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Dean of Talentia College: For the past few years, the reputation of 17 Apr 2023, 09:15
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35% (medium)

Question Stats:

69% (01:30) correct 31% (01:39) wrong based on 104 sessions

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Dean of Talentia College: For the past few years, the reputation of our college has been declining, because of which we are now able to fill in only 70% of the total available seats. If more research work is done in the college, it will create more visibility and hence more students will start applying to our college. Accordingly, we will be able to increase the student count.

Which of the following, if true, raises the most serious doubt regarding the effectiveness of the Dean’s plan in increasing the student count at the college?

A. Increase in research will lead to increased expenditure to compensate for which the college will have to in turn increase the tuition fee that is already considered quite high by applicants.

B. To maintain the required teacher-student ratio, the college will have to hire many new professors.

C. Almost 10% of the student applications are rejected by the college each year.

D. Another college in the area that offers the same courses as Talentia was unsuccessful in increasing its visibility by increasing its engagement in research work.

E. The Government will not increase the funding for Talentia, even if the college increases the research work it is doing.
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Dean of Talentia College: For the past few years, the reputation of 18 Apr 2023, 02:52
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imo option d is correct
acts as weakner

college is worried about her reputation not fees
option A incorrect
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Dean of Talentia College: For the past few years, the reputation of 18 Apr 2023, 09:25
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why is option A the right choice ? option D looks more correct to me as option A introduces a few alien ideas.
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Dean of Talentia College: For the past few years, the reputation of 19 Apr 2023, 06:52
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The most serious doubt regarding the effectiveness of the Dean's plan would be raised by the option that challenges the causal link between research work and increased student applications, or by pointing out potential obstacles that could outweigh the benefits of research work.

Option A raises concerns about the potential increase in tuition fee due to increased expenditure, which could deter students from applying to the college even if the research work increases its visibility. Therefore, option A is the correct answer.

Option B suggests that the college will have to hire more professors to maintain the required teacher-student ratio, which could increase the college's expenses, and it may not have a significant impact on increasing student applications.

Option C indicates that the college is already rejecting 10% of the student applications, which suggests that the issue may not be with the visibility of the college, but rather with its admission criteria.

Option D describes the failure of another college in the area that attempted to increase its visibility by increasing research work, but it is not clear if the reasons for that failure apply to Talentia College.

Option E is not directly relevant to the effectiveness of the Dean's plan in increasing student count.


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Dean of Talentia College: For the past few years, the reputation of 19 Apr 2023, 08:26
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Bunuel
Dean of Talentia College: For the past few years, the reputation of our college has been declining, because of which we are now able to fill in only 70% of the total available seats. If more research work is done in the college, it will create more visibility and hence more students will start applying to our college. Accordingly, we will be able to increase the student count.

Which of the following, if true, raises the most serious doubt regarding the effectiveness of the Dean’s plan in increasing the student count at the college?

A. Increase in research will lead to increased expenditure to compensate for which the college will have to in turn increase the tuition fee that is already considered quite high by applicants.

B. To maintain the required teacher-student ratio, the college will have to hire many new professors.

C. Almost 10% of the student applications are rejected by the college each year.

D. Another college in the area that offers the same courses as Talentia was unsuccessful in increasing its visibility by increasing its engagement in research work.

E. The Government will not increase the funding for Talentia, even if the college increases the research work it is doing.
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Let's breakdown the Argument given:
Premise: College reputation has been declining, because of which less number of seats i.e., only 70% of seats are filled.
So, to tackle the issue at hand, the college is planning to do more research work to increase the college's visibility and therefore fill more number of seats.

The question is asking us to weaken the argument.
In order to weaken the argument we need to cast doubt on whether the plan to do more research work will backfire.
What if after implemeting the plan, number of students applying to the university decreases instead of increasing? This will seriously weaken the argument.

Let's look at the answer options:
A. Increase in research will lead to increased expenditure to compensate for which the college will have to in turn increase the tuition fee that is already considered quite high by applicants. Correct

This answer option clearly weaken the argument. The plan of increasing research work will in turn increase tutuion fees. The tution fees, according to the option, is already high. Increasing the fees further will surely have negative impact as students will not apply. Increased visibility will also backfire as more students will get to know about very high tution fees and decide not to apply as it would not be affordable.

B. To maintain the required teacher-student ratio, the college will have to hire many new professors. Incorrect
Maintaining teacher-student ratio and hiring new professors tell us nothing about number of student apllying to the university, therefore Irrelevant

C. Almost 10% of the student applications are rejected by the college each year. Incorrect
The conclusion of the argument is to increase number of applications to increase student count. The rejection rate neither tells us about more number of students applying nor whether the plan of conducting more research will workor not. Therfore, Irrelevant.


D. Another college in the area that offers the same courses as Talentia was unsuccessful in increasing its visibility by increasing its engagement in research work. Incorrect
This answer option presents an Analogy. Tells us that the plan did not work for another college, therefore infering that the plan will also not work for this college. This is a very far streched weakening answer. This would have been answer if there was no better option than this. But, we do have a better answer option than this- Option A. So, we can strike out this answer option.

E. The Government will not increase the funding for Talentia, even if the college increases the research work it is doing. Incorrect
We have no idea as to how government funds is related to success of the research work. So, Irrelevant.

THEREFORE, Option A is the right Answer.

Please leave a kudos if my explanation was helpful! :angel: :thumbsup:
Thank You.
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