Bunuel
At Learnington Academy, a high percentage of students are currently failing their classes, as overcrowding is making it difficult for them to receive the individualized attention from teachers that would allow them to pass. Enrollment is predicted to increase by 25 percent over the next three years. Learnington's administration has decided to hire only 10 percent more teachers for this time period, anticipating that this will be sufficient to ensure that the number of students failing because of lack of attention will not increase.Which of the following, if true, provides the strongest grounds for the administration's prediction?A. Most of the future students are expected to take classes in departments that currently have lower-than-average enrollment.B. The ten percent increase in the number of teachers can be hired without increasing Learnington's expenses by the same amount.C. By changing class schedules, Learnington administrators can hold 10 percent more classes without constructing more buildings.D. Learnington also plans to increase extracurricular activities that meet during the same hours as the most popular classes.E. Most students who attend the most over-enrolled courses require those courses for their majors.
Magoosh Official Explanation:
Answer = (A)
The administration predicts that a 10 percent increase in teachers, who are already in short supply, will be sufficient for a 25 percent increase in the student body. We need to find evidence that would explain why this would be true in order to strengthen their argument. Because the administration believes the number of students failing for lack of attention will not increase, we have to assume that something would be different about those students from the current students--for example, they might take different classes. (A) provides the best explanation for this belief, strengthening the administration’s argument.
Learnington administration’s argument is about the student fail rate not increasing, not the school’s expenses (at least, not directly). (B) isn’t relevant to the argument the school is making. Furthermore, if students were still failing, that would ultimately have negative consequences for the school.
This argument is also not about Learnington building (or not building) any more buildings (C). Instead, it’s about the number of teachers they hire in response to student failure rates. Classroom schedules are beside the point.
Extracurricular activities (D) might get students to take different classes, reducing the enrollment in some of the more popular classes. On the other hand, it might encourage students to skip those classes, resulting in higher failure rates. We don’t have enough information to know, so this isn’t a great answer.
If students need these over-enrolled classes for their majors (E), that makes it more imperative that the school hire more teachers, not fewer. Because we’re trying to strengthen the argument that they do not need to hire a huge number of additional teachers, this point would work against what we want to do.