Evaluating conclusions in light of known facts: three answers, not four

What the three answers mean

You are given a set of statements and a conclusion drawn from them. You assume the statements are true, and you reach the conclusion from those statements ONLY — not from what you happen to know about the subject.

• A — the statements prove the conclusion TRUE.
• B — the statements prove the conclusion FALSE.
• C — the statements are INADEQUATE to prove it either true or false.

The mistake that costs most marks

Proved FALSE is a definite answer, and it is the one candidates most often trade away for inadequate. If the statements settle the matter and settle it against the conclusion, that is B — the statements have done their job.

The way to keep the two apart is to work out what the statements still ALLOW rather than what they say. For each thing the conclusion mentions, write down every possibility that remains open. If only one remains and the conclusion names it, the answer is A. If the conclusion names something outside what remains, the answer is B. If more than one remains and the conclusion names one of them, the answer is C.

Watch for the person the statements never place

A common shape gives you several people and assigns categories to some of them but not all. A conclusion about the person who was never placed is inadequate however obvious it looks, because the statements simply do not reach them.

The guide also states that these questions are not specific to any particular field, so nothing about probation work will help you here. That is unusual and worth knowing: it is a pure reasoning section sitting inside a job-specific examination.

Related guides

• New York Probation Series: the four subject areas, and why your announcement decides
• Applying written information: the rule on the page beats what you would sensibly do