Using "most" to eliminate in NA questions - reliable rule?

Comments

• harrismegan Member

  December 2014 2074 karma

  It's so weird, but I actually experiences this today and I WAS going to write something about it.
  I picked Most as the correct answer, but BR and found that 2/5 answer choices were Most to trap you... and the correct wasn't Most. Then it got me thinking... if it's a Necessary Assumption question, it probably would be a little stronger than most.... wouldn't it?
• leelisee Alum Member

  December 2014 92 karma

  Thanks for replying!
  
  Hmm I feel like it's not that 'most' isn't strong enough for NA questions. After all, if you go one level higher, you get to "all" and that is definitely generally too strong for necessary assumptions ("all" is typically used for sufficient assumptions!).
  
  I thought the significance of using 'most' to eliminate answers on NAs was just on the fact that the difference between having 49.8% of something and 51% of something is rather trivial UNLESS the stimulus said otherwise (and most don't). What do you think?
• [Deleted User] Free Trial

  December 2014 578 karma

  You can't use strong language for assumption questions
• blah170blah Alum Inactive ⭐

  December 2014 3545 karma

  I think the strength of the answer relies on the type of assumption question. If it's a sufficient assumption question, you want a strong answer choice to make the argument air tight. In a necessary assumption question, the answer choice will tend to be weaker and does not need to be overly strong.
  
  I do tend to eliminate answer choices when I see most in NA questions because they seem to usually be out of scope. For instance, if the argument says "x drug caused y reaction," there will be some answer choice that will say "most recipients of drug x did not have y reaction," I know it's trying to trick me. It's out of scope because, even if for most people it doesn't have the predicted effect, the argument holds if at least one person is affected.
• 1 Like

  leelisee Alum Member

  December 2014 92 karma

  Thank you all for your input!
  
  I actually found a NA question that did in fact have "most" in the correct answer choice. As was predicted, the stimulus implied the necessity to have the correct answer be qualified with 'most.' If anyone is curious, the question is PT70, S4 #6.
• eucalyptus Alum Member

  December 2014 41 karma

  You're referring to the one with the detective and embezzlement where the answer starts with "The majority…"? Interesting, and good catch. That must just because the conclusion is based on quantities though, right? I actually got PT 70 S1 Q13 wrong because I picked a "most" answer… Thanks for posting!
• leelisee Alum Member

  December 2014 92 karma

  @eucalyptus, yeap, 'most' worked in that case because the argument core hinged on the fact that there was a majority. Otherwise, I think it's fairly safe to assume that the word "most" is generally unnecessary in NAs.
• 1 Like

  dictronic110 Alum Member

  December 2014 67 karma

  The exception appears in PT 36, S 3, #14. But in that case the right answer choice has the negation of most. I think in that case the issue is not the word "most", since even if we replace "most" with "some" it still works.
• leelisee Alum Member

  December 2014 92 karma

  @dictronic110 woww, great catch. The one you found is definitely more tricky to understand, but I feel like the word 'most' is in fact still central to the answer choice, and implied by the conclusion (and more specifically by the words "no better than").
  
  If you negate it to say "less than half of the jobs will not demand that you be an expert at machines," then you can no longer conclude that education in technical expertise isn't better than education without. If say 49% of jobs don't care about your technical expertise while 51% do, you surely can deny the conclusion and say that technical expertise will give you a leg up in the employment race. Does that make sense?
• 1 Like

  Jonathan Wang Yearly Sage ⭐

  December 2014 6874 karma

  The original post acknowledges that there are no guaranteed shortcuts, but I want to make that point crystal clear, and also add in that even entertaining these shortcuts can be destructive.
  
  If you are using shortcuts like these in lieu of evaluating the answer choices, then that's terrible. If you are using them but 'not really' - i.e., you go back to evaluate the answer choices on their actual merits anyway - then what was the point? People always claim that they always evaluate choices objectively, but how can that be true when out of the other side of your mouth, you're saying that the presence of a single word already casts doubt on that answer choice? And under pressure, guess what comes to the forefront? Yep - those shortcuts that you swore would never sway your judgment but that you're suddenly using as a tiebreaker ("which one of these SOUNDS stronger?") instead of actually thinking about the answer choices. Everyone's done it, so no righteous indignation necessary - it's only a matter of how often you've gotten away with it.
  
  Whether answer choices are 'weak' or 'strong', 'broad' or 'narrow', 'vague' or 'specific' - those are all tangential to the question that you are being asked. The followup to every one of those "justifications" is "...and?", at which point you'd have to explain what the logical consequence of vagueness or strength or broadness is anyway. So why bother with the middleman? Make sure you know the actual reasoning and dispense with the shortcuts - they will only ever hurt you in the long run.