I noticed that wording of these two MSS stems are slightly different.

1. “The statements above, if true, most strongly support which one of the following?”

2. “Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the statement above?”

I think that the first MSS is a subset of Must Be True. The stimulus is a given.

The second MSS is a strengthening question. The stimulus is suspect.

Can someone clarify this for me? Thanks!

1

6 comments

  • Tuesday, Nov 21 2017

    I know this is an old post, but I just wanted to say thank you. It clarified why I was having such a hard time with these questions. On my last PT, I missed 0 of the MSS questions, and in my drills, I missed 0. Finally.

    0
  • Saturday, Jun 21 2014

    Thank you everyone for clearing that up for me!

    0
  • Friday, Jun 20 2014

    The first stem refers to the statements above (using the stimulus).

    The second stem refers to using the answer choices. One that strengthens. Another variant of this is "Each of the following, if true, supports the claim above:" or "Each of the following, if true, strengthens the argument EXCEPT:"

    1
  • Friday, Jun 20 2014

    Yeah, one of them is a MSS question, the other one is a STRENGTHENING question. I remember seeing a lesson where JY warned us about this.

    3
  • Friday, Jun 20 2014

    Yes, that is correct. The first question directs to work from the stimulus to the answers that is, use the information in the stimulus to prove that one of the answers is MSS (the relationship is from stimulus to answers), while the second question asks you to use the correct answer to support, justify, strengthen the argument (the relationship is from question to answer).

    1
  • Friday, Jun 20 2014

    I agree! The first one involves sort of finding a conclusion that is compatible with the stimulus.

    The second one is asking for something that supports (or strengthens) the argument. Simple as that!

    Yes, I agree with you.

    2

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