Critical Reasoning

Dear all ,

Here is a blog that can help you with one of the most important area in various entrance tests particularly CAT…wherein from the last 4-5 years the questions on Critical Reasoning(CR) have been a regular feature.

So, let us begin…
Before starting on with what is CR , we should understand that why these questions are asked . See , the purpose of these questions is to test your decision making ability in other words it is the lowest possible level on which your decision making approach can be tested because you’ll be the future managers , you’ll face many problems , can you identify the problems? Can you analyse the main problem from the given situation? Can you evaluate and reach to the solution ? This is on what CR tests you on…

So , let us start now by understanding what is the structure of CR type question-

A typical CR question has three parts-
A small paragraph(4-5 lines) , which is ARGUMENT according to the terminology used in CR.
Question that is asked
Answer options most 4 or 5

We’ll describe the-first part-first of all i.e. ARGUMENT

Now, why do we argue…I believe the most obvious answer to this question is that we argue to prove our point i.e. we want to prove our point of view and want the other person to agree to what ever we are saying… So likewise in the argument presented to us in CR question the author wants us to believe in whatever he is saying i.e. the point he wants to prove- this is called Conclusion .

Now I want you to believe in whatever I am trying to prove, so what would I do? Won’t I provide you with relevant facts or information so as to make you believe. These facts or reasons in CR are called PREMISES.

So, in a given argument ,Premise(s)(facts) have to be given so as to form a logical path that’ll lead me to the Conclusion(the point made by the author).But, at times the premises given to me are not sufficient to reach to the conclusion in that case we have to consider another factor that is ASSUMPTION in order to reach to the conclusion . Assumption is thus an unstated premise or a fact that along with the premise leads me to the conclusion.
So, there are three parts in an argument which follows the relation :
Premise(s) + Assumption = Conclusion
Note: it’s not that in every argument the assumption exists but if after reading the argument one feels that the premises given are not sufficient to reach to the conclusion only then there could be an assumption but if after reading the argument you feel that the premises given to me are sufficient to reach the conclusion then NO assumption exists.

Happy learning....i'll continue the article tomorrow....

Crazzylogic