Self-study
Conclusion If one wants to succeed, then one should act as though one were genuinely confident about one's abilities, even if one actually distrusts one's skills. ███████ ██ ████ ████ ██████ ████████ ██ █████ ███ █████████ ███████ ██████████ ███████ ██ ██████████ ████ ██ █████ ██████ ████ ████████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that to succeed, you should act confident in your skills, even if you doubt yourself. As support, he says that success is easier for those who truly believe in themselves than for those who are full of self-doubt.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that pretending to be confident in your skills can cause you to truly believe in yourself and to not be full of self-doubt, thus enabling you to succeed. In other words, he assumes that acting self-confident produces real self-confidence.
24.
Which one of the following ███████████ ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ █████████
a
Those who convince ██████ ████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ████ ███ ████████████
The author discusses believing or convincing yourself that you’re capable of succeeding, not convincing others. (A) fails to address whether acting confident causes you to believe that you can succeed.
b
Genuine confidence is █████ █ ██████████ ██ █████████ ████████████████
If pretended self-confidence produces genuine self-confidence, then you should act confident in order to succeed, since success is easier for people with genuine self-confidence.
c
Success is usually ████ █ ██████ ██ ████ ██ █████████████ ████ ██ ██████
Even if luck and determination are also factors in achieving success, the author is only discussing self-confidence. (C) doesn’t address whether acting confident leads to real self-confidence, regardless of one’s luck or determination.
d
Many people who ██████ ██ █ ██████████████ ██████ ███ █████████ █████████ █████ █████ ██████████
This suggests that many people are not pretending to be self-confident because they truly are confident. But it doesn’t help to determine whether pretended confidence produces real confidence in those people who are not already genuinely confident about their abilities.
e
Self-doubt can hamper ██ ████ ██ ███ ███ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████ █████████ ███ ████████
The author establishes that success is more difficult for people with self-doubt. (E) suggests that self-doubt can also help success. But it doesn’t explain whether pretended confidence can reduce self-doubt and lead to real confidence.