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- mwashington15
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Q12 - A nationwide poll of students
Can anyone help me understand this problem it is giving me some trouble. I spent way to long on it in my timed test
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- maryadkins
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Atticus Finch
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Re: Q12 - A nationwide poll of students
Gladly!
It's a flaw question, so first we ID the core:
Over 90% of people think an appropriate percentage of the budget is being spent on counseling
-->
If the budget increases, the additional money should go to something other than counseling
What's the problem with this argument? There are a few we could identify, but one is that being satisfied with a percentage is the same as being satisfied with the current amount. These are different things.
Suppose the budget is $100 and $25 is spent on counseling. That's 25% of the budget--the people in the survey are happy with this percentage. If we increase the budget to $200, the $25 on counseling is no longer 25% of the budget. It's only 12.5% of the budget. Can we assume the people surveyed are happy with this? No! We were told they are happy with the old PERCENTAGE, not the exact amount. In fact, if we want the percentage to remain the same, we'd have to increase the counseling budget to be 25% of 200--$50. That's the opposite of what the conclusion says. (B) captures this problem.
(A) is incorrect because there is no causation issue in this question.
(C) is incorrect because the argument doesn't assume that what is true of a part is true of the total. It assumes that if people are happy with the percentage it means they're happy with the exact current amount; that's different.
(D) is out of scope. We aren't concerned with how to save money.
(E) doesn't present an assumption made by the argument. It doesn't presume anything about money being able to be used in multiple ways.
It's a flaw question, so first we ID the core:
Over 90% of people think an appropriate percentage of the budget is being spent on counseling
-->
If the budget increases, the additional money should go to something other than counseling
What's the problem with this argument? There are a few we could identify, but one is that being satisfied with a percentage is the same as being satisfied with the current amount. These are different things.
Suppose the budget is $100 and $25 is spent on counseling. That's 25% of the budget--the people in the survey are happy with this percentage. If we increase the budget to $200, the $25 on counseling is no longer 25% of the budget. It's only 12.5% of the budget. Can we assume the people surveyed are happy with this? No! We were told they are happy with the old PERCENTAGE, not the exact amount. In fact, if we want the percentage to remain the same, we'd have to increase the counseling budget to be 25% of 200--$50. That's the opposite of what the conclusion says. (B) captures this problem.
(A) is incorrect because there is no causation issue in this question.
(C) is incorrect because the argument doesn't assume that what is true of a part is true of the total. It assumes that if people are happy with the percentage it means they're happy with the exact current amount; that's different.
(D) is out of scope. We aren't concerned with how to save money.
(E) doesn't present an assumption made by the argument. It doesn't presume anything about money being able to be used in multiple ways.
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- roflcoptersoisoi
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Atticus Finch
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Re: Q12 - A nationwide poll of students
Presumes that just because the percentage spent on a part of the budget is deemed appropriate, if the budget increases, more of that money should not be allocated towards that part of the budget.
Perhaps the budget is low (let's say $50) and while the percentage spent on a part of the budget is deemed appropriate, the absolute amount is not.
(A) The author does not confuse a correlation for causation.
(B) Bingo.
(C) The author doesn't presume this.
(D) Descriptively accurate, but this is not why it is wrong.
(E) Descriptively accurate, he fail to consider this, but this is not why it is wrong.
Perhaps the budget is low (let's say $50) and while the percentage spent on a part of the budget is deemed appropriate, the absolute amount is not.
(A) The author does not confuse a correlation for causation.
(B) Bingo.
(C) The author doesn't presume this.
(D) Descriptively accurate, but this is not why it is wrong.
(E) Descriptively accurate, he fail to consider this, but this is not why it is wrong.
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