#14 - In a study, six medical students were each separately

[Dave Killoran]

Complete Question Explanation

Must Be True. The correct answer choice is (A).

This question is a good test of tracking information through what is a rather dense stimulus. The key is to not get lost in the many details provided, and to stop for a moment and make sure the two occasions discussed in the stimulus are clear. So, with that in mind, what happened in this Fact Set?

In the study, there are two "occasions" (as the answer choices term it):

• In the first, six medical students examined the same patient, but for each student there was a physician there who asked a leading or suggestive questions about a different malady for that patient. So, for example, maybe the patient had a bad cough. For the first student the physician might say something like, "What tests should we order to try to rule out a diagnosis of bronchitis?" Then to the second student, the physician might ask, "What tests should we order to try to rule out a diagnosis of sinusitis?" And so on.
  
  A week later, the same six students were presented another patient with the same exact symptoms they had seen in the patient the prior week. This time there was no leading question from the physician, just a straight request for a diagnosis. In each case, the student then started by testing the same illness suggested by the physician in the first occasion.

Answer choice (A): This is the correct answer choice. We know that each student was suggested a different illness in the first occasion, so if they then went to the second patient and suggested what they had discussed in the first occasion, then for the second patient those six tests each had to be different.

Answer choice (B): We do not know that the medical students "knew," just what they were told on the first occasion and what they did on the second occasion.

Answer choice (C): We do not know what the physicians were aware of during the trials, just what they said on the first occasion and what they did on the second occasion.

Answer choice (D): We do not have any information about what illness the patient actually had, or whether the students were right about the tests ordered.

Answer choice (E): We do not know what the medical students were aware of, just what they were told on the first occasion and what they did on the second occasion.

[christinecwt]

Hi Team - can anyone explain the set up of this question? and why Answer Choice E is incorrect? Thanks!

[katehos]

Hi Christine,

Since this is a Must Be True question, we're looking for something that can be proven by the contents of the stimulus. There's no conditional logic here, so there isn't a diagram to set up, but you can try to summarize the facts/argument before jumping into the answer choices. We know that six students were individually asked about tests to rule out six different diagnoses (one per student). Then, a week later, the students were each presented with a patient having similar symptoms, and all six began by testing for the unique diagnosis they were presented with previously.

So, when we hop into the answer choices and review (A), we should be pretty happy with it. Answer choice (A) says that during the second week, no student tested for the same diagnosis as any other student. Well, we know each student was originally presented with a different diagnosis than any other student, so if they all tested that same diagnosis on the new patients, then they could not have tested for the same diagnosis as any other student! They were all different before and we know they're all different now.

Answer choice (E), on the other hand, is not provable by the stimulus. We don't have any information about whether or not the students were aware that the other conditions existed/what their symptoms were. Some of them might have been aware, some might not have been, but it's possible that all of them were aware - we just don't know! So, this answer choice does not hold up to the Fact Test and is not correct.

I hope this helps!
-Kate

[atrabuccojr]

Can someone explain to me how we know that of the six medical students, one was given the correct medical condition to test on the first occasion? It says, "...whose symptoms could be a result of any one of several medical conditions..." and "...X was filled in with a different medical condition for each student..."

How are we to know that all six students were not given the incorrect medical condition in the first round?

[atrabuccojr]

Can someone explain to me how we know that of the six medical students, one was given the correct medical condition to test on the first occasion? It says, "...whose symptoms could be a result of any one of several medical conditions..." and "...X was filled in with a different medical condition for each student..."

How are we to know that all six students were not given the incorrect medical condition in the first round?

NVM^^^ I was looking at the wrong answer choice

[Dave Killoran]

All good then