A large Southern state university has changed its teaching practices.

Question

A large Southern state university has changed its teaching practices. Formerly, instructors without PhDs taught most introductory courses; now professors with PhDs will teach all introductory classes. That means the average class size will increase from 44 students per class to 600 per class, but overall the students’ learning experience should improve.

Which one of the following is an assumption required by this argument?

(A) Requiring professors with PhDs to teach all introductory classes will mean that the university must hire more faculty with doctorates.

(B) Students tend to participate in smaller classes more than they do in large lectures, even when the lectures are supplemented by weekly discussion sections.

(C) Major private universities already have implemented a format in which professors with PhDs teach all introductory classes as large lectures.

(D) A class taught by a PhD, even in a lecture format with hundreds of students, is a better learning environment than a smaller class taught by an instructor without a PhD.

(E) Services that rank colleges and universities usually consider the percentage of classes taught by PhDs when computing rank.

This is a  CR Butler Question

Check the links to other Butler Projects:
 
  Data Sufficiency Butler  
  Problem Solving Butler  
  Reading Comprehension Butler

suyash46 · Answer

The argument concludes that learning will improve even though class size explodes from 44 to 600. That conclusion only holds if the benefit of having a PhD instructor outweighs the drawback of the much larger class. That's exactly what D states: a PhD-taught large lecture is a better learning environment than a smaller class taught by a non-PhD.

The negation test confirms it: if a big PhD-led lecture were not better than a small non-PhD class, the whole argument falls apart—so D is genuinely required.

Quick look at the others:

A – Whether they must hire more faculty is about logistics, not about whether learning improves. Not required.
B – This actually weakens the argument (it suggests big lectures reduce participation), so it can't be an assumption the argument depends on.
C – What private universities do is irrelevant to this school's outcome.
E – How ranking services compute rank says nothing about students' actual learning experience.

So D it is.

dhart · Answer

option D sounds genuinely good

Vivek1707 · Answer

Correct Answer: D

A. The argument never says the university will hire more PhDs. It only says PhDs will teach all introductory classes.
B. If anything, this weakens the argument by suggesting smaller classes are better for learning.
C. What other universities do doesn't show this policy will improve learning here.
D.The argument assumes the benefit of having a PhD teach the class outweighs the downside of increasing class size from 44 to 600. Without that assumption, the conclusion doesn't follow.
E. University rankings are irrelevant. The conclusion is about student learning, not rankings.

Susmita#4160 · Answer

Seems D

overall the students’ learning experience should improve is the conclusion by author

D is an assumption which is required by the argument and conclusion to be true - A class taught by a PhD, even in a lecture format with hundreds of students, is a better learning environment than a smaller class taught by an instructor without a PhD.

Sonatomar · Answer

The benefit of having a PhD outweighs the disadvantage of the huge class size.

Bunuel · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

The author concludes that having classes taught by PhDs instead of instructors improves students’ learning experience, so he must assume that PhDs, even in very large classes, are somehow better at teaching than instructors in smaller ones.

Choice (A) isn’t his assumption. In fact, the reference to increased class sizes suggests that the university won’t be hiring more faculty.

Choice (B) contradicts the author’s conclusion by suggesting that student participation is a good thing.

Choice (C) is interesting information but isn’t essential to the conclusion about the practices of the particular Southern state university in the argument, especially because it doesn’t mention students’ learning experiences.

Choice (D) looks like the right answer.  The author does seem to think that a class taught by a PhD is somehow superior, which explains why he thinks the change would benefit students.

Choice (E) explains why the university may want to increase classes taught by PhDs, but it doesn’t explain how that would benefit students.

Choice (D) is correct.

A large Southern state university has changed its teaching practices.

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

A large Southern state university has changed its teaching practices.

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards