of without taking too much time.
Step 2: Deconstruct the Argument
Here, Ill show you what Im thinking while I read the argument and also how I would take notes. Your own thought process wont be exactly the same as mine and, of course, your notes will probably look quite different, since we all have our own ways of abbreviating things.
Ive thought of a couple of different lines of attack. First, maybe theres something around the word significant. Also, the author is assuming that what happened during the study will continue to happen in future, but maybe theres some reason why that wouldnt happen. I can imagine that I might respond by giving a larger tip the first couple of times I saw Thank you, thinking the server had taken extra care to write the note but if everybody did it, it wouldnt have the same impact.
Note: Im not really articulating all of the above to myself in so many words theres not enough time. But quick ideas or impressions come to us as we read these arguments, and the above would be my general impression for this one.
Step 3: State the Goal
This is an assumption question, so I have to find something the author MUST believe to be true in order to draw this conclusion (that writing Thank you on the bill will result in significantly greater tips on average).
Work from Wrong to Right
We still have two answers left, B and E, so now we compare them.
Wow, I was pretty convinced when I read answer B, but now that Ive read E, I think that one is it! Argh.
Okay, answer B addresses the issue of whether there would be an unintended consequence of seeing Thank you all the time if people who see it all the time then start ignoring it and go back to their old tipping habits, then the servers arent going to maintain that increase in their tips. Does the argument say that the result (significantly more in tips) would be short-term? No, it implies that this increase would be permanent. It wouldnt be, though, if people did revert to their old tipping habits, so the author really does have to assume that people wont go back to their old habits. B is still looking good.
What about E? I still like the fact that this answer says that the Thank you people gave larger tips than they otherwise would have. But both answers cant be right! Is there anything else here? Oh, I think I see. At the beginning, the answer says that virtually all patrons gave higher tips. Is it necessary to assume that they all or almost all gave higher tips? Maybe a smaller portion gave much higher tips, and so the overall increase averaged to 3%. Let me just check the conclusion yes, Ive got it! The conclusion also just talks about an average increase, so the author is not assuming that everyone gives higher tips just that some people do.
The correct answer is B.
Also, Im pretty impressed by that wrong answer E. One part of it is an actual assumption the author does have to assume that the Thank you note did specifically cause the change in behavior. The problem with E was that it went too far in assuming that virtually all of the people changed their behavior. That was seriously tricky.
Take-aways for Find the Assumption (FA) CR questions:
(1) Know how to identify the question type. Most FA questions contain some form of the word assume or assumption, though occasionally the question will ask what information is required or what information would allow the conclusion to be more properly drawn.
(2) Deconstruct the argument according to the goals for this type. FA questions all have conclusions and they all hinge on finding some assumption, so I should be looking for these things as I read the argument. I dont have endless time to brainstorm assumptions; Ill have a better shot at thinking of one or two efficiently if I know to think about it while Im reading the argument for the first time.
(3) Remind yourself of your goal. At first, you may need to say to yourself: For FA questions, I need to find something that the author must believe to be true in order to draw that conclusion. Some trap answers might involve something the author could believe to be true, but thats not good enough. Longer term, you may be able to say to yourself, simply, "Find Assumption" and know what that entails.
(4) Cross off wrong answers first, then worry about finding the right answer. Dont waste time trying to decide whether B is actually correct when you havent looked at C, D, or E yet. Eliminate first, then compare any remaining answers, as we did on this problem. Watch out for traps! On Assumption questions, one common trap answer tells us something thats reasonable to believe could be true (such as answer C), but the author doesnt absolutely have to believe that its true in order to get to his conclusion. Another common trap is the irrelevant distinction trap, where the answer tries to make a distinction between two or more groups or categories, but those distinctions do not actually matter to the given conclusion, as in answers A and D.
* GMATPrep questions courtesy of the Graduate Management Admissions Council. Usage of this question does not imply endorsement by GMAC.