Critical Reasoning: Statement - Course of Action

Video Lesson on Critical Reasoning: Statement - Course of Action

A course of action is a suitable step adopted to minimize or solve the given problem.

Statement- Action is one of the main topics in Critical Reasoning. In this topic, a statement is given followed by two actions. Based on appropriate logic you have to identify a correct course of action that will be practically viable and will help in solving the problem.

Tips

Without any second thought choose actions which are

Practical in Nature (should be related to the statement)
Solve or Minimize the given problem

Action should not give birth to another problem

Like there will be a case in which-- among the two given actions if you select a particular action, it might happen that it would help you in solving the problem but indirectly it will give birth to many other problems. So, such actions should be avoided.

Full Section (3 MCQ)

Example

Statement: On a particular highway, number of road accidents have increased by many folds.

Action: Personal monitoring should be done by the police officials on each and every vehicle.

Explanation: The mentioned action will definitely yield a good result but if we think practically then it is not at all possible to personally monitor each and every vehicle. This will, in turn, give birth to many other problems.

Unpredicted Outcomes

Always avoid those actions whose outcomes cannot be predicted. There may be cases where you will not be able to predict the result of the selected action. So, such actions should be ignored.

Example

Statement: Company Z is incurring huge losses due to many competitors in the market.

Actions:

Company Z should offer a huge discount on all its product and attract customers.
Company Z should study its competitors, their products and methods.

Answer: Option B

Explanation: Now we can also think of option a to be a practical solution but one of the major reasons of option a being wrong is because we cannot predict that even after reducing the price, customers will be attracted towards the company. So, the outcome is unknown and so such actions should be avoided.