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 yycstudent
  • Posts: 9
  • Joined: Jul 20, 2022
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#96352
Hello!

I am still puzzled by the answer C.
From the stimulus, I interpreted it as melatonin does not necessarily help treat insomnia because (1) most studies only have people without insomnia, and (2) only a few of the subjects appeared to be significantly affected by melatonin. Because of (1), the subjects in (2) are likely the ones without insomnia.
That led me to understand it as melatonin is overall not really effective/helpful in inducing sleep for people with or without insomnia.

Answer C says in studies including subjects with insomnia, only subjects without insomnia were affected. This means subjects with insomnia were not affected at all (consistent with the above). On the other hand, the subjects without insomnia were greatly affected by those tablets - contrary to the above. I eliminated C for this reason (weakened)

Can someone please walk me through where my reasoning fell short here?

Thank you so much.
User avatar
 atierney
PowerScore Staff
  • PowerScore Staff
  • Posts: 215
  • Joined: Jul 06, 2021
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#96504
Hello!

Yes, so you went off the rails by assuming the "on the other hand" part. Just to be clear, answer choice C does not imply your conclusion of "the subjects without insomnia were greatly affected by those tablets." Let me know if this is not clear., but basically you read into the answer choice something that is not only beyond its actual text, but also specifically not implied by the text itself.

As a general rule, the strongest statement that is consistent with the stimulus is going to be the right answer. I would argue that A is a contender here, but C is definitely a stronger answer (in that it is more specific and definite in its contention), thus C is the best answer.

Let me know if you have any questions on this.

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