3.19 - Evaluate

Evaluate questions ask us to find an answer choice that would help us determine whether the argument is good or bad.

They tend to look like this:

• The answer to which one of the following questions would most help in evaluating the argument?
• The answer to which one of the following questions would least help in evaluating the argument?
• Which one of the following would be most useful to know in order to evaluate the argument?

While these questions are pretty rare and pretty easy, you still need to now how to attack them. The process is pretty simple.

First, find the conclusion. Then, determine what evidence attempts to support it. Finally, ask yourself what might help sway the argument one way or the other.

Let's check out some examples.

Examples

PrepTest 73, Section 3, Question 6

First, we're doing Question 6 from Test 73, Section 3:

Clinician: Patients with immune system disorders are usually treated with a class of drugs that, unfortunately, increase the patient's risk of developing osteoporosis, a bone-loss disease. So these patients take another drug that helps to preserve existing bone. Since a drug that enhances the growth of new bone cells has now become available, these patients should take this new drug in addition to the drug that helps to preserve existing bone.

My gut reaction to this argument was, "Hell no." Sometimes combining medications can be lethal, regardless of the clinical purposes they serve independently. Moreover, what if this new drug has a side effect that's deeply harmful to autoimmune patients?

That's all to say, I'd love some answers to my objections before I choose whether or not I'm on the clinician's team.

A's irrelevant. We don't care how large the class of drugs is that contribute to osteoporosis. We just need to determine whether or not we should take the bone-growth drugs.

B's not helpful either. Sure, I'd like to know why we're prescribing drugs to autoimmune patients that increase risk of osteoporosis, but that doesn't help me determine if we should be taking bone-growth drugs.

C's playing with the wrong issue. Sure, if the new drug's more expensive than the bone-preserving drug, then perhaps we take one or the other. But that's not my concern. I need to know if we should be taking the bone-growth drug.

D's a bit of a trap. We don't necessarily care how long it's been in use if we know (as the passage states) that the drug helps a specific problem facing autoimmune patients. This one's out, too.

E's perfect. It plays into my prediction about pill cocktails. If we don't know how effective the new drug is when mixed with other treatments, then we should probably study that further before prescribing it to patients.

PrepTest 78, Section. 3, Question 8

Next, let's try Question 8 from Test 78, Section 3:

Numerous studies suggest that when scientific evidence is presented in a trial, jurors regard that evidence as more credible than they would if they had encountered the same evidence outside of the courtroom context. Legal theorists have hypothesized that this effect is primarily due to the fact that judges prescreen scientific evidence and allow only credible scientific evidence to be presented in the courtroom.

Well, do the jurors know this evidence screening happens? If not, how would the screen affect their opinion of the evidence in one context versus the other? Let's see if our prediction helps in the answer choices.

Answer choice A is an almost verbatim match. It reads, "[W]hether jurors typically know that judges have appraised the scientific evidence presented at a trial." Spot on.

B's a trap. If we knew that jurors' reactions were influenced consistently in the direction of finding scientific evidence more credible in the courtroom than out of it, this might help. But, like you'll hear me say 1,000 times, don't do work for wrong answers. B's out.

C might help us understand assess credibility in the courtroom, but it has no impact on why jurors find the same evidence less credible outside the courtroom.

D's super dumb. Why wouldn't jurors who draw upon their knowledge in the courtroom do the exact same thing outside the courtroom?

And I thought D was rough—E's not even in the right orbit. This answer choices fails to address the judge screening and brings up this ulterior point about conflicting assessments. Super wrong.

Gotta go with A, here.

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That's it for Evaluate questions. Join us next time as we wrap up LR question types with Paradox questions. Hope to see you there.