A new private college offers a course which prepares students for a ca

Question

A new private college offers a course which prepares students for a career in which only 7% of the professionals are successful financially in the related industry. In a radio commercial, the course is presented as a guarantee to financial success based on that career. Clearly, such a guarantee warrants charges of false advertising.

The answer to which of the following would be most useful in evaluating the argument?

The answer to which of the following would be most useful in evaluating the argument?

(A) Is the percentage of professionals that did not take part in the course in the new private college lower than 93%?
 
(B) Did any of the professionals included in the 7% not graduate from the course?
 
(C) Did more than 50% of the professionals graduate from a similar course offered by another college?
 
(D) How many students does the college accept into a single course?
 
(E) What percentage of professionals have participated in a course that trains for this specific career?

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

Official Explanation

A new private college offers a course which prepares students for a career in which only 7% of the professionals are successful financially in the related industry. In a radio commercial, the course is presented as a guarantee to financial success based on that career. Clearly, such a guarantee warrants charges of false advertising.

The answer to which of the following would be most useful in evaluating the argument?

The answer to which of the following would be most useful in evaluating the argument?

(A) Is the percentage of professionals that did not take part in the course in the new private college lower than 93%?

To solve this Investigation question, first break down the argument. The first two sentences provide facts and are hence premises. The last sentence uses the conclusion word  clearly  and is, therefore, the argument's conclusion:

Premise A: a new college prepares students for a career in which only 7% of the professionals are successful financially
 +
Premise B: a radio commercial says that the course guarantees financial success
 =
Conclusion: the claim in the radio station must be misleading

Vital factor: ?

You are required to find the factor which is most crucial to the evaluation of the author's conclusion. The correct answer is a question which could support or weaken the conclusion depeneding on its answer.

While this answer choice does not entirely invalidate the conclusion, it may validate the conclusion and therefore is the most valuable out of the five answer choices.

This answer choice can be translated to "Did more than 7% of professionals take the course in the private college?". If more than 7% took the course, and only 7% of professionals are financially successful, then the course's promise for financial success to all students is indeed false advertisement.

(B) Did any of the professionals included in the 7% not graduate from the course?

Incorrect.

To solve this Investigation question, first break down the argument. The first two sentences provide facts and are hence premises. The last sentence uses the conclusion word  clearly  and is, therefore, the argument's conclusion:

Premise A: a new college prepares students for a career in which only 7% of the professionals are successful financially
 +
Premise B: a radio commercial says that the course guarantees financial success
 =
Conclusion: the claim in the radio station must be misleading

Vital factor: ?

You are required to find the factor which is most crucial to the evaluation of the author's conclusion. The correct answer is a question which could support or weaken the conclusion depeneding on its answer.

This answer choice would not really affect anything. In and of itself, the fact that some successful professionals did not graduate from the said course says nothing about the people who will take it or the course's ability to guarantee success.

(C) Did more than 50% of the professionals graduate from a similar course offered by another college?

Incorrect.

Answering the question about a similar course in this answer choice wouldn't help us determine anything about the commercials claim. The argument focuses on a guarantee made regarding a specific course by a specific college.

(D) How many students does the college accept into a single course?

Incorrect.

This question is irrelevant because it begins with how many rather than relating to percents. Since the argument deals with percentages, actual numerical figures would not be helpful to us because we couldn't determine what part of the professional population is made up of course alumni. Plug in 50, 500, 5000, or 5 million - we still don't know the size of the industry so we cannot compare.

(E) What percentage of professionals have participated in a course that trains for this specific career?

Incorrect.

This question would not reveal anything about the commercial's accuracy because the college's claim is neither weakened nor strengthened by the success or prevalence of other courses.

hk111 · Answer

A new private college offers a course which prepares students for a career in which only 7% of the professionals are successful financially in the related industry. In a radio commercial, the course is presented as a guarantee to financial success based on that career. Clearly, such a guarantee warrants charges of false advertising.

The answer to which of the following would be most useful in evaluating the argument?

The answer to which of the following would be most useful in evaluating the argument?

(A) Is the percentage of professionals that did not take part in the course in the new private college lower than 93%?
- As these are established professionals and the course is new, it wouldn't make sense to relate these two data.  Eliminate

(B) Did any of the professionals included in the 7% not graduate from the course?
- Well even if some of them did, the rest could have not taken the course and still are financially successful, so I think it is irrelevant to evaluate the claim of the guarantee that the course is claiming.  Irrelevant

(C) Did more than 50% of the professionals graduate from a similar course offered by another college?
- We do not care about the graduates who graduated from a similar course as we want to evaluate this particular courses claims.  Irrelevant

(D) How many students does the college accept into a single course?
- The number of students accepted is not relevant to our argument.  Irrelevant

(E) What percentage of professionals have participated in a course that trains for this specific career?
- I am selecting this option on basis of POE

IMO E

carouselambra · Answer

IMO E

A new private college offers a course which prepares students for a career in which only 7% of the professionals are successful financially in the related industry. In a radio commercial, the course is presented as a guarantee to financial success based on that career. Clearly, such a guarantee warrants charges of false advertising.

The answer to which of the following would be most useful in evaluating the argument?

Information available :
1. course - prepares students for a career in which only 7% of the professionals are successful financially
2. But in the radio commercial, course guarantees success

Charge : false advertising

What can help us evaluate the argument/conclusion?
1. Eliminate out of scope answers
2. We do not know HOW many students actually took the course
3. We do know anything about how easy/tough the course is
4. We do not know anything about any other mistakes/reasons owing to which the success is 7%

Keeping the above thoughts in mind, let's go through the options.

The answer to which of the following would be most useful in evaluating the argument?

(A) Is the percentage of professionals that did not take part in the course in the new private college lower than 93%?
Out of scope

(B) Did any of the professionals included in the 7% not graduate from the course?
We are not bothered about who graduated

(C) Did more than 50% of the professionals graduate from a similar course offered by another college?
Red flag- Another college

(D) How many students does the college accept into a single course?
Once again, results might vary here. If the number is 100, 7% might be a small rate of success.

(E) What percentage of professionals have participated in a course that trains for this specific career?
Inline with pre-thinking #2

sharmisthamona2 · Answer

E imo as the 7% are already experienced professionals and the course is new,so need to evaluate did they or how many of them also participated in a course like this specifically directed to this career.
Waiting for OA and explaination

Posted from my mobile device

ananya3 · Answer

IMO A

P1: A new private college offers a course which prepares students for a career
P2: only 7% of the professionals are successful financially in the related industry. 
P3: In a radio commercial, the course is presented as a guarantee to financial success based on that career. 
Conclusion: Clearly, such a guarantee warrants charges of false advertising.

(A) Is the percentage of professionals that did not take part in the course in the new private college lower than 93%? -   Correct  
condition: less than 93% did not take part in the course => say around 91% did not take part in the course
=> 9% of the professionals took part in this course and out of the total population only 7% are successful financially at any given time
=> only all 9% of those who participated are successful => the advertisement is false

(B) Did any of the professionals included in the 7% not graduate from the course? -   Incorrect  
if only 6% of all the total professional in the field participated in the course and all are successful, we will have 6% of these coming from the private college and the remaining 1% coming from outside - still satisfies the situation

(C) Did more than 50% of the professionals graduate from a similar course offered by another college? -    Incorrect  
Out of scope - the argument is concerned with the particular private college and not with any other.

(D) How many students does the college accept into a single course? -    Incorrect  
the argument is concerned with the  percentage  of the people who are successful not the actual number

(E) What percentage of professionals have participated in a course that trains for this specific career? -    Incorrect  
the argument is not concerned with any course but with a specific private college and the course that it offers

penco · Answer

But in the question stem, the argument mentions, 7% of professionals are successful in that career. IMO, we are not worried only about the course, but the career in that field as whole. 
Even if we could determine number of students from the particular course of a particular college, that data might not be sufficient to approximate the number of professionals for success in that career as whole.

Let's say there are total of 100 professionals. But only 5% of professionals take up this course. 7% are destined to be successful. The radio commercials might not be false.
On the flip side, if 15% of professionals take up this course, we can say radio commercials are false.

Divijakanneganty · Answer

sayantanc2k   GMATNinja   KarishmaB  
I picked E. Could you please help me understand the approach?

KarishmaB · Answer

The question has ambiguity in context but more on that at the end.

What does a course in a college mean?
As per the question, in a college, every student is preparing for the same career - say Journalism. The college offers only one course - the Journalism course.
An advert says that their course guarantees financial success.

What is useful to evaluate? Do more than 7% people who enter this profession take this course? If yes, then the claim of the course is definitely false. If 7% or less than 7% people who enter this profession take this course then the claim COULD BE true but not necessarily. We need to evaluate further to find that out.

(A) Is the percentage of professionals that did not take part in the course in the new private college lower than 93%?
If the % of Journalists who did not take part in this course is lower than 93% i.e. say 90% journalists did not take this course, then 10% journalists took the course but only 7% are successful. So the advertisement is definitely false.
If the % of Journalists who did not take part in this course is 93% or say 95%, then it is possible that the ones who participated (7% or 5%) were all successful ones. So advert may not be false.

Though it may not be very accurate to call it a "new college" then.

At the very onset, I was thrown off by the context as in I assumed that a college offers various career paths and various courses for each career path. I went through the options and the OA and then figured what the question must have meant.

LouisEvans · Answer

I understand why A and E could be the right answer, but I don't know which one is better. Can someone explain that to me?

VerbalBot · Answer

Automated notice from GMAT Club VerbalBot: 

A member just gave Kudos to this thread, showing it’s still useful. I’ve bumped it to the top so more people can benefit. Feel free to add your own questions or solutions.

 This post was generated automatically.

A new private college offers a course which prepares students for a ca

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 new private college offers a course which prepares students for a ca

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