Summary Arguments - General Intelligence & Reasoning for Police Exams -

Statements, Premises and Conclusions

Short rule to identify parts of an argument.

• Statement: a declarative sentence that can be judged true or false.
• Premise: a statement that provides support or evidence for a conclusion.
• Conclusion: the claim drawn from premises; look for indicators: therefore, thus, hence, so.
• Exam tip: mark premises and conclusion; conclusion is often broader than premises.

Assumption and Inference

How to decide what is assumed or what follows necessarily.

• Assumption: an unstated premise required for the conclusion to hold; test by negation - if negating it makes the conclusion false, it is a necessary assumption.
• Inference: a statement that must logically follow from given statements; only choose if it is true in all cases consistent with the premises.
• Key difference: assumptions are required for the argument; inferences are derived from the statements.

Evaluating Arguments: Strong vs Weak

Criteria used in 'Statement and Argument' questions.

• Strong argument: directly supported by facts or reasoning in the statement and likely to be accepted by a reasonable person.
• Weak argument: not supported, relies on doubtful assumptions, or is merely an opinion or irrelevant.
• Do not accept arguments with extreme words (always, never) unless statement justifies them.
• Prefer arguments supported by the statement even if they are general; reject those introducing new facts.

Cause & Effect and Course of Action

How to test causal links and recommended steps.

• Cause & Effect: check if given cause necessarily leads to the effect or if alternate causes exist; avoid assuming single cause when multiple are possible.
• Course of Action: acceptable only if it directly addresses the problem and is practical; reject actions that need extra assumptions.

Exam Strategy and Common Traps

Practical steps for quick accuracy.

1. Read the statement carefully; underline the conclusion.
2. List explicit premises; ignore extra rhetoric.
3. Apply negation test for assumptions and universality test for inferences.
4. Eliminate options that add unsupported facts or use extreme/general words unjustified by premises.
5. Prefer answers that follow directly, use common-sense, and require the fewest new assumptions.