GMAT Ninja CR Ep 5: Anticipating the Correct Answer... Incorrectly

[@darrendeng6513]

Dear GMAT Ninja, I can't express how thankful I am for all of the videos you posted. After getting 670 for three times and trying all the free and paid learning resources I could think of, I was so desperate but then I started watching your videos since 2 weeks ago. All of the videos are informative, structural and even fun to watch. I took the exam again today and got 710. That's a 40-point improvement within just 2 weeks! In the future, if anyone I know is going to take the GMAT, I will definitely recommend your videos and online courses to them. Also even though I don't think I'm going to take the GMAT again, I will continue to follow your updates and watch the future videos! Thanks again, Charles, Alex, Harry, Dana and Bransen, you guys are the best!!

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Congratulations, Darren! And thank you so much for taking the time to write this. I'm honored that we could help a bit. Seriously, please keep in touch, and let us know where you land for grad school! We're sometimes slow to respond to comments, but we always see them. And if you have great news, feel free to reach out to us via our website if you'd prefer, because we like great news. 😃 Congratulations again!

[@Gina7429]

Thanks so much, just by watching this cr series my accuracy in cr has improved tremendously

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Awesome, thank you so much, Gina! Have fun studying.

[@AkritiKhetawat]

In Q1, I eliminated option B since this is a drawback that any city would face, not just Ardane, whereas option D is particular about Ardane. What do you think?

[@GarethNihongo]

I eliminated D because it says "unless warned by signs" The way I thought about it is that this option gives us the possibility that the city would put signs to warn them. The "unless" word it the key to this option

[@vardanrathi7777]

Well well well....a leading GMAT Tutorial company highly stresses on Pre-thinking and here we are....understanding why Pre-thinking is dangerous. I, for a fact, support the latter but whatever floats one's boat

[@azeemhaider670]

You’re talking about egmat? 😂

[@vardanrathi7777]

@@azeemhaider670 Yes 😂

[@azeemhaider670]

@@vardanrathi7777 are you done with your gmat?

[@kanikamalhotra818]

In Q1, choice C also has a chance. If Ardane has a higher residential speed limit, this means the people drive faster, and having speed bumps might cause problems for the drivers and even lead to accidents whereas B might not happen so often?

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

You're absolutely right that the speed bumps might cause problems for the drivers. However, the problem with the argument you're making is that someone could just as easily say that might not happen. We have no evidence from the passage or the answer choice that having speed bumps *would* cause problems for the drivers and lead to accidents or that the higher speed limit means drivers drive faster through Ardane. All we know is that the speed limit in Ardane is higher than in other towns that installed speed bumps. In comparison, answer choice (B) tells us that fire trucks and ambulances *MUST* slow almost to a stop. This will increase the time it takes for these emergency services to respond to callouts and, therefore, the plan will not "enhance safety in residential neighborhoods." I hope that helps!

[@a_k_s_h_a_r_a_]

@@GMATNinjaTutoring while I agree that this is an issue, I did not think that this was a problem cause this is generally true for most speed bumps everywhere. Thus, it is a general limitation with speed bumps. The question says, "serious drawback...in Ardane". However, option C is more specific to Ardane.

[@gianfy2526]

The videos are very useful for some someone who is starting to approach CR questions but, in my opinion, they don't give a deeper understanding of the mechanics and structure of the question for those who are already past the first stages of lerning the mechanics of CR. I would love to see more video where you dive deeper in the understanidng of the structure of the argumentation, where you carefully inspect how to decompose the passage in subordinate clauses, conclusion and support. In th end, in my opinion, the only way to really master CR questions is that, understand what is in front of you and what the argument is really saying, From there, the road to the correct answer is mostly downhill.

[@gianfy2526]

Beside this, great job for the very comprehensive content you guys put out there. Keep going!

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

@@gianfy2526 You're awesome, thank you so much for the comments! Even if you don't love absolutely everything we're doing, it's legitimately a pleasure to have viewers offer thoughtful ideas on what could be improved. It's truly refreshing to read your thoughts. In a very pure sense, I actually agree with you: the road to the correct answer is mostly downhill if you can thoroughly and precisely decompose a CR passage. As tutors, we're primarily interested in a related question: what stops a particular student from being able to "pull apart" a CR passage, and understand the argument deeply? After way too many years of tutoring, our (arguably counterintuitive?) answer is that most -- not all -- GMAT and EA students don't benefit from learning mechanical ways to break arguments down. Many test-prep companies (and at times, the creators of the LSAT, EA, and GMAT) advocate learning a bunch of terminology (premise, counterpremise, subsidiary conclusion, conclusion, etc.) as a way to become better at breaking down arguments. It sounds like a good idea, and to be fair, it does help some students. The trouble is that it doesn't seem to help most students -- at least not the vast majority of students that we meet as tutors, or through various online communities we participate in (GMAT Club in particular). Tons of students learn the terminology and its underlying logic, and then they can't do much with it. In many cases, students get so caught up in the exercise of labeling "argument parts" that they don't really think deeply about what the passage actually says. We've spent quite a bit of time training some students to STOP thinking about those things, because for those particular individuals, it simply got in the way. The more common problem is that for many students, their fundamental understanding of how to decompose an argument is irrelevant (even if their grasp of logic and structure is great), because they have other bad habits that undermine their CR performance. I think I said this in video #1 in the series, but the vast majority of CR errors come from misreads of various sorts -- and our CR series is an attempt to address the bad habits that we frequently see, and to help students change the behaviors that can contribute to misreading the passage and/or answer choices. I'll be 100% honest: I don't know how well our approach is going to work for students who just watch our videos, since this is an unorthodox way to construct a CR video course. When we do one-on-one tutoring, we can identify a particular individual's bad habits and weaknesses -- and then help the student craft an approach to CR that works for them personally, even if it's very different from what we might recommend to a different student. Sometimes, our recommend approach for certain students does include more formal passage breakdowns. We've just noticed that such an approach hurts more students than it helps, so we've focused on other issues in this video series. Time will tell if we made the right call. :) You just inspired me to write WAY too much. Seriously, reach out anytime if you have questions for us -- I appreciate the way you're thinking about all of this. Have fun studying!

[@austinjon31]

@@GMATNinjaTutoring Such a thoughtful, experience-led, response! I am not the original poster, however I am in awe of this example of time & passion you guys dedicate to respond to even free comments here on YT! I want to 2nd that my score plateaued at 710 from self study with so called "mechanics" from books... "framing" questions came at the expense of comprehending each new question as a wholly fresh scenario. It was only until I watched the old series by Charles on the GMATClub Channel that I scored 780 & 760 back to back on recent practice tests! Super excited to have found these new series w/ new questions on this channel! I fell short on my last official attempt, however, I pray to recreate a 99% V45+ on an official exam with the help of these videos :D I deeply (deeply) appreciate you guys- thank you GMATNinja Team!

[@Hasmamit]

Your video courses are fantastic (I've already gone through the RC one). You and the rest of the team teach the underlying logic needed to deconstruct these questions in a way that none of my tutors have. Plus, you seem to be an extremely nice and pleasant person :) @@GMATNinjaTutoring

[@shirleyeriko6012]

I have expected NINJA to use the terms and explain further the knowledge mentioned by OG. But I must say your ways made CR easier, at least for me. I been trained about critical thinking for several months during class at my university, I have some background knowledge of CR. Think about the content is the key for me. @@GMATNinjaTutoring

[@kotim9570]

Big fan of u mam

[@Vishal_Gupta27]

The videos are really great. Thanks team GMAT Ninja. I've a doubt regarding question no 2. Why doesn't (E) fit to the correct answer choice. 'Living in spaceship for an extended time presents insurmountable medical problems', won't this help to further strengthen the researches for medical knowledge to overcome that big problem. Hence at the end it will provide a reason to build space station project so as to gain the medical knowledge.

[@srikanth6170]

Hey , even I had the same doubt but it was clarified when she mentioned what the word "insurmountable" means, which is impossible to solve. Therefore, Option E isn't the correct option. We can't overlook the meaning of certain words present in the answer choices.

[@shirleyeriko6012]

But we are talking about the assumption/premise of the argument, not the explanation/reasons of the argument. You can think that if choice A not hold, the argument will be totally false. It is very obvious. For choice E, you can think like, even if the medical problems are not insurmountable, it does not weaken the argument at all.

[@นพกรตันติปุระ]

Question 3: Why not B? If insect species contain certain nutrients not found in wild berries, that calls into question the explanation that berries contain other nutrients that thrushes need for migration that insect lacks. The explanation could be that: certain nutrients found in insect species are bad for migration, so songbirds eat berries instead.

[@kanikataneja6330]

I can't believe I got all of these right. Were these questions easy or something?

[@iliassetv9236]

In the last example, why the answer D is not correct ? I don't get it. As the explanation says that berries contain other nutrient and that insects lack. If we discover that insects are not lacking, wouldn't it calls into question the assumption made ?

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

The passage discusses a mystery: thrushes eat berries instead of insects when they migrate. This is mysterious because insects have more calories -- so, why would the birds switch to eating berries? The author proposes an answer: berries contain nutrients that the insects don't contain. But what if there just aren't insects available when the birds migrate? This would provide an alternate explanation for why the birds switch to berries -- maybe it has nothing to do with nutrients, and the birds eat berries because they simply can't find any insects to eat. This alternate explanation would undermine the author's answer by giving us a completely different reason for the birds to switch to berries. (D) tells us that there ARE insects available -- so, basically the opposite of the above scenario. If insects ARE available, then we still need a reason to understand why the birds eat berries instead of insects. The author's idea about nutrients still seems pretty strong. Because (D) rules out an alternate explanation, it actually lends some support to the author's argument. That's why (D) is out for the last question. I hope that helps!

[@shrutiv8409]

Second question wrecked me lmao

[@ambarshukla4389]

In question 2, why can't the answer be B? By mentioning "the space station project will give us about the limits of human capacities to live in spacecraft " Isn't it implied that author is assuming that human capacities can be determine this experiment.

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Remember that this type of assumption is something that MUST be true in order for the author's argument to hold up. Does the author HAVE to assume the info in (B)? Well, the space station is manned by people in space -- in other words, astronauts. The author argues that the space station is essential for future missions to Mars -- in other words, missions with other astronauts. So, we have astronauts in the space stations providing medical knowledge to help other astronauts. Because all of this involves astronauts, we don't need to assume that astronauts are like typical human beings. Maybe astronauts are much stronger or smarter than your average human -- that's ok! The space station would still be useful to expand medical knowledge about astronauts. Because we don't NEED to assume the info in (B), we can eliminate it. I hope that helps!

[@rebeccahart9341]

Regarding Q2, I definitely thought A) would be the correct answer, until I read the passage again and noticed that the "space station" (where astronauts live) is the only way to provide knowledge "that could not otherwise be obtained". Since the space station, where humans live, is the only way, I therefore thought robots cannot carry out this mission, since (as stated in the passage very explicitly) the knowledge can only be gathered in one way. Therefore I eliminated A). Why was my way of thinking wrong? The only reason I could find behind my wrong-thinking is that the "only" way of gathering information is the "space station", which does NOT say specifically that "only astronauts" live there. Therefore, robots could also "live" on the space station, making A) correct? Can someone confirm my way of thinking? Much appreciated!

[@navyasethi3804]

" that could not be otherwise obtained" is not talking about the astronauts it's talking about the knowledge of space or earth. Also, ONLY word is nowhere mentioned in the passage. I think your thought process is wrong. 'A' is right because we are assuming here that human are the only astronauts and if there was no human in the space station why would we need medical knowledge about human capacities.

[@ashshettyvlogs3220]

first time 3/3

[@KaustabhBose]

for 2, I don't think A) must be true. Having the medical knowledge of the limits of human capacities can be used to determine if mars missions will be carried out by humans OR robots alone- by understanding if space missions are beyond the limits of human capacities.

[@KaustabhBose]

in other words, we would still need the medical knowledge if humans are NOT going to Mars since the passage is concerned about testing the limits of human capacities

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Good question! Notice the conclusion of the argument is that "building a space station...is essential." Why? Because we'll need the medical knowledge it generates for future missions to explore mars. But what if future exploration of Mars is carried out by robots alone? If that were true, we wouldn't need medical knowledge for these missions. And if we don't need medical knowledge for these missions, then building a space station isn't "essential." True, it might be nice to have medical knowledge about the limits of human capacities in space. But this argument is specifically justifying its conclusion by claiming this knowledge will be needed to explore mars. But if that justification isn't true (i.e. if Mars is explored with robots) then the argument falls apart. So, since (A) is an assumption required by the argument, it's correct. I hope that helps!

[@sujatha8267]

@@GMATNinjaTutoring Agreed, but this is true only if the conclusion said that it will give us limits of "astronaut" capacities. In this case, it'd be important that the future missions be carried out by astronauts and not robots alone. But the para says that it will give us limits of "human" capacities - i.e. all human beings. So, shouldn't the astronauts' capacities be typical of those of ordinary human beings to be able to draw conclusions about "human" capacities in general as mentioned by the para? i.e., option B?

[@bombaybarbell]

3/3

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

= 1 😃

[@vardanrathi7777]

@@GMATNinjaTutoring 🤣🤣🤣

[@jagjotsingh7378]

2/3

[@ashishthakur9052]

Shouldn't the answer to the first question be D, since it is about reducing speed and enhancing safety. Point D shows that speed won't be reduced plus safety won't be enhanced. I think D seems a more relevant option than B

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

As discussed starting at timestamp 7:00, (B) is highly relevant to this question. We're looking for a "serious drawback" to installing the speed humps, and (B) provides exactly that. If, for instance, you had a heart attack and needed an ambulance at your house ASAP, then I think you'd agree that slowing down emergency vehicles to almost a stop is a pretty big problem. So, you can't just get rid of (B) because it doesn't fit your expected answer choice. That's exactly the point of this video! 😃 As for (D), there's nothing in the passage saying that Ardane can't ALSO install signs and indicators. So, that's really not a serious drawback to installing the humps -- it would be a good idea to install the signs/indicators, and if that happens then there's no reason to think that safety will be impacted. Eliminate (D). I hope that helps, and thank you so much for taking the time to ask a question here!

[@jorgerojastrujillo6497]

According to the text, the goal of installing speed humps is enhancing safety in the residential NEIGHBORHOODS, so the only alternative which affects the safety of the neihgbohoods is letter C, in the other ones the safety of the neighborhoods is not considered. It has more sense to me if I think in that way.

[@blagiiii]

Q1, support for B, seems like a convoluted made-up story that an emergency vehicle pausing for a speed bump 'Dramatically reduces safety'. For all we know, Trucks can regain speed very quickly after a halt. OR there are plenty of ambulances or firetrucks in close vicinity, so a small speed reduction doesn't matter (note its not given that a 25% reduction in other towns will hold true in proposed plan as well). For D, atleast its more straightforward & logical, that unaware motorcyclists will not slow down, thus affecting the plan.

[@zeeshankhan1961]

I think the reason why its not D is because the choice also gives you the solution to the drawback, which makes it less severe than the drawback in choice B.

[@vardanrathi7777]

@@blagiiii D still has a solution : Put sign boards. B has no solution : Ambulance and Firetrucks will have to slow down. Total speed with speed breakers will never be more than total speed without speed breakers (obviously!). Hence B represents a greater matter of concern = more serious drawback!

[@ridz920]

why is her voice cracking so much

[@potpourri2793]

In Q1, I eliminated choice B because had speed bumps posed an issue to firetrucks, other towns (whose evidence has been cited) wouldn't be using speed humps. The fact that other towns are using it and Ardane is trying to emulate them means that avoiding accidents due to speeding is a greater concern than a delay in emergency services. Am I overthinking this?

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

It's maybe not so much that you're overthinking this that you're not quite thinking about the question in the right way. We're asked to find "a potentially serious drawback to the plan." So we don't need to do anything else, all we need to do is find a downside to installing speed bumps in Ardane. Answer choice (B) is the only place in this question where we're given information about how ambulances and fire trucks have to use speed bumps. This answer choice doesn't say these vehicles will only have to slow down in Ardane, we're told they have to slow "almost to a stop" at any speed bump. This means that other towns will also see this drawback to the use of speed bumps. They've installed them anyway, but they likely still encounter this issue. From examining the wording of this question, however, it doesn't matter whether other towns would or would not use speed bumps, all that matters is whether there is a downside to Ardane installing them. It also doesn't matter whether there are greater or lesser concerns -- it's not our job to prioritize the town's concerns -- we need to stick to finding a disadvantage of installing speed bumps. Answer choice (B) is the only one that gives us a drawback to the plan, so this is the correct answer choice. I hope that helps!

[@Gauravmsr20]

@@GMATNinjaTutoringexcellent… 🎉

[@Analyst2019pro]

3/3