mediumConceptEntry
Critical-thinking tests ask "true, false or cannot say". Why is "cannot say" so often the right answer?
In a critical-thinking test, true means the passage guarantees the statement and false means the passage contradicts it. Everything else is cannot say, including statements that are plausible, likely or true in real life. Most wrong answers come from filling the gap with outside knowledge or an unstated cause.
4 min readUpdated 2026-10-10
Answer
Short answer
"Cannot say" wins because the test is strict about evidence. In a critical-thinking test, a statement is true only if the passage guarantees it and false only if the passage contradicts it. Anything in between is cannot say, however likely it sounds. The plausible statements are written to tempt you into supplying a fact or a cause the passage never gave.
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Likely follow-ups
- The passage says something you know to be factually wrong. Which do you answer from, and why does the test design it that way?
- How does a five-point inference scale with "probably true" and "probably false" change the way you read a statement?
- What makes an assumption "made" in an argument, as opposed to merely consistent with it?
- You are marking cannot say on almost every item in a section. How do you check you are not overusing it?
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