Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Has there ever been a wkn str right AC with "some?"

MarkmarkMarkmark Alum Member

Has there ever been a weakening or strengthening correct answer choice which uses the word some or many? If so which pt section and question?

I just got finished with 81.3.16 about financial incentives to conserve energy. The trap AC would have been perfect if we changed "some" to most or all, and I know this happens frequently. I was a bit shocked at the correct AC, however, and am now curious enough to see if some/many are essentially instant disqualifiers.

Comments

  • bananabobananabo Core Member
    edited September 2020 1211 karma

    PT58 S1 Q5 is a weakening question where the correct answer choice says “many…”

    I don’t think “some/many” can be used as an instant disqualifier because it depends on the argument. In this question, the stimulus concludes that advocates should ALWAYS be allowed to prescribe herbs and the correct answer choice weakens the argument because it’s saying that in some cases (where practitioners choose herbs over more effective medicines), they shouldn’t prescribe herbs because they’re neglecting a more effective medicine.

  • Jonathan WangJonathan Wang Yearly Sage
    6866 karma

    Yeah, don't take this shortcut. Take the time to learn why the reasoning works the way it does and reason your way through it. Why settle for a cheap trick when you can do it properly and guarantee yourself the point?

  • noonawoonnoonawoon Alum Member
    3481 karma

    "The trap AC would have been perfect if we changed "some" to most or all, and I know this happens frequently. I was a bit shocked at the correct AC, however, and am now curious enough to see if some/many are essentially instant disqualifiers."

    Ok think about it logically. You are talking about choosing an answer choice that most strengthens or most weakens an argument

    Saying "some" part of a population behaves in a certain way is generally not the best way to strengthen or weaken an argument

    Why? Because some could literally mean 1/1000. If you try to attack my argument by saying that "some" parts of the population behave differently than what I am saying, for all I know that "some" is 1/10000 and is just some statistically insignificant outlier

    I agree with Jonathan that you shouldn't try to take cheap tricks. Try to understand why "some" makes certain statements weak. It's not an "instant disqualifier" like you wrote.

  • MarkmarkMarkmark Alum Member
    976 karma

    Nice thanks for the responses!

  • FindingSageFindingSage Alum Member
    edited September 2020 2042 karma

    I can’t think of a question but when I find one I will let you know. I am quite sure that there are multiple questions that are weakening/ strengthening that have many or some as correct answers.
    I do notice the word choices some or most but like @"Jonathan Wang" says why settle for a cheap trick you can understand the concepts and predict the answers before hand. Concepts are much more powerful than words like most or all. We all prefer strengthening to the point of SA and weakening to destroy an argument but sometimes a weakening question can be answered just by providing another explanation and a strengthening question can strengthen just by blocking an alternative explanation.

    I can give you an example of when “some” would be great in a weakening question. Think about when you see a weakening question with a really strong conclusion using a word like none. If you had a conclusion for example that said:

    Because of vaccine X No patients contracted disease Y.

    To weaken this you would simply need to introduce possibility. A correct answer could say:

    Some patients contracted disease immediately following receiving vaccine X.

    The word many would have worked there equally well. Some questions where I am sure that I have seen the words many and some would be weakening/ strengthening questions involving correlation to causation and also phenomenon and hypothesis.

  • 776 karma

    PT 48 LR sections have them!

  • MarkmarkMarkmark Alum Member
    976 karma

    @FindingSage great response thanks!

  • MarkmarkMarkmark Alum Member
    976 karma

    @Trusttheprocess said:
    PT 48 LR sections have them!

    Nice ty

Sign In or Register to comment.