Know your critical reasoning concept for GMAT – 1

There are two types of arguments commonly asked in the GMAT CR. Lets discuss them

• What is an inductive argument?
• What is a deductive argument?

An inductive argument is an argument where the conclusion is derived from the given premises only. The GMAT CR arguments are mostly of this type. This argument is weak because when the argument is critically analyzed it can be concluded that the conclusion cannot be derived from only the given premises.
Few examples of inductive arguments are given below.

Example 1:

Recently Algie Corporation has recruited a clever CEO to manage its operations and found its operational costs reduce by 30 percent ever since. A similar decision helped Beta Ltd to cut down operational costs by 33 percent. This shows that corporations can reduce operational costs considerably by recruiting astute CEOs.

The argument is weak because it cannot be concluded that the reduction of ops cost cannot be attributed to CEO only, it could be because of some other external factors.

Example 2

A few students of Joe School joined Luke College for liberal arts course. Mary is a student of Joe School. Therefore, Mary is most likely to join Luke College for liberal arts course.

The argument is weak because it cannot be concluded that Mary belonged to that group of students that joined Joe School

A deductive argument is an argument where the conclusion is claimed to follow necessarily from the given premises. Specific conclusions can be derived from universal premises. This argument is strong.
Few example of deductive arguments are as follows

Example 1:

All plants are green
Rose is a plant
Rose is green.

Example 2

All chemical factories in North America have effluent treatment plants within the factory premises. Fertilizer Max is a chemical factory in North America. Hence, it must have an effluent treatment plant in its premises.

Now why don’t you submit three inductive and deductive arguments . Let me check them.
You can also email your comments to urmentor@semanticslearning.com





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