Career Forum is one of the leading MBA test-prep companies. While explaining with an illustration from CAT 2006, the article focuses on solving Critical Reasoning questions.
Ms Sujata Khanna, Chairperson and Director at Career Forum, holds an MBA degree and has had a stint in the corporate world. Ms Khanna started coaching with just seven students for MBA entrance exams in 1988. Now, Career Forum incorporated in 1995, has 15,000 students enrolled this year and has strategic alliance with Bennett Coleman & Co.
Critical Reasoning for CAT ’07 By Ms Sujata Khanna
“He that cannot reason is a fool. He that will not is a bigot. He that dare not is a slave.” - Andrew Carnegie
These days, this famous quote seems to be the cornerstone for evaluating a candidate’s calibre for taking up business studies. CAT, the Goliath among all B-school entrance tests, has, over the years experimented with more and more reasoning based questions not only in the predefined Logic section but also in the Quantitative Ability (QA) and Verbal Ability (VA) sections.
Critical Reasoning (CR) is the use of logic to evaluate arguments. So what is ‘Logic’? It is defined as the study of methods and principles used to distinguish good or correct reasoning from bad or incorrect reasoning. CR is a part of the VA section. It is an anathema to most, and is the reason for the debacle of many an otherwise crackerjack test taker. Sometimes, you are given a reading passage to test comprehension, and you realize that most of the questions are reasoning based. My endeavor, through the course of this article series, will be to walk you through some necessary concepts, and dissect the anatomy of critical reasoning.
FACT, INFERENCE, JUDGMENT
In CAT 2006, there was a set of four questions on ‘Fact, Inference and Judgment ‘, accounting for 16 marks out of 100.
Illustration: Fact, Inference, Judgment (CAT2006)
Each question has a set of four sequentially ordered statements. Each statement can be classified as one of
Facts, the answer option indicates such a statement with an ‘F’.
Inferences, the answer option indicates such a statement with an ‘I’.
Judgments, the answer option indicates such a statement with a ‘J’.
Select the answer option that best describes the set of four statements.
- Inequitable distribution of all kinds of resources is certainly one of the strongest and most sinister sources of conflict.
- Even without war, we know that conflicts continue to trouble us — they only change in character.
- Extensive disarmament is the only insurance for our future; imagine the amount of resources that can be released and redeployed.
- The economies of the industrialized western world derive 20% of their income from the sale of all kinds of arms.
(1) IJJI (2) JIJF (3) IIJF (4) JIIF (5) IJIF
How to approach ‘Fact, Inference, Judgment’ questions
Facts: These are statements which deal with pieces of information that one has heard, seen or read, and which are ‘open to discovery or verification’.
- Categorical statements which are not judgmental, opinionated, inferred or conditional are considered Facts.
Example: The judge pronounced a verdict of six years imprisonment for Sunjay Dutt.
- A statement need not be true, yet is considered a Fact if it is verifiable. You can always prove it wrong. Your general knowledge should not encroach upon the evaluation of the statement.
Example: The sun rises in the west, and revolves around the earth. This statement is a Fact, as it is verifiable.
- Universal truthsare always open to verification, hence are always Facts.
Example: All men are mortal.
Judgments: These are non-measurable and non-verifiable statements. They are opinions about behaviour of persons, objects, situations and occurrences in the past, the present or the future.
- Statements that imply ‘approval or disapproval’
Example: That is not the way to eat at the table.
- Statements that ‘impose compulsion’. Words like ‘should’ and ‘must’ usually identify these.
Example: The Supreme Court must look at the case with a humanitarian perspective.
- Statements that contain non-measurable and non-verifiable ‘modifiers’.
Example: To see the movie star utterlydejected was a movingpicture.
Example: Julia Roberts is the best looking female lead in Hollywood and is moretalented than her contemporaries.
Note: Statements that compare measurable attributes are Facts.
Example: The Seine tower is tallerthan the Empire State building.
Note: Statements that contain verifiable attributes are Facts.
Example: He is wearing a red shirt’.
Note: Certain words are used both asquantifiable modifiers and non-quantifiable modifiers. Hence, the connotation of the word in the sentence is important in identifying a Judgment from a Fact. An example should explain this. The modifier in question is ‘only’.
Example: She is only a child. – Non-verifiable, hence Judgment
Example: She is their only child. – Verifiable, hence Fact.
Example: Meditation is the only way to salvation. – Non-verifiable, hence Judgment
- Statements of ‘prediction’. Words like ‘will’ and ‘shall’ usually identify these as Judgments
Example: You will achieve success some day.
Note: Universal truths may be statements of prediction, but they are verified Facts.
Example: All men shall die one day.
- Maxims or sayings except proverbs that are Universal Truths.
Example: Honesty is the best policy.
Inferences: These are conclusions drawn about the unknown, on the basis known facts. To identify an Inference look out for sentences that deals with a cause and effect relation.
- Inference drawn about the possibility of something happening as a result of something else happening or not happening.
Example: If there is an earthquake, people will be killed.
Example: If you do not sin, you will go to heaven.
- Inference drawn about the impossibility of something happening as a result of something else happening or not happening.
Example: If you are shy, you will not be successful.
Example: If you do not drink milk, you will not have strong bones.
- Inference drawn about the possibility of something happening despite something else happening or not happening.
Example: Even if you go on a strict diet regimen, you will still be fat.
Example: Even if you do not confess, you will be sentenced.
- Inference drawn about impossibility of something happening despite something else happening or not happening.
Example: Even if he appeals to the Supreme Court, he will not be pardoned.
Example: Even if does not get have good grades, I am not letting him leave college
- Result of some action taken or incident that has taken place.
Example: Ever since the bridge collapsed, the river is impassable
Example: He is driving a new car because he won a lottery.
- Any proverb that functions on cause and effect.
Example: A stitch in time saves nine (if you put a stitch in time you will save nine).
Solution to Illustration: The answer is option 2- JIJF
The first statement uses words like, ‘certainly’ and ‘most sinister’. Such strong modifiers are clear indicators of a Judgment. Statement 2 is a little difficult to classify at first glance, but we can see a cause-effect relationship in the statement ‘Even without war’ can be written as ‘Even if there is no war’. Hence the statement means. 'Even if there is no war, we know that……’. Hence, the second statement is an Inference. The third statement is a Judgment because of the use of the word ‘only’, a non-verifiable modifier in the context of the statement. The fourth statement is clearly a categorically stated Fact.
A clear understanding of ‘Fact, Inference and Judgment’ is not just important for solving the above question type, there are other ‘Argument’ based questions which will have premises that are Facts or Judgments. We shall see more of such question types in the next article.
Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com Aspirants Zone to read more articles on CAT 07.
