PT57, S3, Q25 - Manager: I recommend that our company

[dgoldstein100]

Hi noah i am kind of stuck trying to figure out why answer (E) for prep test 57 S3 Q-25 is correct....i understand the core of the argument to be as follows:

Manager wants to reconsider the decision to replace present software with new, because several companies have continued to use present software after having theirs already replaced with the new.

The question is a "most strongly supported", and i chose answer (C) because it seemed to have given a fairly good explanation as to why the present software is still being used by other companies:

" the employees of the managers company would find that the new software package lacks some of the capabilites of the present software"
This seems to be saying, new software lacks capabilities that present software has, therefore decision to replace should be considered.. i dont see anything wrong here.

Answer (E) states that "many employees in the manager's company would not prefer the new software package to the software currently in use"...

This answer i feel is too general, because its saying that managers employees would not prefer the new software..how can we be sure of this based on other companies preferences? drawing an absolute conclusion solely based on the preferences of another company is not giving a good enough explanation as to WHY they would not prefer the new software, which i believe answer c gives us....

Please help me decipher!! thanks

[noah]

In this problem we're not asked to explain the phenomenon, we're asked to identify which answer choice is most strongly supported -- which one is most likely to be true. We classify this as an inference question, though it's not a formal inference in that the answer is not 100% provable. This question is a great example of how "most strongly supported" answers can be less than air tight. Generally, the key is that the correct answer is far better than the other ones.

(E) is strongly supported by the facts given: many employees in other companies did not prefer the new software, so it's reasonable to expect that many employees in the manager's company will feel the same. Granted, it's not an ideal answer. Perhaps the manager's company will feel differently, but, when compared to the other answers, it's a reasonable prediction. Let's look at the losers:

(A) is unsupported -- perhaps the new software is more flexible, but the old one is faster.

(B) is a reasonable explanation, but perhaps it's the speed of the software that's an issue.

(C) is also a reasonable explanation, but, again, perhaps the dislike is because of another reason. Maybe the capabilities of the new software are more numerous, but the colors are horrid.

(D) is unsupported. The manager states that those employees in the other companies who do move back to the old software know how to use the new stuff, but don't prefer it.

Does that make sense?

[cyruswhittaker]

I also felt uneasy about this question. I initially chose B because I believed that it could be inferred from the stimulus, but I understand that we cannot determine familiarity as the deciding factor.

At the same time, I quickly eliminated E because normally, this would be a major flaw in reasoning. Afterall, we don't know anything about the similairity between the companies, the factors that might differently impact the employees' preferences, etc.

So basically with these types of questions, be on the lookout for the BEST supported answer rather than a "must be true" answer.

[noah]

You've got it - we're looking for the most-strongly supported answer. Here is where wrong-to-right, with a light touch, particularly comes in handy.

As I mentioned, it's not the best answer in the world, but it's the best of the five.

- Noah