Critical Reasoning
Critical Reasoning presents a short argument and asks you to evaluate it: strengthen it, weaken it, identify an assumption, or draw a conclusion. Success depends on separating the evidence from the conclusion and testing the logical gap between them. Each item here is self-contained and requires no outside reading passage.
Find the Conclusion and the Assumption
First locate the conclusion, then the evidence offered for it. The assumption is the unstated idea that must be true for the evidence to support the conclusion. Weakening usually attacks that assumption; strengthening reinforces it.
Beware of Correlation Presented as Cause
Many flawed arguments treat two things that happen together as cause and effect. Ask whether a third factor could explain the pattern or whether the groups being compared differ in some other way. The best weakener often introduces exactly such an alternative explanation.