Company president: Our consultants report

Answer choices

1. A

   Weakens40% picked this

   The consultants use the same criteria to evaluate managers’ efficiency as they do to evaluate

   This is a weird objection, but it's basically saying that the consultants are handing us a garbage statistic. They're making it seem like there's a correlation between time-management and efficiency (leading us to think, "if we could only get our middle managers to manage time better, they would be more efficient). But if the metric for efficiency is the same as the one for time-management, then the consultants are basically saying "The people who are the most X are the most X", which is a hollow circular idea.

   40%
2. B

   Weakens3% picked this

   Successful time management is more dependent on motivation than on

   This suggests that the Solution of the time management seminar is unlikely to be an effective one, since the middle managers don't really need to learn a technique, they just need to care more about time management.

   3%
3. C

   Weakens2% picked this

   Most managers at other companies who have attended time management seminars

   This makes it seem like the Solution is unlikely to be effective since there are many data points of people who tried this Solution and did not seem to make meaningful progress on the Problem.

   2%
4. D

   Correct47% picked this

   Most managers who are already efficient do not need to improve

   Why this is right

   This has no real impact. Assuming our middle managers are not already efficient, this doesn't apply to them. We think that our middle managers, who aren't yet efficient / good at time management, still have room to grow when it comes to productivity. Notice that wrong answers on EXCEPT questions are usually still very clever about filling it with familiar sounding keywords. All the words in this answer choice are in the paragraph, but the meaning is not relevant to our situation.

   Skill tested: Weaken · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

   47%
5. E

   Weakens7% picked this

   Most managers who are efficient have never attended a time

   This casts some doubt on the seminar as a likely Solution, by suggesting that the road to efficiency for most managers did not include taking a time management seminar. It's not a strong weakener, but it's showing many examples of "Effect (efficiency) present, but Cause (time management) absent".

   7%