MGMAT CAT CR ASSUMPTION 3

[rishisbook]

Antoine: The alarming fact is that among children aged 19 years and younger, the number taking antipsychotic medicines soared 73 percent in the last four years. That is greater than the increase in the number of adults taking antipsychotic medicines during the same period.

Lucy: But the use of antipsychotic drugs by adults is considered normal at the current rate of 11 adults per 1,000 taking the drugs. In contrast, the number of children on antipsychotic medication last year was 6.6 per 1,000 children.

Lucy’s argument relies on the assumption that ______.
A. normal levels of antipsychotic drug use are rarely exceeded.
B. the percentage of adults taking antipsychotic medication is always higher than the percentage of children on such medication.
C. the use of antipsychotic medication in children is no different from the use of such medications in adults.
D. Antoine is not consciously distorting the statistics he presents.
E. a rapid increase in the number of children taking antipsychotic drugs generates more fear of random violence by adolescents than does knowledge of the absolute number of children on such medications.

Confused between B & C. Correct Answer C

[tim]

tell us more about what was inadequate about the explanation so we can help explain it in a way that will work for you..

[jp.jprasanna]

tell us more about what was inadequate about the explanation so we can help explain it in a way that will work for you..

Hi - By using the word "but" in Lucy's argument i understand she is going to counter the Antoine's argument but cant understand how Lucy's argument is structured? I understand she is saying 11/1000 adults is normal and after that the word "In contrast" - does this mean the 6.6/1000 is abnormal?

Could you also help me eliminate the other options as well.. please very very confused and worried! :-(

[tim]

Lucy is contrasting Antoine's claim that this statistic is alarming by pointing out that even with the increased rate among children their usage is still less than that of adults. Thus the statistic is not as alarming as Antoine seems to think..

I'm sorry to hear you're worried about this one. You should try not to be worried about questions; just work on understanding why the right answer is right and why all the wrong answers are wrong. I'll be glad to help you work through your concerns about the wrong answers if you can tell me what didn't make sense to you about the way the solution to the problem dealt with the incorrect answers..

[sachin.w]

Hi Tim

I understand the following:

Lucy is contrasting Antoine's claim that this statistic is alarming by pointing out that even with the increased rate among children their usage is still less than that of adults. Thus the statistic is not as alarming as Antoine seems to think..

but I dont understand why C is right.

negating C doesn't help rip the conclusion apart.

[tim]

sure it does. if there is some fundamental difference between children and adults in this context, then Lucy's implication that the numbers indicate no cause for alarm is not valid..

[sachin.w]

Thanks a lot Tim. This helps.
What would be the level of this Question?

Regards,
Sach

[tim]

i've found that the answers to this type of question are almost never useful in preparing someone for the GMAT, so i'll decline to provide a guess as to difficulty level unless you can tell us how you will use that information to better prepare yourself for the GMAT.. :)

[sachin.w]

I solved around 85 assumption questions over this week to perfect the art of negating.

and this was one of the most difficult questions I came across. . could get answers right for almost all Qs except a few.
so was wondering if this is the type of Qs you see on a 750+ level

:)

--Sach

[tim]

you did not address my concern..

[sachin.w]

I am a rookie and I don't have an answer for that. May be it won't help me.
May be you could guide me whether I should or should not worry about these things.

[tim]

you shouldn't. :) thanks for being receptive to such advice; you will find that having an open mind about what to concentrate on will help you be far more productive in your studying..

[winson.j.liu]

I don't completely grasp the answer still. What category of assumption is this? By saying that there's no difference between adult use and children use, is it eliminating an alternate path or an alternate cause or something else? I can't quite see it.

[tim]

assumptions problems in general boil down to logic gaps. this particular logic gap isn't one we make a big deal of in our book, but it involves erroneously conflating one group with another. we can't make comparisons between children and adults here unless we are told that it is valid to do so..

[ShobhitK282]

Hi,

I'm a little confused on this problem. For assumptions, we are supposed to bridge the gap between premise and conclusion. Here Lucy is giving a counter premise but I don't clearly understand if there's a conclusion there which I can look to validate?

Please let me know if I'm missing very basic here.