Vineetk wrote:
Many high schools send students to special courses to prepare them for language exams. Some language teachers criticize these courses and point out that high schools which do not send their students to special courses have reported a higher average score than those which do since 1995. The language teachers say that the courses are a waste of time and money.
Which of the following, if true, is the most effective challenge to this argument?
A. Those schools which do not send students to the courses have better knowledge of the exams since they are the only schools which participated in the exams prior to 1995.
B. Schools that have sent students to courses since 1995 have experienced a greater drop in their scores than they had prior to 1995.
C. The cost of these courses run by outside teachers has risen dramatically since 1995.
D. The poor design of courses to prepare students for the language exams is not the only reason for their ineffectiveness.
E. Since 1995, the number of students who passed the language exams has risen by 20%.
Please explain your answer.
Conclusion: Language courses are a waste of time and money.
Weaken the conclusion.
A - Some schools do not send students to language courses. They have better knowledge of the exam since they have been participating for a long time. Some schools send students to language courses. They do not have as much knowledge since they have not been participating for long. Hence language courses for these schools may not be a waste of time and money.
The only confusion could be with E. Notice that E talks about the 'number of students' who passed. The total number of students appearing for the test could have increased which would have increased the number of students who passed even if the passing rates remained the same. Until and unless we have some more numbers, we cannot say that E weakens the conclusion.
For more, check out this strengthen/weaken video:
an-architect-s-look-at-critical-reasoning-by-veritas-prep-142434.html#p1143539Sorry i am still not clear as to why is E incorrect. Why do you say that it talks about number? It says that number of students increased by 20%. so if usually there were 100 students passing the exam after 1995 after attending the language course the pass % increased to 120. Its still % and not absolute numbers.