Q8 - A clear advantage

[ohthatpatrick]

Let me go ahead and put a complete explanation up here.

Question type: Inference

(note: this is not a common wording for an Inference question, but it's the same gist as all Inference question stems ... "which answer choice is best supported by the facts provided?")

As always on Inference questions, your best friend is looking out for answer choices that go beyond what we were told:
- extreme words
- comparisons
- out of scope ideas

There's no core to examine, because Inference just gives us a set of facts (which the question stem normally calls 'statements', 'information', 'observations', or 'passage' .... as opposed to argument/reasoning)

(A) Super weak, easily supportable. The fact that digital documents have the property of 'being patterns of electronic signals' confers an advantage (doesn't generate waste) and a disadvantage (can easily be destroyed and lost forever).

(B) Sketchy comparison - we didn't get any information to quantify whether digital documents SOLVE more problems or CREATE more. We only know one good thing and one bad thing about them.

(C) Sketchy comparison - we never discussed the relative importance of preservation vs. accessibility.

(D) "never" eliminate is way too extreme to support from what we have.

(E) Nice, weak wording, but we don't have anything here to support an increase in "convenience". "Not generating waste" may qualify as environmental soundness (although we have no idea about the relative environmental hazards of the materials used in computers).

So (A) wins because we can match it up with information provided and because all the other answer choices had dealbreaker language that we couldn't support.


#officialexplanation

[jamiejames]

I got down to A and B on this question. I chose B because at first, going paperless seems to be an advantage and would not cause waste, however, doing so may cause more problems in the future, such as loosing these documents as they are only digital.

A seemed weaker, because of the use of "circumstances," wherein this inning really mentioned in the stim.

[timmydoeslsat]

Your analysis of this problem is exactly as A says. We have an advantage that this thing provides, but there is also a drawback.

Answer choice B is reaching too far. Do we really know it creates more problems than it solves? I do like the soft language of may, just like in answer choice A, but the language about problems/solves is too strong.

[jamiejames]

Your analysis of this problem is exactly as A says. We have an advantage that this thing provides, but there is also a drawback.

Answer choice B is reaching too far. Do we really know it creates more problems than it solves? I do like the soft language of may, just like in answer choice A, but the language about problems/solves is too strong.

Aaah I've always had a problem discerning when strong language is warranted in an answer choice. Could you offer any advice on this?

[caitlinfitz10]

The line "set of circumstances" is what caused me to choose B over A. I think I see why A is actually the "correct" answer but I am really struggling with these sorts of LR judgments because it seems like when it comes down to it, it's not about which choice is most right but rather about which choice is least wrong. The stimulus doesn't say that the destruction of documents creates more problems than it solves, but it also doesn't indicate that the electronic signals constitute an advantage in a "set of circumstances" and disadvantage in others there is not mention or indication of different circumstances except that they mention the advantage occurring "in production." I guess you could infer that the disadvantage (easily destroyed) occurs after production so that is a different set of circumstances but it could also be destroyed easily with no trace during production, this isn't making that much more of a leap than is inferring that the ease of destroying could create more problems than reducing waste solves... ugh, my brain hurts

Are there any suggestions for how to approach questions like this systematically? Is there a consistent way to figure out which answer choice is least wrong?

Thank you!!

[amil91]

The line "set of circumstances" is what caused me to choose B over A. I think I see why A is actually the "correct" answer but I am really struggling with these sorts of LR judgments because it seems like when it comes down to it, it's not about which choice is most right but rather about which choice is least wrong. The stimulus doesn't say that the destruction of documents creates more problems than it solves, but it also doesn't indicate that the electronic signals constitute an advantage in a "set of circumstances" and disadvantage in others there is not mention or indication of different circumstances except that they mention the advantage occurring "in production." I guess you could infer that the disadvantage (easily destroyed) occurs after production so that is a different set of circumstances but it could also be destroyed easily with no trace during production, this isn't making that much more of a leap than is inferring that the ease of destroying could create more problems than reducing waste solves... ugh, my brain hurts

Are there any suggestions for how to approach questions like this systematically? Is there a consistent way to figure out which answer choice is least wrong?

Thank you!!

I had a different interpretation of 'set of circumstances.' I read it more as meaning 'some way.' So my interpretation of A is: A property may constituate an advantage in 'some way' while also being a disadvantage in 'another way.' Perhaps this wasn't the correct reasoning, but it lead me to A being correct. I think you read 'set of circumstances' too literally. Given this, I think the inference required for B is definitely a much farther leap from the stimulus than A is.

[bex]

Another reason to discount B:

The advantage listed is that they digital docs dont create waste. The waste created isn't anywhere in the stimulus as a "problem" created.

So the technology has advantages and disadvantages, but the disadvantages are directly related to the technology itself, and not something that is a downside of an advantage.

(Not sure if that makes complete sense to anyone else)