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Question Pack 1 CR Question | The cause of the wreck of the

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Question Pack 1 CR Question | The cause of the wreck of the

by richachampion » Mon Apr 10, 2017 3:36 am
The cause of the wreck of the ship Edmund Fitzgeraid in a severe storm on lake Superior is still unknown , when the sunken wreckage of the vessel was found, searchers discovered the hull in two pieces lying close together, The storm's violent waves would have caused separate pieces floating even briefly on the surface to drift apart. Therefore, the breakup of the hull can be ruled out as the cause of the sinking.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

A. Ships as large as the Edmund Fitzgerald rarely sink except in the most violent weather.
B. Under water currents at the time of the storm did not move the separated pieces of the hull together again.
C. Pieces of the hull would have sunk more quickly than the intact hull would have
D. The waves of the storm were not violent enough to have caused the breakup
E. If the ship broke up before sinking , the pieces of the hull would not have remained on the surface for very long
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by richachampion » Mon Apr 10, 2017 4:02 am
Correct Option B


While negating what conclusionshould we take in negating?

Conclusion: Therefore, the breakup of the hull can be ruled out as the cause of the sinking because The storm's violent waves would have caused separate pieces floating even briefly on the surface to drift apart.

or

Conclusion: Therefore, the breakup of the hull can be ruled out as the cause of the sinking.
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by ceilidh.erickson » Mon Apr 10, 2017 8:23 am
When you're using the Negation Test on an ASSUMPTION question, you should negate only the speculative part of the conclusion: "Therefore, the breakup of the hull can be ruled out as the cause of the sinking."

Generally speaking, anything presented as a premise should be taken to be true, e.g. "The storm's violent waves would have caused separate pieces floating even briefly on the surface to drift apart."

Think of it like this:
CR argument:
Because of fact A, therefore claim C must be true.

We want to find the thing that's unstated that would link these two:
Because of fact A, (assuming condition B), therefore claim C must be true.

If we use the negation test, it would look like this:
Fact A is true. But if the opposite of condition B were true... claim C would not be true.
This would reveal that condition B (the assumption) was actually NECESSARY to the conclusion.

You don't want to say "if fact A weren't true..." because this changes the underlying logic structure of the entire argument.

Here's how we would apply the Negation Test to each answer choice:

Given:
- the hull was found in two pieces
- separate pieces on the surface would have drifted apart

If....

A. Ships as large as the Edmund Fitzgerald REGULARLY sink in non-violent weather.... does that suggest that the breakup of the hull CANNOT BE RULED OUT as the cause of the sinking?
Nope. Whether it happens regularly or not, it could be the hull... or not.

B. Under water currents at the time of the storm DID move the separated pieces of the hull together again..... does that suggest that the breakup of the hull CANNOT BE RULED OUT as the cause of the sinking?
Yes! If underwater currents can move the pieces back together, then it's possible that the hull split apart on the surface and the pieces drifted apart first.

C. Pieces of the hull WOULD NOT have sunk more quickly than the intact hull would have.... does that suggest that the breakup of the hull CANNOT BE RULED OUT as the cause of the sinking?
Not really. How fast or slow it sank doesn't seem relevant to where the pieces ended up.

D. The waves of the storm WERE violent enough to have caused the breakup.... does that suggest that the breakup of the hull CANNOT BE RULED OUT as the cause of the sinking?
This one is tough. There are times that framing the answers with negation is not 100% clear. In this case, I asked myself instead, "does it HAVE to be true that the waves were not violent enough to cause the breakup in order to conclude that the breakup of the hull did NOT cause the sinking?" Well, no. Just because the waves didn't break up the hull doesn't mean that the hull couldn't have broken up for some other reason.

This answer choice is a good example of the difference between ASSUMPTION and STRENGTHEN. This one might have been a right answer if the question had asked "which of the following strengthens the conclusion?" It adds a new premise that supports our conclusion. The distinction, though, is that it does not HAVE to be true in order for us to draw this conclusion from the given premises.

E. If the ship broke up before sinking , the pieces of the hull WOULD have remained on the surface for very long.... does that suggest that the breakup of the hull CANNOT BE RULED OUT as the cause of the sinking?
Nope. Again, this is a length of time issue. The argument is all about distance, so this doesn't matter.

Does that clarify things?
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by richachampion » Mon Apr 10, 2017 9:24 am
ceilidh.erickson wrote: Does that clarify things?
Yes, I have bookmarked this post as this was very enlightening post.

Mam, Can you solve my one query not related to the GMAT, but GRE.
I am 21 years old, and I am also interested in preparing for GRE. I am an Indian that means a non native speaker of english. Only thing that frightens me for preparing is GRE Vocabulary. English dictionary is almost infinite. Can you advice me how much words mugging or practicing through questions will be sufficient to tackle examination.

some says on quora thar around 1000 words of magoosh or 500+ words of manhattan GRE will be sufficient to face the examination with confidence.

I have spoken to many consultants and what I find is that most of the consultants are hesitants to speak a number because speaking such things could revert back to them in terms of a blame if some one fails in a examination, but if you can comment on that.

Suppose, If someone asks me how many questions does one solves consciously for Sentence Correction so that he can shine in GMATexam. Then I will say =
OG13/or Latest OG all SC + Question Pack 1 + Exam Pack 1 = Solve these questions, and you will do well in exam, provided you solve them consciously.
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by ceilidh.erickson » Mon Apr 10, 2017 11:59 am
I'm glad that helped!

As for the GRE... why are you taking it? You bio says that you already have a 740 GMAT score. That's more than enough to get into a top school! And if you keep working to get a 760, you'd be more than competitive anywhere.

I only advise students to switch to the GRE if GMAT studying isn't going well, *AND* if I think that the structure of the GRE would be better (this is not often the case). I see no reason at all for you to switch!

Vocabulary is, unfortunately, part of the GRE, and it's completely unpredictable. You could go in to take it today and see only words you already know, or you could study for 6 months and still see a dozen words that you've never heard of before. I can't possibly give you a "complete these books and you'll be ready" guideline as one could for SC on the GMAT, because there is no finite list of words that the GRE tests.

If you have some compelling reason to take the GRE (other than "I want one more thing to impress admissions officers"), then buy a copy of the GRE Official Guide, to get a sense of the kind of vocabulary tested. Otherwise, just stick with the GMAT!
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by richachampion » Tue Apr 11, 2017 11:37 pm
ceilidh.erickson wrote:
If you have some compelling reason to take the GRE (other than "I want one more thing to impress admissions officers"), then buy a copy of the GRE Official Guide, to get a sense of the kind of vocabulary tested. Otherwise, just stick with the GMAT!
Actually mam, GRE opens the horizon. I can also apply to Masters in analytics in MIT or Masters in Robotics or If I want I can also apply to Masters in Journalism in Columbia or new York University. In short I feel GRE opens lots of options.
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by ceilidh.erickson » Wed Apr 12, 2017 6:05 am
It's impossible to give advice without knowing you personally, but... it sounds like you're looking at VERY different programs here, and it might be wise to narrow your interests before going further.

Yes, the GRE can widen the field of opportunities if you're looking at fields outside of business school, though many programs (usually in STEM fields) may allow you submit a GMAT score in lieu of a GRE. So for analytics or robotic, call those admissions departments and ask before studying for a new test.

If you also might be interested in journalism... I don't see an immediately obvious connection between all of those interests. (Unless you want to start a journal about robots? Requiring business skills + journalism + robotics knowledge?). I'm not saying there isn't a connection (or that people can't be interested in more than one thing), but you need to craft that narrative carefully before applying to any of these programs.

Here's one thing I can say with certainty: any program will be looking for applicants who convey a clear and sincere passion for the field, and can coherently explain their vision for why a graduate degree is necessary to pursue their interests in the field. If they sense that an applicant seems like "I just want a graduate degree, any graduate degree - I'm not sure want I want to do!", that applicant won't get admitted.

So in short, be very clear about what path (or at most, what 2 closely parallel paths) you want to pursue before deciding to study for a new test.
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by alanforde800Maximus » Sat May 26, 2018 7:05 pm
richachampion wrote:
ceilidh.erickson wrote: Does that clarify things?
Yes, I have bookmarked this post as this was very enlightening post.

Mam, Can you solve my one query not related to the GMAT, but GRE.
I am 21 years old, and I am also interested in preparing for GRE. I am an Indian that means a non native speaker of english. Only thing that frightens me for preparing is GRE Vocabulary. English dictionary is almost infinite. Can you advice me how much words mugging or practicing through questions will be sufficient to tackle examination.

some says on quora thar around 1000 words of magoosh or 500+ words of manhattan GRE will be sufficient to face the examination with confidence.

I have spoken to many consultants and what I find is that most of the consultants are hesitants to speak a number because speaking such things could revert back to them in terms of a blame if some one fails in a examination, but if you can comment on that.

Suppose, If someone asks me how many questions does one solves consciously for Sentence Correction so that he can shine in GMATexam. Then I will say =
OG13/or Latest OG all SC + Question Pack 1 + Exam Pack 1 = Solve these questions, and you will do well in exam, provided you solve them consciously.
Thank You for the stats in SC.
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