For me it was easier to find the right answer as opposed to eliminate bad ones. There are two reasons and ONLY two reasons why the author believes students with scholarships have higher GPA's than students who do not have scholarships. Those two reasons for higher GPA are not having to worry about finances (1) alleviates the stress related to financial concerns and (2)frees up students' time to study more.

That's it. No other reason. If this strikes you as odd, then that's good because the author did forget a couple other things that could affect GPA.

Because this is an assumption question, we can try the negate method. Negate each answer and see which one weakens the authors argument. Make sure you weaken the conclusion first and foremost.

A.) Students who take out loans DO NOT maintain higher GPA's than those who work to finance school.

B. High GPAs were THE ONLY criterion upon which the scholarship awards were based.

C. Finance-related stress affects student performance in a manner NOT similar to that of restricted study time.

D. Students who must work to pay for their studies CAN maintain high GPAs.

E. Controlling stress level is MOST important to student performance than is intensive studying.

When using this method if some of the answers do nothing to argument, you can cross them out. Some will even strengthen the argument. When you look at C now, it doesn't weaken or strengthen the argument. B should jump out to you, because if B were true those students would be able to get high GPA's regardless of their financial situation. Hope that helps.

Let me know if there is any flaw in my reasoning.

Hi

Can someone explain here why C is wrong?

Thanks

Hi,

I would really appreciate if you could show how the negation technique is causing the argument to fail for choice B and not for C.

Thanks

+1 B.

In negating B, we discover that students who that were given scholarships were already high-achievers to begin with, therefore their high GPAs have less to do with having more free time than the argument wants us to believe.

Cheers,
Der alte Fritz.
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+1 Kudos me - I'm half Irish, half Prussian.

+1 B

The author assumes that there is a casual relationship between financial aid and GPA, being financial aid the cause.
In this sense, he or she assumes that it is impossible that GPA is the cause as choice B suggests.
_________________

"Life’s battle doesn’t always go to stronger or faster men; but sooner or later the man who wins is the one who thinks he can."

My Integrated Reasoning Logbook / Diary: my-ir-logbook-diary-133264.html

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