I do not understand MBT questions

Cass Stratton

Im having a hard time figuring out how you are suppose to come to the correct answer choice, it seems I just can not comprehend how to do these types of questions... please help lol

curlyhairobsession-1

MBT questions, and any question on LR can be easy if you look at it in a different way which I learned while doing my philosophy major.

Lets take this made up MBT question very similar to a real question you may come across on the exam: (28% got this question wrong when simulated)

**B: Our home displays only 20th century works, which are either on loan from private collectors or in the home's permanent collection. Prints of all the works are available to purchase in the home's store. The home also sells prints of some works that are not part of the home's permanent collection, such as Sunflowers.

If B's statements are true, which one must be true?
A) Every print is on loan from a private collector or part of the museum's permanent collection
Every print sold in the store is a copy of 20th century work
C) There are prints in the store of every work displayed in the home and not on loan.
D)Sunflowers is a 20th century work on loan
E) Sunflowers is not displayed in the museum.**

First look for the buzzwords, EVERY MBT question has a buzzword such as "only, some, never, etc". This is because test makers will try to trap you when it comes to choosing an answer. The first one you see is "only".

So we know the home only has 20th century works and they have to fit into 2 categories: on loan or permanent collection.
So you think the answer is A right? so did nearly 30% of test takers who did a question quite similar to this. At first glance it seems right, but this is why you take every word literally. This isn't an assumption question, do NOT infer.

Works and prints are two different things. This paragraph did not tell us about whether the prints are on loans or not, so A is crossed out.

Let's continue, So the 2nd and 3rd sentence tells us the home sells prints of the 20th century works and also prints the home does not have, so we do not know if the prints are all 20th century, so B is crossed out.

C is crossed out because we also can not infer and assume this. NEVER INFER OR ASSUME.

D is crossed out because Sunflowers is not a part of the home's collection, and therefore doesn't fall into the first sentence's premis. We do not know if its even 20th century.

E) Correct answer because it literally tells you in the paragraph Sunflowers is not a part of the home's collection, so it is not displayed in the museum.

HELPFUL TIPS:
If there is a conclusion- highlight it in yellow and pink for premises.
NEVER ASSUME OR INFER A MBT QUESTION THIS IS HOW THEY TRAP YOU
The answer is literally being told to you in the paragraph, see it as a cheat sheet.
Before you input answer, make sure is it CLEARLY backed up in the paragraph, never infer please.
Read WORD FOR WORD, this is another trap for MBT questions and almost a third were trapped from this question because of answer A.

Hope this helped!

tiara.laulusa

Hey there!

The example that was given is a great one, but I'd like to nitpick on one point: MBT questions are indeed testing you on your ability to make inferences. It's accurate to say that you should never make assumptions on an MBT (or any) question, but MBT questions are testing your ability to make correct inferences. Of equal importance, they are also testing your ability to not make incorrect inferences.

So, how do we do that?

To make correct inferences, we need a rock-solid understanding of Lawgic: sufficient and necessary condition indicator words and the rules of quantifiers, etc. My suggestion would be to review these portions of the core curriculum: Introduction to Logic, Validity and MBT, Some and Most Relationships, and Invalid Argument Forms.

If you'd like to talk more about how to move forward and how a tutor could support you in your journey, feel free to use this link to schedule a free consultation with one of the tutors here at 7Sage! https://calendly.com/7sage-consult/7sage-tutoring-free-consult?utm_source=DF_T