Hi all - I'm a bit confused about what differentiates the PSA and Strengthen question stem tag when the stem deals with a principle... For example, see below
PT140.S2.Q15 - "Which one of the following principles, if valid, most helps to support the argument in the letter to the editor?" - tagged as PSA
PT154.S2.Q4 - "Which one of the following principles, if valid, most strongly supports the editorial’s reasoning?" - tagged as Strengthen
These question stems seem to be virtually identical, except one refers to an argument vs reasoning. Is that the differentiator?
1
2 comments
The short answer is there really isn't an important difference between the two categories you're describing. There's a REALLY big difference between PSAa (which are basically MSS) and PSAr (which are basically Strengthen), and people often confuse the two, which is why those tags exist.
I'm like 95% certain that all Strengthen-questions-that-explicitly-call-for-a-principle should just be tagged PSAr. The one you linked is a good example -- I just changed that Q's tag to PSAr. It probably got the Strengthen tag because of the "most strongly supports" language (PSAr questions often use the slightly different "most helps to justify"), but that's a stylistic difference, not a substantive one.
Tagging in @Kevin_Lin in case he's interested.
Hey! The difference between PSA and Strengthen questions isn’t whether the stem says “argument” or “reasoning.” PSA is really just a more specific version of a Strengthen question, so the question stems can look pretty much the same.
The real difference is about how much the right answer actually helps. For PSA, the principle connects the dots from the premises to the conclusion, almost making the argument airtight. With regular Strengthen questions, the principle just needs to make the conclusion a bit more likely, not totally seal the deal. So, you can’t always tell which is which just by looking at the question stem. For both types, just focus on finding the conclusion and the gap, and then pick the answer that does the best job of connecting them.