Educational Theorist: Recent editorials have called for limits on the

Question

Educational Theorist:  Recent editorials have called for limits on the amount of homework assigned to children. They point out that free-time activities play an important role in childhood development and that large amounts of homework reduce children’s free time, hindering their development. But the average homework time for a ten year old, for example, is little more than 30 minutes per night. Clearly, therefore, there is no need to impose the limits these editorials are calling for.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the educational theorist’s argument relies?

(A) The free-time activities that ten year olds engage in most are all approximately equally effective at fostering development.

(B) Regularly doing homework assignments improves children’s academic performance.

(C) Individual teachers are not the best judges of how much homework to assign the children they teach.

(D) In most schools, if not all, the homework assignments given are of a length that does not diverge widely from the average.

(E) Free-time activities rarely teach children skills or information that they can use in their academic work.

VeritasPrepBrandon · Accepted Answer

Assumption questions are best approached with a kind of "shield" mentality. They are often difficult to predict (unlike more traditional strengthen/weaken questions, which you should try to make some kind of a prediction on). When reviewing the answer choices for these kinds of questions, you can typically rule out a few pretty quickly due to being out of scope. In this question I would say that A and E are the quick throwaway answers. A - there is no need to distinguish between which free-time activities are better than others, or how they are different, as the argument in no way depends on that; and E - we are discussing general child development, not development only as it pertains to academic work.

When you are then narrowing down between the final couple answer choices, you can use what Veritas refers to as the "assumption negation technique." You negate a possible answer choice, and then insert it back into the argument as an additional premise, and kaboom - the argument implodes. I view it as pulling out the "jenga piece," that final piece you pull when you lose the game of Jenga as the blocks come tumbling down.

Here the argument is:
Context) Free time activities play an important role in childhood development. Excessive homework reduces time for free time activities and therefore hinders their development
Premise) The average homework time for a 10 year old is only 30 minutes per night
Conclusion) There is no need to place limits on the homework assignments assigned to children

Negating the answer choices, 
B - Regularly doing homework assignments does NOT improve academic performance: this does not crush the argument. If anything it actually strengthens the argument when negated, so is definitely not what I want
C - Individual teachers ARE the best judge of how much homework to assign: Again, if anything it strengthens the argument when negated. If teachers are the best judges, then that would further the argument that there is no need to place a limit.
D - In most schools, if not all, the homework assignments given are of a length that DOES diverge widely from the average: here's our winner. If we insert that back into the argument, then it basically nullifies the premise that the average homework time is only 30 minutes. It shows that there may be many schools that have 0 homework, and then some that have 3 hours of homework/night. The schools with 3 hours of homework/night are greatly hampering the children's development, and therefore there probably should be a limit placed.

I hope this helps!

shuvabrata88 · Answer

IMO (D)
"But the average homework time for a ten year old, for example, is little more than 30 minutes per night."
Mathematically we can have widely different sets of data with the same average. Therefore the theorist essentially assumes that for most schools the data does not deviate much from the average. In other words, the standard deviation is minimum.

Temurkhon · Answer

Premise: But  the average homework time  for a ten year old, for example, is little more than 30 minutes per night

Conclusion: Clearly, therefore, there is no  need to impose the limits   these editorials are calling for

Assumption:  The average homework time is factor defining need to impose the limits

D

aniteshgmat1101 · Answer

+1 for D.
Premise: the "average homework time" for a ten year old...
Conclusion: no need to impose the limits these editorials are calling for.
The Educational Theorist assumes that since average time is less, there is not need for time limitation. The average of 0 and 60 is also 30 but the in the second time data, students are spending 60 mins in doing homework. This assumption could have supported the argument if the variance in sample times are not very high, i.e. if all the times in sample are very close to the average (30 mins).

mmelendez · Answer

Please follow my example on how I untangled this argument. Every argument is composed of premises. Some have conclusions and some do not. For those that have conclusions, then you need to untangle its components and start your Assumption Hunting Mode! Background information: Recent editorials have called for limits on the amount of homework assigned to children P1 : Editorials point out that free-time activities play an important role in childhood development P2: Editorials point out that large amounts of homework reduce children’s free time, hindering their development Counter premise (This is kind of against a point previously stated, again look at the word BUT counterpremise indicator ): But the average homework time for a ten year old, for example, is little more than 30 minutes per night Conclusion: There is no need to impose the limits these editorials are calling for. Ok now that said, think about this. Why should we not impose the limits these editorials are calling for? What is the idea behind it? The premise the conclusion maker used is that average homework time for a ten year old, for example, is little more than 30 minutes per night! Now that said, next step is think of an assumption.... An assumption should be why this conclusion is true? Think for a reason this is true and then you may have come up with these: 1- that 30 minutes is not that much time to spend on homework and thus it is not going to affect development 2- that the measurements in this argument, i.e. "the average time" is representative. The second answer is more subtle but once you start the argument analysis as in my method, you will be more comfortable to answer this question. Only choice D is the correct answer to this question. If it were not true, then an amount of time that diverges largely from the 30 minute mark would put in question the validity of the conclusion. If it were a lot more than 30 minutes then the conclusion falls apart. hope I could help The path I chose is not for the faint of heart! MM

rhine29388 · Answer

Checking for correct Assumption- After negation of the correct answer choice , the conclusion falls apart(or shatters)

Conclusion - There is no need to place limits on the homework assignments assigned to children

option A and E are out of scope options or irrelevant for the given topic
use negation to check for correct answer choice
option B and C are strengthening the conclusion

if we negate option D,the conclusion falls apart
Correct Answer - D

Abhishek009 · Answer

Limits on homework : More free time for childrens = development 
( Total Duration / No of homeworks assigned to children) : 30+ minutes
Hence there is no need to impose limits on homework

A. The free-time activities that ten year olds engage in  most are all approximately equally effective at fostering development

Out of scope.

B.  Regularly doing homework assignments improves children’s academic performance.

Out of scope and irrelevant to the argument

C. Individual  teachers are not the best judges of how much homework to assign  the children they teach

Out of scope.

D. In most schools,  if not all,  the homework assignments given are of a length that does not diverge widely from the average.

If we negate this statement :  " homework assignments given are of a length that does not diverge widely from the average. "

Say ,

School 1 : 10min & School 2 : 90 min

Average : 50 min

Thus there is an absolute requirement to impose the limits on the amount of homework assigned to children  -  The argument falls apart.

E. Free-time activities rarely teach children skills or information that they can use in their academic work

Out of scope and irrelevant

Hence among the given options only (D) follows....

arvind910619 · Answer

The answer is D
D. In most schools, if not all, the homework assignments given are of a
length that does not diverge widely from the average.

If the average number of hours differ markedly from school to school then there is need for regulation.
Hope it helps

bbb123 · Answer

Can someone please help negate E. and explain why it is wrong?
For me,
E. Free-time activities ALWAYS teach children skills or information that they can use in their academic work.
makes the conclusion: no need to impose the limit on homework assignments wrong.

Ilhomjon98 · Answer

Hi  IanStewart

Could you please help with this question?

although I have found the correct answer, I have some doubt about it:

In the argument, we are given information about only "the average homework time for a ten year old". Yet, OA talks about "the average time":

But, We don't know about "the average homework time for other children": For example, if "the average homework time for  a nine year old " would be 4 hours per night, then (D) cannot be an assumtion.

Or Should we have to accept that (D) talks about "the average homework time for a ten year old", which is about 30 minutes per night?

I think that even with (D), the argument still have some gap.

I hope I can clarify my doubt.

Thank you very much beforehand!

IanStewart · Answer

Here the argument says children need free time, so some people think limits need to be placed on homework. But the Educational Theorist argues that no limits are necessary, because ten year olds only get an average of thirty minutes of homework per day.

As with most GMAT arguments, there's more than one assumption here. As you point out, the argument is assuming that the homework time for ten year olds is similar to the homework time for, say, twelve year olds or seven year olds; the wording suggests that is true, but it's not entirely explicit. If an answer choice mentioned that assumption, it would be the correct answer here. We don't find an answer like that though. The argument is also assuming that we can use the "average" as if it were the "norm". But if some children are spending 5 hours on homework each day, and many others are spending 0 hours each day, the average could be 30 minutes, and limits might still help to ensure all children have enough free time. So the argument is assuming the "average" figure it cites as evidence is a representative number for children in general.

One important point in questions like this: even when you identify one assumption, an argument can still have gaps (occasionally serious ones). Many arguments make several assumptions, and if you're only asked to find "an assumption in the argument", your task is merely to identify one of those assumptions. Your task is not to make the argument airtight.

brianmontanaweb · Answer

Since we know that the theorist focuses on the time students do homework by citing the average time a student does homework for TEN YEAR OLDS. We can attack this piece of data. The author is applying the data set to ALL students, we know that the age of a student, honors, the student, and how many classes all contribute to how long homework will take. So any option that mentions home work time will be a good one to keep for further review.

A, and E both point to activities, so we can drop those quickly.

B is out of scope since "academic performance" isn't mentioned

C mentions "teachers" and "how much homework to assign", which distorts the assumption

D works because it focuses only on homework assignments' length, plus if we negate this option the argument no longer works. "The homework assignments given are of a length that DOES diverge widely from the average."

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