Every student at Overland High School receives guidance counseling

Question

Every student at Overland High School receives guidance counseling from either Ms. Hanner or Mr. Land. A review of college admissions data for students graduating from Overland during the last five years shows that, on average, Ms. Hanner was the guidance counselor for fifty-five percent of the students who applied to four-year colleges and forty percent of the students who were accepted at four-year colleges. These figures were quite consistent from year to year over the last five years.

Which of the following can be logically inferred about the past five years from the statements above?

(A) The total number of students graduating from Overland each year has remained roughly constant.

(B) Mr. Land has been assigned the majority of students with poor study skills.

(C) The percentage of applicants who are accepted to four-year colleges is higher among students guided by Mr. Land than it is among students guided by Ms. Hanner.

(D) The career goals of the students under the guidance of Ms. Hanner and Mr. Land have remained largely unchanged.

(E) The overall grade point average of students under Mr. Land's guidance has been higher than the average of students under Ms. Hanner's guidance.

This is a  CR Butler Question

Check the links to other Butler Projects:
 
  Data Sufficiency Butler  
  Problem Solving Butler  
  Reading Comprehension Butler

postAlone · Answer

Option C

Among students who  applied  to four-year colleges:
 
  55%  had  Ms. Hanner  
 Therefore  45%  had  Mr. Land   
Among students who were  accepted  to four-year colleges:
 
  40%  had  Ms. Hanner  
 Therefore  60%  had  Mr. Land

Mr. Land’s students made up a  smaller share of applicants  but a  larger share of acceptances .
So, proportionally, Mr. Land’s applicants were accepted at a higher rate than Ms. Hanner’s applicants.

AbhishekP220108 · Answer

In My opinion, the argument is pretty straightforward and if understanding is clear, then option choice analysis wont bother much.

Guidance counselling Option- Only 2 option available Ms Hanner or Mr. Land.(restricted to these two only)

Data given for students graduating during last five years, and Ms Hanner.

Ms Hanner was the guidance counselor for fifty-five percent of the students who applied to four-year colleges, which implies Mr Land was GC for remaining 45%

Ms Hanner was GC for forty percent of the students who were accepted at four-year colleges which implies Mr Land was GC for remaining 60 %.

This data is consistent over the given duration

(A) The total number of students graduating from Overland each year has remained roughly constant.- No Info given about student graduating

(B) Mr. Land has been assigned the majority of students with poor study skills.- We dont know whether the 60% assigned because of Poor study skills or not

(C) The percentage of applicants who are accepted to four-year colleges is higher among students guided by Mr. Land than it is among students guided by Ms. Hanner.- Keep supported by given info

(D) The career goals of the students under the guidance of Ms. Hanner and Mr. Land have remained largely unchanged.- Not given about career goals

(E) The overall grade point average of students under Mr. Land's guidance has been higher than the average of students under Ms. Hanner's guidance.- Not given

SO C is only option

Bunuel · Answer

Official Explanation

The words "can be logically inferred" indicate that this is an Inference question. To untangle an Inference question stimulus, just read and paraphrase the statements. There is no argument to analyze. Here, every student at the school is counseled by one of two people. One of the two counselors, Ms. Hanner, counseled fifty-five percent of the students who applied to four-year colleges, and forty percent of the students who were accepted at four year colleges.

Inference questions are typically not predictable. Here, however, one might at least note that since there are only two counselors in the school, and the stimulus gives the percentages for one of the counselors, the percentages for the other counselor can be determined. Since Ms. Hanner was the counselor for fifty-five percent of the students who applied to four year colleges, it must be that Mr. Land was the counselor for the other forty-five percent. Since Ms. Hanner was the counselor for forty percent of the students who were accepted at four-year colleges, Mr. Land was the counselor for the other sixty percent.

(A) does not necessarily follow, because the stimulus gives no information about total students at Overland, just proportions within the total graduates.

(B) cannot be inferred. There is no way to properly link applications and acceptance figures to the quality of study skills.

(C) can be inferred from the stimulus, and is correct. Compared to Ms. Hanner, Mr. Land guided fewer of the applicants but more of the accepted students. Therefore, it must be true that a larger percentage of Mr. Land's students who applied to college were accepted. To verify this, suppose there were 200 applicants and 100 of them were accepted. Ms. Hanner would then have guided 55% of the 200 applicants, or 110 students, and 40% of the 100 who were accepted, or 40 students. Mr. Land would have guided just 90 applicants but 60 of those accepted. A larger fraction of Mr. Land's applicants were accepted, so (C) must be true.

(D) cannot be inferred. There is no information about the career goals of students.

(E) may seem tempting, because the acceptance rate for four-year college is higher for Mr. Land's students (overall) than it is for Ms. Hanner's. But the stimulus doesn't indicate why this is so. It could be that the overall grade point average of Mr. Land's students has been higher, but it doesn't have to be.

TAKEAWAY:  It's crucial to keep in mind that on Test Day, an Inference is something that must be true from the stimulus.

LucidPilot · Answer

As per your explanation "Mr. Land guided fewer of the applicants but more of the accepted student" . But is it necessary that all the student got accepted into colleges ? Mr Land got 45% of student assigned and they may not have gotten into any college. Please explain where i am thinking wrong.

guddo · Answer

Every student at Overland High School receives guidance counseling from either Ms. Hanner or Mr. Land. A review of college admissions data for students graduating from Overland during the last five years shows that, on average, Ms. Hanner was the guidance counselor for fifty-five percent of the students who applied to four-year colleges and forty percent of the students who were accepted at four-year colleges. These figures were quite consistent from year to year over the last five years.
 
 Which of the following can be logically inferred about the past five years from the statements above?

Ms. Hanner counseled 55% of the applicants but only 40% of the accepted students. Therefore, Mr. Land counseled 45% of the applicants but 60% of the accepted students.  So Mr. Land’s students made up a smaller share of applicants but a larger share of acceptances . That means his applicants had a higher acceptance rate.

(A) The total number of students graduating from Overland each year has remained roughly constant.

This is not supported. The passage gives percentages, not total numbers of graduates.

(B) Mr. Land has been assigned the majority of students with poor study skills.

This is not supported. We are told nothing about study skills.

(C) The percentage of applicants who are accepted to four-year colleges is higher among students guided by Mr. Land than it is among students guided by Ms. Hanner.

This is correct. Mr. Land had 45% of applicants but 60% of acceptances, while Ms. Hanner had 55% of applicants but only 40% of acceptances. Therefore, the acceptance rate was higher among Mr. Land’s applicants.

(D) The career goals of the students under the guidance of Ms. Hanner and Mr. Land have remained largely unchanged.

This is not supported. The passage discusses college applications and acceptances, not career goals.

(E) The overall grade point average of students under Mr. Land's guidance has been higher than the average of students under Ms. Hanner's guidance.

This is not supported. Higher acceptance rates could be due to many factors; the passage gives no GPA information.

Answer: (C)

Every student at Overland High School receives guidance counseling

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

­Every student at Overland High School receives guidance counseling

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

Every student at Overland High School receives guidance counseling