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Fraternity membership

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by bln123 » Wed Oct 14, 2009 2:14 am
Please tell me what you think is the correct answer:

Membership in the Theta Delta Psi fraternity is easily obtained by those who have a previously had strong social connections with existing fraternity members before college. However, one must have attended high school with one or more of the members in order to forge such strong social connections. People who lack these social connections because they have not attended high school with one or more current fraternity members will therefore find it difficult to join the fraternity.

This argument displays flawed reasoning because it neglects to consider the possibility that
A) many of those who went to high school with TDO fraternity members did not themselves become members of the fraternity
B) it is more important in the long run to socialise with non-fraternity members than to develop strong connections with fraternity members
C) it is more difficult to forge social connections with fraternity members than with non-fraternity members
D) one may easily obtain membership in the fraternity through means other than having strong social connections with existing members
E) some current members of the fraternity did not go to high school with other members
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Source: — Critical Reasoning |

by bln123 » Wed Oct 14, 2009 11:23 am
By the way, the OA is D, I guessed (because none of them made sense to me) C
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by mehravikas » Wed Oct 14, 2009 2:29 pm
Answer should be 'D' because it points out another way to become a member of the fraternity.

Argument says that people who have not been to high school and have not been socially connected with the current fraternity members will find it difficuilt to join the fraternity. 'D' says there are other easy ways of obtaining the membership other than having strong connections with the current members
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by bln123 » Thu Oct 15, 2009 2:29 am
mehravikas, thank you for the answer.

I am asking because this logic seems flawed to me.
The question states "the argument displays flawed reasoning because it neglects to consider the possibility that" yet the author considers other means to enter the frat
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by mehravikas » Thu Oct 15, 2009 11:43 am
The author does not consider other means to enter the fraternity. The question specifically asks to find out a flaw in the reasoning because it neglects that there are other ways to become a member.
bln123 wrote:mehravikas, thank you for the answer.

I am asking because this logic seems flawed to me.
The question states "the argument displays flawed reasoning because it neglects to consider the possibility that" yet the author considers other means to enter the frat
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Re: Fraternity membership

by bln123 » Sat Oct 17, 2009 3:46 am
bln123 wrote:People who lack these social connections ... will therefore find it difficult to join the fraternity.
I thought the statement above, made by the author, accepts that there are other, more difficult was to enter the frat
if "will find it difficult" usually means "impossible" (I am not a native speaker) the arguement makes sense to me
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by mehravikas » Sat Oct 17, 2009 1:40 pm
No not at all.

"It will find difficult" does not mean impossible. I think you should go through the power score CR bible for GMAT.

You'll find the concepts what does some, none, all mean in the CR
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by heshamelaziry » Sat Oct 17, 2009 2:22 pm
I find that this question should be under "weaken the argument" category rather than "flaw in reasoning". Simply because choice D introduces new information that the argument does not depend on; no where it implies that membership could be obtained by other means.

I would like to know the source of this question, please.
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by bln123 » Sun Oct 18, 2009 6:23 am
Kaplan GMAT Advanced
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