CR_evaluate

Expert replies

Soumita: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 34; Joined: Fri Nov 16, 2012 1:58 pmFollowed by: 1 member

by Soumita » Mon Jan 21, 2013 12:36 am

Kensington University Medical School's ambitious outreach program, which was designed to increase the proportion of female students enrolling at Kensington University Medical School, has been very successful. In 1990, only twenty students in the incoming first-year class were women, whereas the first-year class that began in fall of 2004 has thirty-seven women in it.

In order to evaluate the argument above, which of the following pieces of information would be most useful?

A.The percentage of female students currently at Kensington University Medical School.

B.The number of male students at Kensington University Medical School.

C.The percentage of female applicants to Kensington University Medical School each year from 1990 to 2004.

D.The number of female applicants to Kensington University Medical School in 1990 and 2004.

E.The number of students in the 1990 and 2004 first-year Kensington University Medical School classes.

OA E

Can anyone let me know the strategy to attack this type question. So that I can apply the same in future. So anyone has any easy idea.

I always choice wrong answer for this type of CR.[/u]

Source: Beat The GMAT — Critical Reasoning | Mon Jan 21, 2013 12:36 am

GMAT/MBA Expert

ceilidh.erickson: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2095; Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2012 3:22 pmFollowed by: 247 members; Thanked: 1443 times

by ceilidh.erickson » Mon Jan 21, 2013 7:56 am

Whenever you're asked to evaluate the argument, you first have to find the LOGICAL GAP between the premises and the conclusion.

Premises:
- Outreach program is designed to increase the proportion of female students
- 20 women in 1990's class, 37 women in 2004's class

Conclusion:
- Outreach program has been successful (i.e. the proportion of female students is higher)

So what' missing between the premises and the conclusion? We're given information about NUMBER, but the conclusion is about PROPORTION.

Logical Gap:
Is the increase in NUMBER the same as an increase in PROPORTION? In other words, do we have the same total number of students in 2004 as we had in 1990? If so, then the proportion of women must have increased. If the total number of students is significantly higher, though, the 37 women could be a lower proportion of students overall.

A. We're asked to compare the percent of female students currently at the school to all female students who have attended the school. This wouldn't tell us about female students relative to male students.

B. The number of male students (currently) at the school would give us this year's proportion, but would not allow us to compare 2004 to 1990.

C. Applicants are not the same thing as women actually attending the school.

D. Again, we don't care about applicants.

E. Total number of students in 1990 and 2004 would allow us to determine the relative proportions that the 20 and 37 female students represent. CORRECT.

Always pay attention to any change from one statistic to another. Change from NUMBER to PROPORTION (or percent, or ratio) is a particularly common one. See more here:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/i-m-doubting ... tml#551227

Ceilidh Erickson
EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education

tanviet: Legendary Member; Posts: 1404; Joined: Tue May 20, 2008 6:55 pmFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 18 times

by tanviet » Sat Jan 26, 2013 1:30 am

ceilidh.erickson wrote:Whenever you're asked to evaluate the argument, you first have to find the LOGICAL GAP between the premises and the conclusion.

Premises:
- Outreach program is designed to increase the proportion of female students
- 20 women in 1990's class, 37 women in 2004's class

Conclusion:
- Outreach program has been successful (i.e. the proportion of female students is higher)

So what' missing between the premises and the conclusion? We're given information about NUMBER, but the conclusion is about PROPORTION.

Logical Gap:
Is the increase in NUMBER the same as an increase in PROPORTION? In other words, do we have the same total number of students in 2004 as we had in 1990? If so, then the proportion of women must have increased. If the total number of students is significantly higher, though, the 37 women could be a lower proportion of students overall.

A. We're asked to compare the percent of female students currently at the school to all female students who have attended the school. This wouldn't tell us about female students relative to male students.

B. The number of male students (currently) at the school would give us this year's proportion, but would not allow us to compare 2004 to 1990.

C. Applicants are not the same thing as women actually attending the school.

D. Again, we don't care about applicants.

E. Total number of students in 1990 and 2004 would allow us to determine the relative proportions that the 20 and 37 female students represent. CORRECT.

Always pay attention to any change from one statistic to another. Change from NUMBER to PROPORTION (or percent, or ratio) is a particularly common one. See more here:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/i-m-doubting ... tml#551227

thank you expert for posting your thinking process.
your analysis of logic gap is in fact the process of prethinking an assumption. I see that you prethink an assumption before you go to answer choices to analyse them.
we need to be armed with an assumption, the basement of argument, on which the answers to many type of quetions are based, before we go to answer choices.
Is my thinking correct?

second question.
if my above thinking is correct, prethinking an assumption quickly is key to answer to many questions.

then, How to prethinking an assumption quickly ? do you have any tip/skill for this process. ?
Thank you

GMAT/MBA Expert

ceilidh.erickson: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2095; Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2012 3:22 pmFollowed by: 247 members; Thanked: 1443 times

by ceilidh.erickson » Sat Jan 26, 2013 6:56 am

duongthang wrote: thank you expert for posting your thinking process.
your analysis of logic gap is in fact the process of prethinking an assumption. I see that you prethink an assumption before you go to answer choices to analyse them.
we need to be armed with an assumption, the basement of argument, on which the answers to many type of quetions are based, before we go to answer choices.
Is my thinking correct?

second question.
if my above thinking is correct, prethinking an assumption quickly is key to answer to many questions.

then, How to prethinking an assumption quickly ? do you have any tip/skill for this process. ?
Thank you

Yes, you are correct! For many CR question types - Assumption, Evaluate, Strengthen, and Weaken - you want to identify the logical gap (the assumption) before you look at the answer choices.

To think of the assumption quickly, try to think about this structure:

Premises
[ ... ]
Conclusion

Think about your given premises and the conclusion stated. What's missing to tie those two together? Not just what else could be true - what would directly link the premises and conclusion? What does the conclusion NEED?

Often these gaps will fall into patterns. Here's an article that lists a few common ones: https://www.manhattangmat.com/tutorials/ ... -flaws.cfm

Ceilidh Erickson
EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education

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