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defendants

by ansumania » Mon Apr 19, 2010 9:39 pm
hi,

Pl. explain the question.

Although its purpose is laudable, the exclusionary rule, which forbids a court to consider evidence seized in violation of the defendant's constitutional rights, has unduly hampered law-enforcement efforts. Even when the rights violation was a minor or purely technical one, turning on a detail of procedure rather than on the abrogation of some fundamental liberty, and even when it has been clear that the police officers were acting in good faith, the evidence obtained has been considered tainted under this rule and may not even by introduced. In consequence, defendants who were undoubtedly guilty have been set free, perhaps to steal, rape, or murder again.

The author of the passage above assumes all of the following EXCEPT:
(A) The constitutional rights of criminal defendants should be protected.

(B) Most cases in which the exclusionary rule has been invoked have involved purely technical violations of constitutional
principles.

(C) The number of cases whose outcome has been affected by the exclusionary rule is significant.

(D) Some of the defendants set free under the exclusionary rule have been guilty of serious criminal offenses.

(E) Merely technical violations of the rules concerning evidence should be treated differently from deliberate assaults upon
human rights.

regards,

Ansumania
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by Testluv » Tue Apr 20, 2010 12:28 am
....I smell a stinky 1000CR!

(have you ever seen an official assumpton EXCEPT question? I guarantee that you won't find a single one in any OG11, OG12 or GMATPREP...in fact, assumption EXCEPT is also a rare beast on the LSAT).

You should avoid this source, as there are serious design issues with these questions. I appreciate the desire to get a lot of practice. But practicting on these questions can hurt you more than it will help you.

Let's take a look at the answer choices:

(A) The constitutional rights of criminal defendants should be protected.

This is NOT an assumption. The author states that the purpose of the rule is "laudable". So, this is more of an inference than an assumption (assumptons are UNSTATED).

(B) Most cases in which the exclusionary rule has been invoked have involved purely technical violations of constitutional
principles.

This is NOT an assumption, and this choice is also likely the official answer. The author does not have to assume that this problem happens most of the time.

(C) The number of cases whose outcome has been affected by the exclusionary rule is significant.

This is an assumption: if the number of cases wer insignificant, then the argument that the rule has unduly hampered law enforcement falls apart.

(D) Some of the defendants set free under the exclusionary rule have been guilty of serious criminal offenses.

This is an assumption.

(E) Merely technical violations of the rules concerning evidence should be treated differently from deliberate assaults upon
human rights.

This is NOT an assumption. It is like choice A; another inference.

So, while the question-designer likely intended choice B to be correct, none of choices A, B, and E are assumptions, and, therefore, all three of them satisfy the conditions of the question stem. On the GMAT, there will always be one (and only one) answer that satisfies the conditions of the question stem.

_______

I could tell this was a 1000CR question from my experience in seeing them on this website. And many of the ones I've seen (if not most) are flawed in design. If you want your score to go up, you really should avoid CR questions from this source. For example, if someone were to take this question seriously, and review it thoroughly they would likely walk away with a diminished or distorted understanding of the concept of assumption. The particular danger stemming from this question is that it suggests that choices that restate evidence (or that are inferrable evidence) qualify as assumptions. Yet, on the GMAT CR section some wrong answers to assumption questions are choices that do precisely that. Thus, this question is training you to treat something that is wrong on the GMAT as though it were right.

Again, practicing on questions from this source can hurt you more than help you.
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by ansumania » Tue Apr 20, 2010 2:28 am
thx for the reply. Pl.tll me which would be a good source to practice CR question apart from OG...
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by Testluv » Tue Apr 20, 2010 6:52 am
First, the recent official GMAT materials: OG11, OG12, OG VERBAL SUPPLEMENT, GMATPREP.

Next, questions from a major test prep company. Of course, my opinion is that Kaplan's questions are most test-like.

If you still need more practice, you can turn either to the older GMAT paper tests, to GMATPOWERPREP (the old GMATPOWERPREP computer tests which you can download somewhere on this site), and/or LSAT. But there are some concerns here. The style of GMAT CR has changed since the old GMAT paper tests and GMATPOWERPREP. And LSAT has several question types that don't appear on the GMAT. Also, LSAT tests different skills (for example, it tests formal logic vigourously). More, the style of LSAT is far more wordy.

I'm sorry if I harped on the question you posted. As you can surely tell, I really disdain 1000CR!
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