Akela wrote:
Educator: Reducing class sizes in our school district would require hiring more teachers. However, there is already a shortage of qualified teachers in the region. Although students receive more individualized instruction when classes are smaller, education suffers when teachers are underqualified. Therefore, reducing class sizes in our district would probably not improve overall student achievement.
Which one of the following is an assumption required by the educator’s argument?
(A) Class sizes in the school district should be reduced only if doing so would improve overall student achievement.
(B) At least some qualified teachers in the school district would be able to improve the overall achievement of students in their classes if class sizes were reduced.
(C) Students place a greater value on having qualified teachers than on having smaller classes.
(D) Hiring more teachers would not improve the achievement of any students in the school district if most or all of the teachers hired were underqualified.
(E) Qualified teachers could not be persuaded to relocate in significant numbers to the educator’s region to take teaching jobs.
This is one of those question that has keywords play most important roles. So, we have to choose our keywords delicately. I have highlighted the keywords in each choice and passage.
Example -
In D it is 'any students' that restricts the scope or violates the conditions laid down in the passage.
In the passage 'our district' is the keyword, but, i must mention that it was not as cristal clear that 'our district' can be keywords. However, only after reading E one can identify why it is so important.
A has other issue of making a claim that acts more of a inference than an assumption, though even then it is not true which we are not bothered about.
B suffers from irrelevancy issue. It touches upon a part that is not at all a basis for conclusion(last sentence of the passage).
C is again irrelevant and absurd.
Choosing E is more difficult than eliminating D between D and E. POE helps.
Answer E.
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Good Books to read prior to MBA