Professional Documents
Culture Documents
CRITICAL REASONING
CAT 2018
VERBAL ABILITY/READING COMPREHENSION
PART-1: VOCABULARY (0 – 15%)
WORD USAGE
PHRASEL VERBS
CONTEXTUAL USAGE
SENTENCE CORRECTION
VERBAL ABILITY/READING COMPREHENSION
PART–3: CRITICAL REASONING (20 – 30%)
MAIN POINT
INFERENCE / ASSUMPTION
STRENGTHEN / WEAKEN
FACT, INFERENCE & JUDGEMENT
PARA COMPLETION
SUMMARY
ODD STATEMENT OF PARA JUMBLE/SCRAMBLE
PARA JUMBLE/SCRAMBLE
VERBAL ABILITY/READING COMPREHENSION
PART-4: COMPREHENSION (45 – 70%)
READING COMPREHENSION
CHAPTER-1
CRITICAL REASONING - CONCEPTS
Most of the Critical Reasoning question contains three parts: a paragraph or
statement(s), the question and the answer choices. Check the following
example;
(A) Most goal oriented students start their preparation at the right time
(B) Some serious aspirants are goal oriented
(C) All goal oriented students are serious aspirants
(D) Some not serious aspirants study regularly
(E) All serious aspirants are goal oriented
OBSERVE: PARAGRAPH or STATEMENT(s)
Paragraph or Statement(s) can be classified into two distinct categories:
Author’s opinion/conclusion
Set of facts
Before we learn more about opinion or conclusion of the author and a set of
facts, lets check the following examples and identify whether it is the opinion or
conclusion of the author or a set of facts.
1) All students are very active. Manoj is a student. So Manoj is very active.
The first two statements provide valid/logical reason(s) to draw the third
statement, which is the opinion or conclusion of the author.
OBSERVE: PARAGRAPH or STATEMENT(s)
2) “2.2 lakh students applied for CAT-2015. 1 lakh students applied for
XAT- 2015. A little over 0.6 lakhs students applied for CMAT-2015.”
Notice that reading these sentences does not cause any reaction in most of the
readers. This lack of reaction is an indicator that the reader is not reading
opinion or conclusion of the author and is instead reading just a set of facts.
1) Humans cannot live on the Sun because the surface temperature is too
high.
2) World-wide countries are facing financial crisis. Therefore, we must
identify the new methods to improve the situation.
3) We must revise our petrol budget due to sudden hike in the petrol
prices.
PREMISE & CONCLUSION: CONFUSING INDICATOR FORMS
Construction of sentences or paragraphs does not follow any fixed pattern.
Majority of the constructions tests the reader’s ability to understand and
interpret the complexities involved. The indicators of the constructions are
also designed to confuse the common readers. One of the most confusing
forms places a conclusion indicator and a premise indicator back-to-back.
Confusing Indicator forms:
Therefore, since…..
Thus, because……...
Hence, due to………
The above combination of premise and conclusion indicators come together
often confuses the reader a lot. However, the comma at the end of the first
indicator gives the clue to identify the premise and conclusion. The clause
between the two commas is the premise and the remaining part of the
sentence is the conclusion.
PREMISE & CONCLUSION: CONFUSING INDICATOR FORMS
Example:
Therefore, since he scored only 5.2 CGPA in the first year, he must score
at least 6.8 CGPA in the second year to have an aggregate of 6.”
Explanation:
Premise: “He scored only 5.2 CGPA in the first year.”
Conclusion: “He must score at least 6.8 CGPA in the second year to have
an aggregate of 6.”
Even though “therefore” still introduces a conclusion, but the
appearance of the conclusion is interrupted by a clause that contains
the premise.
PREMISE & CONCLUSION: EXERCISE-1
Identify the premise and conclusion and premise and conclusion indicators,
if any.
5) Television has a harmful effect on society. This can be seen from the
poor school performance of children who watch significant amounts of
television and from the fact that children who watch more than four
hours of television a day tend to read less than non television watching
children.
Furthermore
Moreover
Besides
In addition
What’s more
ADDITIONAL PREMISE(s): EXAMPLES
EXAMPLE:
The United States prison population is the world’s largest and consequently we
must take steps to reduce crime in this country. Although other countries have
higher rates of incarceration, their statistics have no bearing on the dilemma we
currently face.
COUNTER PREMISE: INDICATORS
• But
• Yet
• However
• In contrast
• Although
• Even though
• Still
• Whereas
• In spite of
• Despite
• After all
• On the other Hand
• Admittedly
ADDITIONAL & COUNTER PREMISES: EXAMPLES
1) Wine is made by crushing grapes and eventually separating the pulp from
the grapes. However, the separated juice contains impurities and many
wine manufacturers do not filter the juice. These manufacturers claim
that the unfiltered juice ultimately produces a more favourable and
intense wine. Since these manufacturers are experts, we should trust
their judgement and not shy away from unfiltered wine.
2) During last night’s robbery, the thief was unable to open the locker. Thus,
last night’s robbery was unsuccessful despite the fact that the thief stole
several documents. After all, nothing in those documents was as
valuable as the money in the locker.
COMPLEX ARGUMENTS:
So far, we have learnt only simple arguments. Simple arguments contain only a
single conclusion. Complex arguments contain more than one conclusion. One
of these conclusions is the main conclusion and the other conclusions are
subsidiary conclusions.
Simply, a complex argument makes an initial conclusion. Then it uses the initial
conclusion as the premise for another conclusion, thus leads a chain of several
premises and conclusions.
2) Anne: Halley’s Comet - orbiting far from the Sun - recently flared
brightly enough to be seen by telescope. No comet has ever been
observed to flare so far from the Sun before, so such a flare must be
highly unusual.
Sue: Nonsense. Usually no one bothers to observe comets when
they are very far from the Sun. This flare was observed only because
a person was tracking Halley’s Comet very carefully.
COMMON COMPLEX CONSTRUCTIONS
In the second example, each speaker presents premises and
conclusions. As often occurs with this form of question, the two
speakers disagree. As you might imagine, the presence of multiple
viewpoints normally tends to be confusing.
In fact, a single speaker can raise alternate viewpoints. A viewpoint is
raised at the begging of the paragraph and then disagree with it
thereafter. This construction of argument efficiently raises two
opposing views in a very short paragraph.
It often begin with the phrase:
Explanation:
The editor used “some people propose” to introduce one opinion of taxes
and then in the following sentence counters the idea with the view that turns
out to be the editor’s main point.
Explanation:
As shown by this example, the acceptability of premises does not
automatically make the conclusion completely acceptable. The reverse is
also true – the acceptability of the conclusion does not automatically
make the premises acceptable.
2) Trees shed their foliage every year are deciduous trees. Red Oak trees
shed their leaves every year. Therefore, Red Oak trees are deciduous.
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE # 3
Quantity Indicators and Probability Indicators can mislead. Always pay
attention to them and carefully examine them.
1) Every year, news reports appear concerning the health risks posed by
coffee, tea and sugar. This year an article claimed that coffee is dangerous
to one’s health. Previous year one article argued that coffee has some
benefits for one’s health. From these contradictory opinions, we can see
that experts are useless to guide on one’s health.
EXERCISE: 2
2) Constructing a dam on Ganga River would provide water to the dry lands
in its upstream areas; unfortunately, the dam would reduce the
agricultural productivity in the downstream. The productivity loss in the
downstream would be greater than the productivity gain in the upstream,
so building a dam would yield no overall gain in agricultural productivity
in the region as a whole.
Though question statements cover wider range of tasks, they typically ask the
student to:
1) Identify the details
2) Determine whether the conclusion is strong or weak
3) Identify the Main points, Assumptions and Inferences
4) Recognize the flaw in the reasoning
5) Find the arguments that are identical in structure
6) Describe the tone of the author
7) Title of the paragraph/passage
ANALYSIS OF QUESTION TYPES
Each of these tasks can be classified into one of the following nine different types:
2) Main point
Main point question asks the student to find the primary conclusion of the
paragraph.
Question Type:
1) The main point of the argument is that
ANALYSIS OF QUESTION TYPES
3) Assumption
Question type:
1) Which one of the following is an assumption required by the argument above?
4) Strengthen/Support
These questions ask the student to select the answer choice that provides support
for the author’s argument or strengthen it in some way.
Question Types:
Which one of the following, if true, most strengthen the argument?
Which one of the following, if true, most strongly supports the statements above?
ANALYSIS OF QUESTION TYPES
5) Resolve the paradox
Every Resolve the Paradox statement/paragraph contains a discrepancy or
contradiction. Student must find the answer choice that best resolves the
situation.
Question type:
1) Which one of the following, if true, would most effectively resolve the
apparent paradox above?
6) Weaken
Weaken questions ask you to attack or undermine the author’s argument.
Question type:
1) Which one of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?
ANALYSIS OF QUESTION TYPES
7) Method of Reasoning
Method of Reasoning question asks the student to describe, in abstract terms,
the way in which the author made his or her argument.
Question type:
1) Which one of the following describes the reasoning used in the statement /
paragraph?
The types of questions are already more in number and also could be a good
challenge to deal with. If some of them or all of them have a common root,
then it would be very much easier to understand and also cpuld be less
intimidating.
The first cluster questions are based on the principle of using the information in
the statement/paragraph to prove that one of the answer options must be true.
RULE 1: The information given in the statement/paragraph is taken for granted
(even if it contains an error of reasoning) and no additional information
is being added.
RULE 2: Any information in an answer option that does not appear either
directly or indirectly in the statement/paragraph will be incorrect.
CLUSTER 2: INTRODUCTION
Assumption
Strengthen/Support
Resolve the paradox
The Second Cluster questions are based on the principle of assisting or helping
the argument in the statement/paragraph in some way by resolving a paradox.
RULE 1: The information in the statement/paragraph is suspect. There are often
reasoning errors present in the statement/paragraph.
RULE 2: The answer options are accepted as given, even if they include new
information.
CLUSTER 3: INTRODUCTION
Weaken
The Third Cluster question is based on the principle of weakening the conclusion
in the statement/paragraph.
RULE 1: The information in the statement/paragraph is suspect. There are often
reasoning errors present in the statement/paragraph.
RULE 2: The answer options are accepted as given, even if they include new
information.
QUESTION CLUSTERS: IMPORTANT POINTS
Must Be True and Resolve the Paradox questions generally connected to the
statement/paragraph that does not contain conclusions. All remaining question
types must be connected to statement/paragraph with conclusions.
Weaken and Strengthen are polar opposite question types, and both are often
based on flawed argument.
Method of Reasoning and Flaw in the Reasoning questions are of similar types.
While the Flaw in the Reasoning questions explicitly contains an error of
reasoning, Method of Reasoning statement/paragraph contains valid or invalid
reasoning.
EXERCISE - 3
Identify the types of questions and write the answer in the blank:
2) Of the following, which one most accurately expresses the main point of
the argument?
MAIN POINT
3) Which of the following statements, if true, would provide the most support
for the scientists’ explanation?
STRENGTHEN
EXERCISE - 3
4) Which of the following, if true, most helps to explain the view point
described above?
RESOLVE THE PARADOX
8) Which of the following is most like the argument above in its logical
structure?
PARALLEL REASONING
10) The statement above, it true, most strongly supports which of the
following?
MUST BE TRUE
PRESENCE OF “EXCEPT” AND “LEAST” IN THE QUESTIONS
“Except” means “other than”
The word “except” has a dramatic impact if it appears in the question.
For example, if a question asks you to weaken the argument, the one correct
answer option weakens the argument and the other options do not weaken the
argument. If “except” is added to the question, the one correct answer option
does not weaken the argument and the other options weaken the argument.
The word “least” has a similar effect to “except” when it appears in a question.
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE # 4
PREPHRASE*: After reading the question statement, try to formulate your
answer without go through answer options.
It is quite common to simply read the question statement and then move on to
the answer choices without further thought. It is definitely disadvantageous,
isn’t it?
One of the most effective way to find the correct answer choice is to
prephrasing. Prephrasing is quickly speculating on what student expect the
correct answer will be based on the information given in the paragraph.