Strengthen questions

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Rastis: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 183; Joined: Wed Sep 21, 2011 7:06 amFollowed by: 2 members; Location: Washington, DC; Thanked: 6 times; GMAT Score:500

by Rastis » Mon Oct 27, 2014 11:30 am

I've been told that the correct answer to a Strengthen question is an answer that will provide NEW information to help justify the conclusion. However, I have also learned that to slash answer choices that you need to identify Out of Focus answers. How can I tell which is which??? It seems that every time I choose an answer that I believe is out of focus it turns out that the question is wrong. Similarly, if I choose an answer that's providing outside, new information it's deemed out of focus. How do you decide?

Source: Beat The GMAT — Critical Reasoning | Mon Oct 27, 2014 11:30 am

David@VeritasPrep: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2193; Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2010 6:30 pmFollowed by: 512 members; Location: Vermont and Boston, MA; Thanked: 1186 times; GMAT Score:770

by David@VeritasPrep » Mon Oct 27, 2014 3:11 pm

The correct answer to a strengthen question does need to provide new information. I cannot strengthen your argument by repeating what you have already said. So new information is required, but that does not mean that it needs to be a new topic or a new discussion, rather it needs to relate to the current topic and specifically the answer needs to link together the evidence that you already have with where you need to go (the conclusion).

You can think of the correct answer to a strengthen question as bridging the gap between where the evidence takes you and where the conclusion picks up. So you are not looking for something that is completely new. It should relate to the both the evidence and the conclusion, and should, in fact, link the two.

Here is an article that helps to explain that link: https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/02/ ... duncan-way

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