Critical Reasoning

Colleges in Tycho City have failed to prepare their students for the business world. A recent study revealed that the majority of college graduates in Tycho City could not write a simple business letter.

Which of the following, if true, would provide additional evidence in support of the claim above?

A majority of students attending colleges in Tycho City are business majors.
The State College in neighboring Twyla Township has recently improved its business program by adding courses in business writing.
Most Tycho City college graduates move outside the Tycho City after they graduate.
Most Tycho City college students live in on-campus dormitories.
The majority of college graduates living in Tycho City received their college degrees from institutions located in Tycho city.

IMO B

1. Majority of grads in Tycho cant write well
2. Colleges in Tycho are not preparing students

A. Incorrect. We are not concerned with the majors of students. We are just concerned with post grad business work

B. Incorrect. What a different college does has no bearing on the results from Tycho City colleges

C. Incorrect. This weakens the conclusion

D. Incorrect. Totally Irrelevant

E. Correct. If we know that most college grads that are actually living in the city went to college in the city then you can connect points 1 and 2. In order for the main point to be true you need this information.

Let's try an experiment...

I will give point out the conclusion and the reasoning and then see if that helps point people to the correct answer!

We have a strengthen question. It is a normal type of question with a conclusion in the stimulus.

That conclusion is that "the colleges in Tycho have failed to prepare their students for the business world."
Remember that "Conclusion is King" so that every word matters here. So be faithful to the conclusion. You can abbreviate, but do not paraphrase.

The evidence that the colleges in Tycho have failed?

Here you can paraphrase as long as you get a true sense of the support for this conclusion. In this case our support is that the majority of college graduates in Tycho City cannot write a simple business letter.

Do you notice a switch in the use of the language between the conclusion and the premise? The same words are not used in each - similar but not the same...

Getting to the point where you notice these shifts in language will make you an expert at critical reasoning!

So, what is the shift I am talking about and what is the correct answer?

IMO-E

Colleges in Tycho City have failed to prepare their students for the business world. A recent study revealed that the majority of college graduates in Tycho City could not write a simple business letter.

Which of the following, if true, would provide additional evidence in support of the claim above?

A majority of students attending colleges in Tycho City are business majors.

I chose E.
However,Choice A too strengthens by confirming that most students are businesss majors and inspite of this , they are not capable of writing a business letter.
Whats wrong with this choice.
Going by what David said i agree that E is correct
Whats wrong with A ? How do i eliminate A

David@VeritasPrep wrote:Let's try an experiment...

I will give point out the conclusion and the reasoning and then see if that helps point people to the correct answer!

We have a strengthen question. It is a normal type of question with a conclusion in the stimulus.

That conclusion is that "the colleges in Tycho have failed to prepare their students for the business world."
Remember that "Conclusion is King" so that every word matters here. So be faithful to the conclusion. You can abbreviate, but do not paraphrase.

The evidence that the colleges in Tycho have failed?

Here you can paraphrase as long as you get a true sense of the support for this conclusion. In this case our support is that the majority of college graduates in Tycho City cannot write a simple business letter.

Do you notice a switch in the use of the language between the conclusion and the premise? The same words are not used in each - similar but not the same...

Getting to the point where you notice these shifts in language will make you an expert at critical reasoning!

So, what is the shift I am talking about and what is the correct answer?

David,
I think the switch that you are talking about is - "Colleges in Tycho city & their students" vs "College graduates in Tycho city". The latter could include graduates from Stanford living in Tycho city!

The correct answer is the one that links the two items above. Hence E.

Regards
C

Colleges in Tycho City have failed to prepare their students for the business world. A recent study revealed that the majority of college graduates in Tycho City could not write a simple business letter.

A majority of students attending colleges in Tycho City are business majors.

The majority of college graduates living in Tycho City received their college degrees from institutions located in Tycho city.

Hi, after reading the selections above in Conclusion and answer choices A, E you will understand what's wrong with choice A ...

Choice A points onto students who were schooled in Tycho City, while choice E points onto students who are college graduates living in Tycho City. We are having circular reference here Conclusion-Premise. Not all students are claimed and subsequently proved to result in academic failure. The premise states the fact - could not write a simple business letter based on A recent study revealed that the majority of college graduates in Tycho City
this is very unusual argument which makes cross reference of its premise to the conclusion.

mundasingh123 wrote:Colleges in Tycho City have failed to prepare their students for the business world. A recent study revealed that the majority of college graduates in Tycho City could not write a simple business letter.

Which of the following, if true, would provide additional evidence in support of the claim above?

A majority of students attending colleges in Tycho City are business majors.

I chose E.
However,Choice A too strengthens by confirming that most students are businesss majors and inspite of this , they are not capable of writing a business letter.
Whats wrong with this choice.
Going by what David said i agree that E is correct
Whats wrong with A ? How do i eliminate A

Colleges in Tycho City have failed to prepare their students for the business world. A recent study revealed that the majority of college graduates in Tycho City could not write a simple business letter.


The conclusion is talking about STUDENTS and premise is talking about GRADUATES. I guess thats the shift here.

Hence , IMO E.

Question: strengthen the argument
Opinion: Writing simple bussiness letter is mandatory requirement for survival in bussiness world

A) Argument says they are not.. weakener
B) Out of scope.. Dont care twyla city
C) Tyco city grads are weak.. out side tyco city grads we dont need
D) Out of scope.. dormitories???
E) It is the next sentence in the above arguement.

I chose E, but did not match my opinion.. I was expecting

"business tendors from tyco city's service organizations usually gets sent back for more clarifications"

David ... How best can we form a question based on my opinion???

Answer has to be E.

Nice work everyone!

There are many ways to get to the correct answer. One of those is to notice the shifts in language to see where those shifts create possible weaknesses in the argument. It is as if the the test writers who are creating the argument are computer programmers who want to leave a back door or a vulnerable spot in the security in case they want to get in later.

Look for these intentional vulnerabilities.

In this case as chintudave has pointed out the shift is from the conclusion indicating that "Colleges in Tycho City have failed" back to the premise which does not only mention colleges in Tycho City but says "majority of college graduates in Tycho City" as chintudave writes above it could be that most of the students are from colleges outside of Tycho City and they move in later. So Tycho City Colleges cannot be blamed for their poor education.

Once you have spotted this shift you are ready to answer multiple types of questions. In basketball we have the "triple threat" position where a person can shoot, pass, or dribble the ball when they receive it. The same can be said of soccer I am sure. In GMAT Critical Reasoning, you are beyond the triple threat as you are now ready to answer Strengthen, Weaken, Assumption, Method of Reasoning and more."

With this vulnerability in mind you can answer a weaken question just by pointing it out! The conclusion that Tycho City Colleges failed is not sound b/c the premise allows for the people who cannot write these letters to be graduates of other colleges.

For an assumption question you can say that the needed assumption is a few things, one of these is as HSPA was anticipating, the statement that writing a simple letter is actually important to your preparation for the business world. HSPA don't get flustered if your anticipated answer is not there, look for other assumptions that are needed as well. In this case the better assumption is that the college graduates in Tycho City went to college there!

For a strengthen question which this one is the best answer will eliminate the intentional vulnerability. So that means we need to make up for the shift in language. We need to make it so that the college graduates living in Tycho City are representative of the people who actually went to college at the Tycho City Colleges rather than to Stanford ro somewhere else. Choice E does this.

As to Choice A, we are not told that majoring in business is a requirement to be prepared for the business world. We are told that students are not prepared because they cannot write a simple letter. So A is tempting, but to know that these people are business majors does not mean they attended colleges in Tycho City.

Hey, now that I look fitzgerald23 was on this one from the start!