I felt that E sounded as thought it was supporting the stimulus by explaining why the company was expanding into bus tours. I chose D because it sounded to me as though the company saw what their competitors were doing so they decided to expand their services to not be left behind. But upon reading the explanation above, I can see E was very subtle. D might have been stronger if there was more to the answer choice and possibly correct if E wasn't an explanation that is clearly better. I made an assumption on D without a plausible evidence to support it.
E: Expand by introducing their current customers to new products and services.
The stimulus says their focus is on expanding its current customer base whereas E says their focus is on expanding their business via current customers, which is what makes it right.
For weakening question I always think to solve it this way: pick the best alternative option given the premise in the piece of text. It is "weakening" the argument because it is giving an alternative strong hypothesis.
Same I'm so confused on how to solve these, somehow I keep getting them right regardless. I just look at the hypothesis / conclusion and look for something thats similar to the premises but cohesive as an alternative conclusion.
I don't think this works for every weakening question but for ones like this, this is how I solved it correctly the first time around:
I took the "therefore" and plugged in the answer choices until I decided on E because it made the most sense logically that gave an alternative explanation.
If you plug in A, B, C, or D, after "therefore", they either don't make sense or don't offer an alternative explanation. Like I said, I wouldn't do this for every weakening question but it works for one that is set up like this :) hopefully this helped someone!
@iriswu84153 Okay, so it's good to know I am not the only one who thinks of the question like this. I always look at it like "Which one of these answer choices is the better conclusion for this stimulus?" .. I have found this to be extremely helpful.
I think what has helped me, more specifically with this question, is remembering that I am looking for an alternative hypothesis for my phenomenon. I am taking everything in my phenomenon to be true, so when I read the answer choices, I think "Okay, considering my phenomenon, what else could I hypothesize that my phenomenon will conclude/explain that isn't my original hypothesis."
For example, the original hypothesis says the reason for hiring employees with bus tour experience is because they're trying to expand their consumer base by attracting NEW consumers. Now, after reviewing all the possible answer choices that are supposed to be true, what else could explain the reasoning for hiring employees with bus tour experiences? Could it be that they're being advised to provide new services and products to their current customers (which is what E says)? The answer is yes, that could very must be true. Overall, remembering that you are looking for alternative hypotheses that explain your phenomenon is what has helped me.
I hope this helped--I'm a bit bad at explaining lol, but let me know if I can explain it differently. Good luck!
This question was so straightforward that I convinced myself I was missing something because I kept getting E as the answer. I thought it was a trick question, spent 10 minutes second-guessing myself, and eventually just chose E out of frustration.....I was so shocked when I saw the difficulty level.......BTW... if you got this question wrong, you probably just misread the stimulus because it's kind of confusing. (Same thing happened to me.)
Can someone explain weaken questions to me like I'm 5 years old. I keep getting them wrong and now I'm questioning whether I understood how to answer this question type.
When I answer a weak question, I almost imagine I am a smartass who is trying to be petty and prove the other person's hypothesis wrong. So when I read the questions, I, for whatever reason, think of myself loudly proclaiming, OR MAYBE, then I read the potential answers.
For example, Someone could claim that students who have after-school jobs have worse grades. Therefore, the jobs are hurting their education, and they should not do them.
Then I loudly come in and proclaim, "OR MAYBE kids who have after-school jobs lose sleep, and sleep depravation affects their grades."
If we assume my answer to be true, it weakens that person's argument because their claim was that the jobs were hurting the kids, but it was the sleep deprivation because of the job hours.
If it were the case that the jobs had good hours and never messed with their sleep cycles, they would have no effect.
Nice. I get the one before this of easier difficulty wrong, but this of harder difficulty right? I am laughing at myself because how did I understand this one better than the previous one? I am genuinely so damn confused.
Wow. I was so attracted to E but I made the same subconscious assumption that their preferences cannot change... and I literally picked C knowing that assumption too, but removing E left me with C.
Sheesh these weakening questions are kicking my butt comparable to MBT, MSS, and RRE.
How is E not strengthening the conclusion? If consultants told you "this is what you have to do to expand the company," how is that weakening the conclusion "they are attempting to expand the company?"
Hanamasrour3, your mistake is not reading clearly enough. The final sentence of the stimulus says "Travaillier must be attempting to enlarge its consumer base by attracting new customers". Answer choice E is not talking about new customers, it's talking about their current customers that they already have being introduced to new products and services. Hope this helps.
Paraphrase of the stimulus: Travaillier Corporation trying to break into a new travel market (the tour bus industry), despite their customer's existing travel preference (planes), must be evidence of its attempt to enlarge its customer base BY attracting new customers.
E weakens the idea that Travaillier Corporation is attempting to enlarge its customer base by attracting new customers and instead offers an alternative explanation. Namely, Travaillier Corporation is trying to expand its business NOT BY attracting new customers but by expanding the products and services it offers to its existing customers.
104 comments
This question ass
This was tough but I understand now. E weakens the argument because the answer choice focuses on CURRENT CUSTOMERS and not NEW CUSTOMERS
@EthanSegerman That's what threw me. I didn't read it closely enough---I was trying for time. This was a hard one, too.
I felt that E sounded as thought it was supporting the stimulus by explaining why the company was expanding into bus tours. I chose D because it sounded to me as though the company saw what their competitors were doing so they decided to expand their services to not be left behind. But upon reading the explanation above, I can see E was very subtle. D might have been stronger if there was more to the answer choice and possibly correct if E wasn't an explanation that is clearly better. I made an assumption on D without a plausible evidence to support it.
Great user name haha
Stimulus: Expand by attracting new customers.
E: Expand by introducing their current customers to new products and services.
The stimulus says their focus is on expanding its current customer base whereas E says their focus is on expanding their business via current customers, which is what makes it right.
@sheadongraham Great summary!
Feels good to get these higher difficulty questions in right around a minute!
For weakening question I always think to solve it this way: pick the best alternative option given the premise in the piece of text. It is "weakening" the argument because it is giving an alternative strong hypothesis.
this whole time I was confused on how too solve these, and kept picking the wrong answers. this made it easier to understand
Same I'm so confused on how to solve these, somehow I keep getting them right regardless. I just look at the hypothesis / conclusion and look for something thats similar to the premises but cohesive as an alternative conclusion.
Always has me stressing whenever I'm eliminating answers and it's getting near the end of the list like this one LOL
So proud of myself for getting this right WOOOOOO
Oh Weakening questions will be my downfall...
Was stuck between A and E and chose the wrong one ugh!!!! praying and manifesting I get the hang of this section
I did the exact same thing! ugh!
Did the same thing...
Current customers vs new... ugh
This was my mistake 🥲
I don't think this works for every weakening question but for ones like this, this is how I solved it correctly the first time around:
I took the "therefore" and plugged in the answer choices until I decided on E because it made the most sense logically that gave an alternative explanation.
If you plug in A, B, C, or D, after "therefore", they either don't make sense or don't offer an alternative explanation. Like I said, I wouldn't do this for every weakening question but it works for one that is set up like this :) hopefully this helped someone!
It has been tremendously helpful for me to think "What is an alternative hypothesis to the stim?" rather than "what weakens the argument"
@iriswu84153 Okay, so it's good to know I am not the only one who thinks of the question like this. I always look at it like "Which one of these answer choices is the better conclusion for this stimulus?" .. I have found this to be extremely helpful.
this is one of those questions that seems so obvious after listening to the reasoning... even just glancing at the question again with new eyes
ez
I feel like i am having such a hard time trying to grasp and fully get these weakened questions. does anyone have any general tips that helped them??
I think what has helped me, more specifically with this question, is remembering that I am looking for an alternative hypothesis for my phenomenon. I am taking everything in my phenomenon to be true, so when I read the answer choices, I think "Okay, considering my phenomenon, what else could I hypothesize that my phenomenon will conclude/explain that isn't my original hypothesis."
For example, the original hypothesis says the reason for hiring employees with bus tour experience is because they're trying to expand their consumer base by attracting NEW consumers. Now, after reviewing all the possible answer choices that are supposed to be true, what else could explain the reasoning for hiring employees with bus tour experiences? Could it be that they're being advised to provide new services and products to their current customers (which is what E says)? The answer is yes, that could very must be true. Overall, remembering that you are looking for alternative hypotheses that explain your phenomenon is what has helped me.
I hope this helped--I'm a bit bad at explaining lol, but let me know if I can explain it differently. Good luck!
This is exactly what I do! :)
This question was so straightforward that I convinced myself I was missing something because I kept getting E as the answer. I thought it was a trick question, spent 10 minutes second-guessing myself, and eventually just chose E out of frustration.....I was so shocked when I saw the difficulty level.......BTW... if you got this question wrong, you probably just misread the stimulus because it's kind of confusing. (Same thing happened to me.)
this is confusing :/
Can someone explain weaken questions to me like I'm 5 years old. I keep getting them wrong and now I'm questioning whether I understood how to answer this question type.
#Help
When I answer a weak question, I almost imagine I am a smartass who is trying to be petty and prove the other person's hypothesis wrong. So when I read the questions, I, for whatever reason, think of myself loudly proclaiming, OR MAYBE, then I read the potential answers.
For example, Someone could claim that students who have after-school jobs have worse grades. Therefore, the jobs are hurting their education, and they should not do them.
Then I loudly come in and proclaim, "OR MAYBE kids who have after-school jobs lose sleep, and sleep depravation affects their grades."
If we assume my answer to be true, it weakens that person's argument because their claim was that the jobs were hurting the kids, but it was the sleep deprivation because of the job hours.
If it were the case that the jobs had good hours and never messed with their sleep cycles, they would have no effect.
This is honestly very helpful!
Wow this little trick has been incredibly helpful!!! Thank you!
Nice. I get the one before this of easier difficulty wrong, but this of harder difficulty right? I am laughing at myself because how did I understand this one better than the previous one? I am genuinely so damn confused.
The feeling of getting the question correct in BR and in the original is just wow. I hope we all get many more questions right!!
Wow. I was so attracted to E but I made the same subconscious assumption that their preferences cannot change... and I literally picked C knowing that assumption too, but removing E left me with C.
Sheesh these weakening questions are kicking my butt comparable to MBT, MSS, and RRE.
i have to start listening to my instincts bc sometimes i get too into my head and mess up the answer
How is E not strengthening the conclusion? If consultants told you "this is what you have to do to expand the company," how is that weakening the conclusion "they are attempting to expand the company?"
Hanamasrour3, your mistake is not reading clearly enough. The final sentence of the stimulus says "Travaillier must be attempting to enlarge its consumer base by attracting new customers". Answer choice E is not talking about new customers, it's talking about their current customers that they already have being introduced to new products and services. Hope this helps.
Paraphrase of the stimulus: Travaillier Corporation trying to break into a new travel market (the tour bus industry), despite their customer's existing travel preference (planes), must be evidence of its attempt to enlarge its customer base BY attracting new customers.
E weakens the idea that Travaillier Corporation is attempting to enlarge its customer base by attracting new customers and instead offers an alternative explanation. Namely, Travaillier Corporation is trying to expand its business NOT BY attracting new customers but by expanding the products and services it offers to its existing customers.
Subtle, subtle...this one got me!
I know these and flaws are my weakest sections on LR so right now I am not goiong for time but instead for unnderstanding.
I got this right!