GMAT
Agenda
Why Critical Reasoning?
Form of Critical Reasoning Questions.
Basics
Different Types of Critical Reasoning
Questions
Why Critical Reasoning?
Evaluates how you reason
Tests your ability to use basic logic in
analyzing and critiquing arguments
Assesses your common sense and
skills in evaluating data and taking
sound decisions accordingly.
What do you need to deal with
this section?
1. Common sense
2. An understanding of logic
3. Lots of practice
Form of Critical Reasoning
Questions
* Every critical reasoning problem is
comprised of three parts:
An argument
A question
Five answer choices
Logical Fallacies/ Flawed Arguments
Analogy:
An argument by analogy compares one situation to
another, ignoring the question of whether the two
situations are comparable
Studies indicate that use of this product causes cancer
in some laboratory animals. Therefore, you must
stop using this product on human beings.
Logical Fallacies/ Flawed Arguments
The past predict the present/future:
This argument assumes that the way
something happened in the past will be similar
to how it will happen in the present/future.
We should not hire the Indian immigrants to work in
our factory. When we tried doing this 10 years ago,
it was a miserable failure. Their lack of knowledge
of English and their difficulties in adjusting to life in
the US made them unreliable
Logical Fallacies/ Flawed Arguments
Causal Argument:
An argument which concludes that X is the cause
of Y based on a temporal relationship
- X accompanied Y - X preceded Y
Every time I wear my grey suit, people like me.
Therefore, it is my grey suit that makes people like
me.
Herbert Hoover was elected President of the US in
1928. This was followed by a recession in 1929.
Logical Fallacies/ Flawed Arguments
Statistical Argument:
An argument which uses statistics to prove its
point.
Four out of five doctors agree: The pain reliever in
Sinutol is the most effective analgesic on the market
today. You should try Sinutol.
Logical Fallacies/ Flawed Arguments
Particular to General (Overgeneralization):
Basing a large conclusion on too little
information
Generalizes a single case: supposes that what is
true for one member of the class is equally true for
all other members.
John must be bad at sports, because he is really bad
at tennis.
Critical Reasoning Question Types
Supply the conclusion
Find the assumption
Strengthen the argument
Weaken the argument
Inference questions
Complete the passage
“Except” questions
Supply the Conclusion
The passage gives you a list of evidences.
You will have to decide which one of the answer
choices is the best conclusion to the passage.
Strategy:
- Make sure that the conclusion follows from all the
premises not only one.
- The answer cannot be just a restatement of the
passage.
- Eliminate the answers that don’t follow clearly
from the premises
- Beware of choices that go further than the scope of
the argument
Inference Questions
Asking you to infer something from the passage.
Questions might ask you to make inferences
about one or more of the premises
Strategy:
The correct answer will contain an inference that
can be logically and safely drawn from the
original argument.
The best answer paraphrases words and ideas
from the text and contains an inference just one
step in logic away from the message of the text.
Inference Questions
Alice plays volleyball for Central High School,
despite the team’s rule against participation by
non-students.
Alice is not a student at Central High School (inference)
Inference Questions
Sample stems:
Which one of the following is inferable from the
argument above?
Which one of the following is implied by the
argument above?
The author suggests that..
If all the statements above are true, which one of the
following must also be true on the basis of them?
Strengthen the Argument
Asking you to find a hole in an argument.
Asking you to fix the argument with additional
information that corrects for the weakness in the
argument.
Strategy:
The correct answer will strengthen the argument
with new information.
Find the conclusion and determine which answer
choice makes the conclusion stronger.
Strengthen the Argument
Sample stems:
Which one of the following, if true, would most
strengthen the argument?
Which one of the following, if true, would provide
the most support for the conclusion in the argument
above?
The argument above would be more persuasive if
which one of the following were found to be true?
Weaken the Argument
Asking you to find a hole in an argument.
Asking you to expose the hole in the argument
that reveals the weakness in the argument.
Strategy:
The correct answer will weaken the conclusion of
the argument.
Find the conclusion and determine which answer
choice makes the conclusion less tenable.
Weaken the Argument
Sample stems:
Which one of the following, if true, would most
weaken the argument above?
Which one of the following, if true, would most
seriously damage the argument above?
Which one of the following, if true, casts the most
doubt on the argument above?
Which one of the following, if true, is the most
serious criticism of the argument above?
Complete the Passage
Questions ask you to complete a passage
The question comes before the argument, and the end of
the argument is usually broken off in mid-sentence.
Strategy:
Look for the answer choice that best completes the
passage. It might provide a missing premise, state the
conclusion, or connect the premises to the conclusion.
Don’t make associations based on your own knowledge
that are not made in the passage.
Except Questions
All the answer choices satisfy the question’s statement
except one which does not.
If a question says all of the following strengthen the
conclusion EXCEPT , the correct answer choice fails to
strengthen rather than actively weaken.
The question uses words like NOT and LEAST
Strategy:
Look for the answer choice that either strengthen
or weaken the argument, then ELIMINATE
them
