Some teachers claim that students would not learn curricular content

Some teachers claim that students would not learn curricular content without the incentive of grades. But students with intense interest in the material would learn it without this incentive, while the behavior of students lacking all interests in the material is unaffected by such an incentive. The incentive of grades, therefore, serves no essential academic purpose.

The reasoning in the argument is flawed because the argument


(A) take for granted that the only purpose of school is to convey a fixed body of information to students

(B) takes for granted that students who are indifferent to the grades they receive are genuinely interested in the curricular material

(C) fails to consider that the incentive of grades may serve some useful nonacademic purpose

(D) ignore the possibility that students who lack interest in the curricular material would be quite interested in it if allowed to choose their own curricular material

(E) fails to consider that some students may be neither fascinated by nor completely indifferent to the subject being taught

The argument deals with 2 extreme possibilities - one who lacks all interest, and one who is intensely interested. And concludes on the basis of these 2 extremes that grades serve no purpose or has no value for incentives.
But what about those who might find grades as incentives - those who are neither intensely interested nor lack all the interest. This is what option E talks about.

Answer - E

Premise : Students with intense interest in the material would learn it without the incentive of grade, while the behavior of students lacking all interests in the material is unaffected by incentive of grade.

Conclusion : The incentive of grades, therefore, serves no essential academic purpose.

Ques : The reasoning in the argument is flawed because the argument

Pre-thinking : On relating the Premise to the Conclusion, we can see that the Premise only talks about students with extremes, one type of students with intense interest and other type with no interest at all. Ane conclusion is done for a general academic purpose.
Now, lets ask ourselves
- are there are only these two types of students exist?
- has the argement mentioned that there is no other type of students?
- If the ans to above these ques is "No", then how can the author make a general conclusion about the acedemic purpose ?
And, this is the gap or flaw in the statement.

Lets analyse the answer choices now :
(A) take for granted that the only purpose of school is to convey a fixed body of information to students - Incorrect, the author does not make any assumption about the purpose of school.

(B) takes for granted that students who are indifferent to the grades they receive are genuinely interested in the curricular material - Incorrect, the author did not takes into account but states that students who are intensely interested in curricular would learn the curricular irrespective of the incentives of grades.

(C) fails to consider that the incentive of grades may serve some useful nonacademic purpose - Incorrect, this may or may not be true but is not related to the conclusion at all.

(D) ignore the possibility that students who lack interest in the curricular material would be quite interested in it if allowed to choose their own curricular material - Incorrect, the conclusion is not related to opting of the curricular material by the students but to learn the curricular.

(E) fails to consider that some students may be neither fascinated by nor completely indifferent to the subject being taught - Correct, the author does fail to address that there could be some students who do not have extreme liking or disliking of the curricular and their reaction to learn as an incentives of grade.

Some teachers claim that students would not learn curricular content without the incentive of grades. But students with intense interest in the material would learn it without this incentive, while the behavior of students lacking all interests in the material is unaffected by such an incentive. The incentive of grades, therefore, serves no essential academic purpose.

Stimulus: Some teachers claim that students will not learn curricular content without incentive of grades and those who are interested in content will learn it without incentive of grades. While the behavior of students who lack interest in incentive is unaffected by grades therefore grades serves no essential academic purpose.

IMO E fails to consider that few students would not be completely interested but might not be completely indifferent n grades serve as incentive for them
The reasoning in the argument is flawed because the argument


(A) take for granted that the only purpose of school is to convey a fixed body of information to students

(B) takes for granted that students who are indifferent to the grades they receive are genuinely interested in the curricular material

(C) fails to consider that the incentive of grades may serve some useful nonacademic purpose

(D) ignore the possibility that students who lack interest in the curricular material would be quite interested in it if allowed to choose their own curricular material

(E) fails to consider that some students may be neither fascinated by nor completely indifferent to the subject being taught

Option E. The argument talks about students who are either completely fascinated by the curricular or those who are completely indifferent to it. But it doesn't talk about students who are interested in the curricular to some extent.
(A) take for granted that the only purpose of school is to convey a fixed body of information to students
--Wrong. The argument never says or implies about "only purpose" of school.
(B) takes for granted that students who are indifferent to the grades they receive are genuinely interested in the curricular material
--Wrong. Students "lacking interest in the curricular" are told to be indifferent to the grades.
(C) fails to consider that the incentive of grades may serve some useful nonacademic purpose
--Wrong. Irrelevant.
(D) ignore the possibility that students who lack interest in the curricular material would be quite interested in it if allowed to choose their own curricular material
--Wrong. Out of scope.
(E) fails to consider that some students may be neither fascinated by nor completely indifferent to the subject being taught
--Correct.

Quite sure the answer is E. Took 1 min 51 secs to solve.

Some teachers claim that students would not learn curricular content without the incentive of grades. But students with intense interest in the material would learn it without this incentive, while the behavior of students lacking all interests in the material is unaffected by such an incentive. The incentive of grades, therefore, serves no essential academic purpose.

Argument understanding: It links interest of students with grading them. It brings in two sides of interest. If the students are interested, they will anyway study. And if they are not, they won't. This argument can be weakened by so many statements. One of these can be providing another academic purpose. The other can be what the answer options represents. [b] [/b]

The reasoning in the argument is flawed because the argument

(A) take for granted that the only purpose of school is to convey a fixed body of information to students We have to weaken that grades don't have a purpose.. Here, it tells the purpose of the school.

(B) takes for granted that students who are indifferent to the grades they receive are genuinely interested in the curricular material This strengthens the argument instead of weakening.

(C) fails to consider that the incentive of grades may serve some useful nonacademic purpose. Out of scope as we care only about academic purpose

(D) ignore the possibility that students who lack interest in the curricular material would be quite interested in it if allowed to choose their own curricular material. This is also out of scope because if they choose subjects they are interested in, then also grades aren't required. In a way, it strengthens the argument.

(E) fails to consider that some students may be neither fascinated by nor completely indifferent to the subject being taught. This is correct. It considers the IN-BETWEENER students who are indifferent. And for these grades might serve as an incentive to study.