Evaluating Arguments

VRP's current evaluation drills use five-choice questions, not binary Strong/Weak ratings. The guidance below explains the separate Watson-Glaser task: judge whether each argument is important and directly relevant to the question, regardless of which side it supports. These instructions do not turn our existing drills into a matching Watson-Glaser test.

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How to think about it

Ask whether the argument bears directly on the question.
Ask whether it is important to the conclusion, not just tangentially related.
Judge strength independently of whether you agree with the side it takes.
A strong argument is both relevant and material; a weak one fails on either.

The most common trap

Rating an argument strong because you agree with it.

Read the full method guide

Question preview

Evaluating Argumentsbaseline comparisonhard

A store added queue-direction signs and the average waiting time fell. The report treats this observation as the main support for the proposed decision. The signs reduced waiting times.

Which of the following would be most useful in evaluating the argument above?

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