GMA GMA Critical Thinking and Assumptions 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Statement: 'All employees who completed the safety training passed the compliance audit.' Assumption: Which of the following is implicit in this statement?
- Safety training is optional
- Only employees who completed training took the audit
- The audit tests what the safety training covers (Correct answer)
- All employees completed the training
Correct answer: The audit tests what the safety training covers
For training completion to guarantee passing the audit, the audit must test the same content covered in the training.
Question 2: Argument: 'The new drug reduced symptoms in 80% of trial participants, so it will be effective for the general population.' Which is the strongest objection to this conclusion?
- The trial may not have been a representative sample of the population (Correct answer)
- 80% is a high success rate
- The drug was tested on humans
- Some participants improved without the drug
Correct answer: The trial may not have been a representative sample of the population
If the trial sample is not representative, the 80% result cannot be reliably generalized to the wider population.
Question 3: Which conclusion is best supported by the evidence: 'In a survey, 70% of residents in City X reported exercising at least 3 times per week. City X has the lowest obesity rate in the state.'?
- Exercise eliminates obesity entirely
- Regular exercise is likely a contributing factor to City X's low obesity rate (Correct answer)
- All healthy cities have high exercise rates
- The survey results are unreliable
Correct answer: Regular exercise is likely a contributing factor to City X's low obesity rate
The data shows a correlation between high exercise rates and low obesity, supporting exercise as a likely contributing factor.
Question 4: Syllogism: 'All managers must attend the annual review. Sarah is a manager. Therefore, ___.'
- Sarah may attend the annual review
- Sarah must attend the annual review (Correct answer)
- Sarah manages the annual review
- Sarah attended last year's review
Correct answer: Sarah must attend the annual review
If all managers must attend and Sarah is a manager, it necessarily follows that Sarah must attend.
Question 5: A recommendation states: 'The city should build more parks because parks reduce stress.' Which additional piece of information would most strengthen this recommendation?
- Parks are expensive to maintain
- Studies show that access to parks measurably lowers residents' stress levels (Correct answer)
- Other cities also have parks
- The city has unused land
Correct answer: Studies show that access to parks measurably lowers residents' stress levels
Evidence that parks measurably lower stress directly supports the causal claim in the recommendation.
Question 6: Statement: 'We should hire only candidates with 5+ years of experience because experience ensures performance.' The hidden assumption is:
- Inexperienced candidates never perform well
- Experience is the sole determinant of job performance
- Years of experience always translate into effective performance (Correct answer)
- New graduates lack skill
Correct answer: Years of experience always translate into effective performance
The argument assumes that years of experience reliably translate into effective on-the-job performance, which may not always be true.
GMA GMA Critical Thinking and Assumptions 1
Statement: 'All employees who completed the safety training passed the compliance audit.' Assumption: Which of the following is implicit in this statement?