Let's Turn the Tables: The Questions

Try a few sample questions from the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal, a highly regarded test of cognitive ability.
By Inc. staff | Aug 1, 2006

1. A list of inferences follows a statement. Mark each True, Probably True, Insufficient Data, Probably False, or False.

Two hundred students in their early teens voluntarily attended a recent weekend student conference in a midwestern city. At this conference, the topics of race relations and means of achieving lasting world peace were discussed, because these were the problems the students selected as being most vital in today's world.

  1. As a group, the students who attended this conference showed a keener interest in broad social problems than do most other students in their early teens.
  2. The majority of the students had not previously discussed the conference topics in their schools.
  3. The students came from all sections of the country.
  4. The students discussed mainly labor relations problems.
  5. Some teenage students felt it worthwhile to discuss problems of race relations and ways of achieving world peace.

2. If you think that the given assumption is taken for granted in the statement, mark the statement Assumption Made. If you think the assumption is not necessarily taken for granted in the statement, mark the statement Assumption Not Made.

Statement: We need to save time in getting there, so we'd better go by plane.

  1. Going by plane will take less time than going by some other means of transportation.
  2. There is plane service available to us for at least part of the distance to the destination.
  3. Travel by plane is more convenient than travel by train.

3. For the purpose of this test, assume that everything in the short paragraph is true. The problem is to judge whether or not each of the proposed conclusions logically follows beyond a reasonable doubt from the information given in the paragraph. If you think that the proposed conclusion follows beyond a reasonable doubt (even though it may not follow absolutely and necessarily), mark the statement Conclusion Follows. If you think that the conclusion does not follow beyond a reasonable doubt from the facts given, mark the statement Conclusion Does Not Follow. Remember to judge each conclusion independently.

A study of vocabulary growth in children from eight months to six years old shows that the size of spoken vocabulary increases from zero words at age eight months to 2,562 words at age six years.

  1. None of the children in this study had learned to talk by the age of six months.
  2. Vocabulary growth is slowest during the period when children are learning to walk.

Click here for the answers.