Strengthen Questions - - Question 23

A physician who is too thorough in conducting a medical checkup is likely to subject the patient to the discomfort an...

mechirenee November 6, 2017

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Please explain this question.

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Mehran November 13, 2017

Hi there, thanks for your post. This is a Strengthen question; you are asked to select an answer choice that would most support the conclusion presented in the stimulus. So, let's first be sure that we fully understand the argument in the stimulus.

P: A physician who is too thorough is likely to subject the patient to the discomfort and expense of unnecessary tests.
P: One who is not thorough enough is likely to miss serious problems and therefore give the patient a false sense of security.
P: It is hard for physicians to judge exactly how thorough to be.
C: It is generally unwise for patients to have medical checkups when they do not feel ill.

Well, come now - that certainly seems unwarranted, does it not? We need something that can make this rather preposterous conclusion valid.

Answer choice (B) does exactly this - if it is true that sometimes, unnecessary medical tests cause healthy people to become ill, then a patient is screwed either way. If she goes to an overly thorough Dr., she might end up sick because of unnecessary medical tests. If she goes to a not-thorough-enough Dr., she might get a false sense of security.

Hope this helps! Please let us know if you have any additional questions.

Sarah January 25, 2018

Hello Mehran,
This question is still confusing to me.
I do understand that the conclusion is quite weird especially when you look at the premises, but I don't see how answer B strengthens the argument.
I hope there is another way to explain it somehow! Thank you!

rweyer April 8, 2018

This one is weird I got the answer by ruling out the rest.