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Employee Medical Exam

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Employee Medical Exam

by kuiper » Wed Nov 24, 2010 7:47 pm
Employees that get a thorough medical examination twice a year take fewer sick days. Even employees who get examined only once a year take less sick time than those who do not checked. Therefore, if companies instituted in-house medical examination programs, the absentee rate in those companies would decrease significantly.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?

A. Employees who get medical check ups during working hours occasionally feel ill for short periods of time after the examination.

B. Employees who are frequently absent are the least likely to cooperate with a corporate medical program

C. Employees who get a thorough medical examination once a week in their company's medical program usually also get checked by their private doctor

D. Employees who get examined in their company's in house medical program use their working time no more productively than those who do not get examined

E. Employees who get medical examination during working hours take slightly longer lunch breaks than employees who do not get examinations


I thought it was B - but OA is given as C

My reasoning below -





If the people who get thorough medical examination also get regularly checked by their private doctors, it is likely that they take preventive action and take lesser sick leaves as compared with people who do not get checked at all and less likely to take preventive action and take more sick leaves. (Or does this sound far-fetched)
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by Ravish » Wed Nov 24, 2010 9:52 pm
Are you sure it is C? What is the source?

I picked B as well but then when i checked your answer and saw that B is incorrect, i tried looking for other forums online and came across this where they also say that the correct answer is B

https://www.f1gmat.com/gmat-question-ban ... that-get-a
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by kuiper » Wed Nov 24, 2010 10:34 pm
A practice test question on the website - gmatscore.com

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by rishab1988 » Thu Nov 25, 2010 2:37 am
My answer B

Evidence:

Employees that get a thorough medical examination twice a year take fewer sick days.
Even employees who get examined only once a year take less sick time than those who do not checked.
if companies instituted in-house medical examination programs

Conclusion:

the absentee rate in those companies would decrease significantly

The argument obviously assumes that these medical examinations have an effect on the no of sick leaves taken by employees.Also,the argument draws a conclusion of causation [ examinations programs-> fewer absentees] from a correlation in the evidence [fewer leaves and more examinations happen at the same time]

So these could be the possible weakeners

1) The no of leaves taken by employees depends on something else [X].
2) fewer absentees -> more examinations
3) Even if this is done, for some reason employees would not participate.

A) Incorrect on two counts : assumes that the medical examination [corporate] will happen in working hours.The examination could happen after the office hours or before office hours. Feeling ill for short periods of time does not imply taking a leave [ could be a minor headache.The short period of time could be a couple of minutes]

B) Since the question is about absentee rate [% of employees not at work] .This rate will be brought down if the employees who are most likely to take a leave were more regular because those who are already present on almost all days can be treated as a constant.

Absentee rate = No of employees absent/No of employees *100.

This statement says that those employees who are most likely to be absent will not take part in this corporate program.

This is a special case of (2) weakener.

C) This is wrong on two counts: It does not even mention those employees who are most likely to take a leave.You are simply assuming that the employees who get a thorough medical examination once a week are these very employees,but it could also be those employees who already take very few leaves [ a special case of (2)].Further it mentions that these employees get checked by their private doctor.This makes us more likely to believe that the employees who took part in the company's medical program were those who were already very regular.

Reason: The evidence states that these regular employees get medical check-up twice a year or once a year.And since,at that time, no corporate medical program was instituted,it is very likely that they got checked by their private doctor.

D) The question is about absentee rate and not about productivity of the employees.Also it makes a false comparison.We are not comparing the employees who get examined with those who do not get examined.Irrelevant.Hence incorrect.

E) As long as employees do not take leaves,the company's program can be considered successful.Taking lunch breaks and that too slightly longer breaks than those who do not get examined does not count as being absent.Hence incorrect.


What is the OA?
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by Deepthi Subbu » Thu Nov 25, 2010 6:00 am
Even I picked 'B'. But I feel even C has a point.

Here 's my explanation :

Conclusion :The company feels that if they institute an in-house medical examination program , the absentee rate can decrease .

What if there is one more reason behind people who dont fall sick ( those who have already underwent a check up at the inhouse examination program ) consult a private doctor too who can advice people on their health ??

It definitely weakens the conclusion that its not because of the programs that the absentee rate is less but it is actually due to the private doctor consultation.

Experts please help!!
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by TOPGMAT » Thu Nov 25, 2010 6:34 am
Hi,
I agree with Rishab.
I felt C as a trap and did not choose it.
Here's why...

Premise can never be false..
If emp take medical checkup, they will take lesser sick leaves than those who don't...

There is no need to bring in a pvt doctor...
Infact it actually weakens the premise by implying that the checkups at the company
are useless and only those by the pvt doctor is useful.

Therefore only B can be the answer...

I was also thinking of E....
What if employees are careful about their diets and what they eat etc by taking longer
lunch hours than those emp who eat hapazardly etc like a s/w engineer...
you know many ppl take leaves for gastric troubles :-P
Never mind what others do; do better than yourself, beat your own record from day to day and you are a success - William Boetcker
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by pesfunk » Thu Nov 25, 2010 7:06 am
I chose C as the option.

Well, the paragraph says that even though people get checked up at office, they still go to private doctors.

So even if the employees dont get a medical checkup at office, they would still go to the doctor and that would serve the purpose of the company.

Thus, option C weakens the paragraph.
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by Ravish » Thu Nov 25, 2010 8:54 am
C requires you to make an assumption about how long a medical exam actually takes and that, whether the employee takes 1 day of a week when they have to take them.

It can't possibly be true. Would be good to get some expert insight.
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by rishab1988 » Thu Nov 25, 2010 10:17 am
This is the main reason why I stick to official LSAT and OG questions.Most of the other questions try to force their way into answers.
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by TOPGMAT » Thu Nov 25, 2010 9:23 pm
whats the answer ?
Never mind what others do; do better than yourself, beat your own record from day to day and you are a success - William Boetcker
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by diebeatsthegmat » Mon Nov 29, 2010 10:33 am
kuiper wrote:Employees that get a thorough medical examination twice a year take fewer sick days. Even employees who get examined only once a year take less sick time than those who do not checked. Therefore, if companies instituted in-house medical examination programs, the absentee rate in those companies would decrease significantly.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?

A. Employees who get medical check ups during working hours occasionally feel ill for short periods of time after the examination.

B. Employees who are frequently absent are the least likely to cooperate with a corporate medical program

C. Employees who get a thorough medical examination once a week in their company's medical program usually also get checked by their private doctor

D. Employees who get examined in their company's in house medical program use their working time no more productively than those who do not get examined

E. Employees who get medical examination during working hours take slightly longer lunch breaks than employees who do not get examinations


I thought it was B - but OA is given as C

My reasoning below -





If the people who get thorough medical examination also get regularly checked by their private doctors, it is likely that they take preventive action and take lesser sick leaves as compared with people who do not get checked at all and less likely to take preventive action and take more sick leaves. (Or does this sound far-fetched)
i was thinking of E and dont understand why the answer is C???? need expert for this CR
as i understood, the employees who always go to the doctor for checking health are healthier than people who dont go to check the health. Because they are healthy they wont be on the sick list so they wont be absent from the office...

E can weaken this critique by saying that they take longer time to have lunch so the time they absentee from the office is not less than the others?
now i am thinking E is not right 100% however i dont feel C or B is right...
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by rishab1988 » Mon Nov 29, 2010 10:41 am
Guys.I can prove why C is incorrect!!!!!

See the conclusion:

if companies instituted in-house medical examination programs, the absentee rate in those companies would decrease significantly

What does the company say in simple words.Absentee rate will fall...

Does is mention because of what the absentee rate will fall?
NO!

It simply says absentee rate will fall!

Even if I assume the explanation for C.

"What if there is one more reason behind people who dont fall sick ( those who have already underwent a check up at the inhouse examination program ) consult a private doctor too who can advice people on their health ?? "

"It definitely weakens the conclusion that its not because of the programs that the absentee rate is less but it is actually due to the private doctor consultation."

"Well, the paragraph says that even though people get checked up at office, they still go to private doctors.

So even if the employees dont get a medical checkup at office, they would still go to the doctor and that would serve the purpose of the company. "

None of the people who have provided a reason for choosing C are proving that the absentee rate WON'T FALL!

It still proves absentee rate will fall.probably the company's program is causing people to take advice of private doctors..

The conclusion also doesn't say " ONLY if the company does X,Y will happen"

There can be multiple reasons for Y.
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by rishab1988 » Mon Nov 29, 2010 10:46 am
TOPGMAT wrote:Hi,
I agree with Rishab.
I felt C as a trap and did not choose it.
Here's why...

Premise can never be false..
If emp take medical checkup, they will take lesser sick leaves than those who don't...

There is no need to bring in a pvt doctor...
Infact it actually weakens the premise by implying that the checkups at the company
are useless and only those by the pvt doctor is useful.

Therefore only B can be the answer...

I was also thinking of E....
What if employees are careful about their diets and what they eat etc by taking longer
lunch hours than those emp who eat hapazardly etc like a s/w engineer...
you know many ppl take leaves for gastric troubles :-P

In the bold part you yourself are making an assumption by saying "WHAT IF?"
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by rishab1988 » Mon Nov 29, 2010 10:49 am
diebeatsthegmat wrote:
kuiper wrote:Employees that get a thorough medical examination twice a year take fewer sick days. Even employees who get examined only once a year take less sick time than those who do not checked. Therefore, if companies instituted in-house medical examination programs, the absentee rate in those companies would decrease significantly.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?

A. Employees who get medical check ups during working hours occasionally feel ill for short periods of time after the examination.

B. Employees who are frequently absent are the least likely to cooperate with a corporate medical program

C. Employees who get a thorough medical examination once a week in their company's medical program usually also get checked by their private doctor

D. Employees who get examined in their company's in house medical program use their working time no more productively than those who do not get examined

E. Employees who get medical examination during working hours take slightly longer lunch breaks than employees who do not get examinations


I thought it was B - but OA is given as C

My reasoning below -





If the people who get thorough medical examination also get regularly checked by their private doctors, it is likely that they take preventive action and take lesser sick leaves as compared with people who do not get checked at all and less likely to take preventive action and take more sick leaves. (Or does this sound far-fetched)
i was thinking of E and dont understand why the answer is C???? need expert for this CR
as i understood, the employees who always go to the doctor for checking health are healthier than people who dont go to check the health. Because they are healthy they wont be on the sick list so they wont be absent from the office...

E can weaken this critique by saying that they take longer time to have lunch so the time they absentee from the office is not less than the others?
now i am thinking E is not right 100% however i dont feel C or B is right...
Does the conclusion talk about wastage of time during work or long lunch hours? How did you bring in this outside info?

The word absentee means "he is not present".Even if he takes the entire day as a lunch break he is still categorized as present and not as an absentee.!
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