19. Medical education in the United States has focused almost exclusively on
curative medicine, while preventive care has been given scant attention. This
is misguided. Medical schools should invest as much time in teaching their
students how to prevent illness as in teaching them how to cure it. Which of
the following, if true, most strengthens the argument above?
• Many contagious diseases can be prevented with vaccines.
• In 1988, for every three cents the United States spent on prevention, it spent
97 cents on curative treatment.
• The number of students enrolled in medical school is the highest it has ever
been.
• More people die each year from disease than from accidental causes.
• As the population grows, the number of doctors in certain specialties has not
been keeping pace

The conclusion is medical schools invest as much time teaching preventive as teaching curative.....Then how come A is correct here.....I feel B should be the correct one....

Please explain

Source is MGMAT CAT..

Regards,
Phil

Also May i please request the Gurus to explain and share advise as to what should be one's strategy to handle the strengthen questions in GMAT.

Regards,
phil

You probably think A is incorrect because you are linking 'vaccines' with the 'curative' aspect of medicine but think about it - 'vaccines' are actually 'preventive' in nature because you take them to prevent catching a disease.

Since option A says there are several diseases that can be prevented through the use of vaccines and since 'vaccines' deal with the 'preventive' aspect of medicine, this option strengthens the conclusion that more time or equal time should be dedicated to teaching 'preventive' aspects of medicine.

Don't confuse 'vaccines' (preventive) with 'medicines'(curatives) and you'll understand this.

Option B is incorrect because it gives you an irrelevant breakup of how much the US govt. is spending on preventive and curative healthcare. Its not in anyway suggesting that the govt. will save money by teaching 'preventive' healthcare. Just think if the number changes from 3 cents vis-a-vis 97 cents to 60 cents vis-a-vis 40 cents. The govt. is spending a dollar either way so how does it matter.

Cheers!

B serves only to provide support to the premise that a larger focus is placed on curative medicine, and does nothing to support the conclusion. A on the other hand provides a rationale for why it would be a good idea to focus more on preventive care..

_________________
Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

Whats wrong with d

If more ppl die of disease then more attention on preventive is needed so it strengthens the argument rt??

Make sure to read the entire choice carefully. More people die of disease than OF WHAT?

This choice says that more people die from disease than from accidental causes.

The argument talks about either preventing disease or curing disease - both of which address the "die from disease" portion of that choice. Nothing in the argument addresses deaths from "accidental causes."

This choice does not help us to make any distinction at all between preventing someone from getting a disease in the first place and curing someone after he contracts a disease.

_________________
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director of Online Community
ManhattanGMAT

Hi Stacey

ok now i get it.We need to restrict ourselves to the implied context in the CR question right?.


thanks!!!!
KH

that's the correct idea, but it would be better stated more simply: you should stay within the context of the problem.

i'm a little bit concerned about your use of the word "implied", since most people use the word "implied" to include things that are basically guesses, or extrapolations, from what is actually there.

on the other hand, if you use "implied" to mean what it means on the gmat -- i.e., to refer only to things that are necessary or can be proved from the statements in the passage -- then, yes, this is correct.

Thursday with Ron archive has a very insightful session on CR assumption and strenghten/weaken question types. Check it out for more complete understanding.

thanks for the tip!

_________________
Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor