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Prathu1221
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Option A would be not weakening because it does not have any relation of certification and leaving company.
Option B says that incentives are not provided but even if incentives are provided it would not reflect in the annual HR survey as it is done at end of year.
Option C is little bit weakening as it will reflect a wrong number when calculated against the actual people who have that certification.
Option D is nowhere related to certification as it talks about the department they are working.
Option E is the most weakening because if some people obtain their certification after joining then it would inflate that number 18% asnd this is a more direct reason than C as maybe all people have voluntarily reported their certification. Option E
Bunuel
In a recent calendar year, several engineers both joined and left Company Z. Among engineers who left within their first year of employment, 18 percent held an agile-project-management certification. Yet only 8 percent of all engineers who completed the annual HR survey reported holding that certification. Therefore, possessing the certification appears to make an engineer more likely to leave Company Z within a year of being hired.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

(A) Most engineers who leave company Z within their first year do so voluntarily, often for positions at competing firms.
(B) Company Z does not provide incentives for employees to obtain professional certifications.
(C) Engineers are not required to report certifications they obtained prior to joining the company.
(D) The majority of engineers at company Z work in teams that use agile methodologies.
(E) Some engineers obtain their agile project management certification only after joining the company.


 


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(A) Most engineers who leave company Z within their first year do so voluntarily, often for positions at competing firms. -- supports the argument if anything; although it isn't stated that engineers earn their certification their first year at the firm, and then leave; if that were the case, that would strengthen the argument

(B) Company Z does not provide incentives for employees to obtain professional certifications -- doesn't address the argument, whether or not company z provides incentives for certifications is irrelevant to whether having the license makes engineers leave.

(C) Engineers are not required to report certifications they obtained prior to joining the company.

this seems much more compelling! The argument starts by stating that several engineers joined and several left. If several joined and had licensed, but aren't required to report licenses, then perhaps the license isn't the reason for leaving, and perhaps a high percentage of engineers still have the license.

(D) The majority of engineers at company Z work in teams that use agile methodologies. [they should require the license then, and a higher % should be reported]

(E) Some engineers obtain their agile project management certification only after joining the company. [ if this true, similar to A, strengthens argument]
Bunuel
In a recent calendar year, several engineers both joined and left Company Z. Among engineers who left within their first year of employment, 18 percent held an agile-project-management certification. Yet only 8 percent of all engineers who completed the annual HR survey reported holding that certification. Therefore, possessing the certification appears to make an engineer more likely to leave Company Z within a year of being hired.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

(A) Most engineers who leave company Z within their first year do so voluntarily, often for positions at competing firms.
(B) Company Z does not provide incentives for employees to obtain professional certifications.
(C) Engineers are not required to report certifications they obtained prior to joining the company.
(D) The majority of engineers at company Z work in teams that use agile methodologies.
(E) Some engineers obtain their agile project management certification only after joining the company.


 


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After reviewing, I think I got it wrong. I focused too much on the reasons why they left, rather than questioning the correlation between leaving and the certification itself. Given that, options C or D might actually be more appropriate.
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The argument claims that engineers with an agile-project-management certification are more likely to leave Company Z within a year because 18% of early leavers held the certification, compared to only 8% of all engineers who completed the HR survey. To weaken this, we need to challenge the comparison between these 2 percentages or suggest an alternative explanation.

Option (A) explains why people leave but doesn’t address the link between certification and early departure. (B) mentions company policy on certifications, which is unrelated to the argument. (D) and (E) are irrelevant to the argument.

Only (C) weakens the argument by pointing out that engineers aren’t required to report certifications earned before joining the company. This suggests that the 8% figure from the HR survey may underrepresent the true number of engineers with the certification. If more engineers actually hold the certification than reported, the difference between 18% and 8% might not be meaningful, undermining the conclusion that certification holders are more likely to leave.

Thus, (C) casts doubt on the reliability of the comparison and most seriously weakens the argument.
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Bunuel
In a recent calendar year, several engineers both joined and left Company Z. Among engineers who left within their first year of employment, 18 percent held an agile-project-management certification. Yet only 8 percent of all engineers who completed the annual HR survey reported holding that certification. Therefore, possessing the certification appears to make an engineer more likely to leave Company Z within a year of being hired.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

(A) Most engineers who leave company Z within their first year do so voluntarily, often for positions at competing firms.
(B) Company Z does not provide incentives for employees to obtain professional certifications.
(C) Engineers are not required to report certifications they obtained prior to joining the company.
(D) The majority of engineers at company Z work in teams that use agile methodologies.
(E) Some engineers obtain their agile project management certification only after joining the company.


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(A) Explains why people leave, not whether certification causes it.
(B) Talks about incentives, not the link between certification and leaving.
(C) weakens the argument because if engineers don’t report certifications
obtained before joining, the 8% figure is likely too low. This makes the 18%
Among early leavers not unusual, weakening the claim that certification leads to
early departure.
(D) Explains why many might have the certification, but it doesn’t affect the
comparison.
(E) Doesn’t clarify if certification came before or after the decision to leave.
Ans – [C]
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Conclusion: Possessing the certification appears to make an engineer more likely to leave Company Z within a year of being hired

Premise/Support: Among engineers who left within their first year of employment, 18 percent held an agile-project-management certification. Yet only 8 percent of all engineers who completed the annual HR survey reported holding that certification

(A) Whether the engineers who leave voluntarily within their first year posses any project-management certification or not is not stated. Without that this statement is not adding or undermining anything to the argument. Eliminate

(B) The incentives is not related in anyway to why engineers leave company. Eliminate

(C) If engineers are not required to report certifications they obtained prior to joining the company, the 8% figure they got during the annual HR survey is under question. The actual % of engineers holding certifications may be even more. In actual case, the 18% of engineers who left within first year may not be significant enough to arrive at the said conclusion. Weakens

(D) No info about certification held by engineers is provided. Eliminate

(E) Though they get the certification, whether they stay in the company or leave within first year of hiring is not clearly stated. Eliminate

Answer: C
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In a recent calendar year, several engineers both joined and left Company Z. Among engineers who left within their first year of employment, 18 percent held an agile-project-management certification. Yet only 8 percent of all engineers who completed the annual HR survey reported holding that certification. Therefore, possessing the certification appears to make an engineer more likely to leave Company Z within a year of being hired.

Premise : In a recent calendar year, several engineers both joined and left Company Z. Among engineers who left within their first year of employment, 18 percent held an agile-project-management certification. Yet only 8 percent of all engineers who completed the annual HR survey reported holding that certification.

Conclusion : possessing the certification appears to make an engineer more likely to leave Company Z within a year of being hired.

We need to find a answer choice where it would show not the certification, something else is triggering them leaving the job. Or, percentage calculation has been mismatched. Or something else in similar line.

(A) Most engineers who leave company Z within their first year do so voluntarily, often for positions at competing firms. - Not something that would affect the argument.
(B) Company Z does not provide incentives for employees to obtain professional certifications. - Not something that would affect the argument.
(C) Engineers are not required to report certifications they obtained prior to joining the company. - Could be. If everybody are not informing in the survey the prior certifications, that might answer the % mismatch.
(D) The majority of engineers at company Z work in teams that use agile methodologies. - Not something that would affect the argument.
(E) Some engineers obtain their agile project management certification only after joining the company. - Some, we don't know how much.

Correct answer would be C.
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Consider C. If reporting is optional, then those who were still employees might have not reported having that certification which means that the percentage of current employees have that certification might be greater than 18%
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A. Does not provide any information to weaken the conclusion that those with certification are more likely to leave. Irrelevant

B. If the company does not provide incentives, then those who have the certifications would rather go to a place where they benefit by holding the certificate. This strengthens the conclusion rather than weakens it.

C. Correct. The underreporting of the certifications causes the percentage of people within the company holding the certificate to reduce, hence weakening the conclusion.

D. Irrelevant. Does not provide information to weaken the conclusion.

E. Irrelevant. The time when the certification is obtained has no bearing on the conclusion.
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Bunuel
In a recent calendar year, several engineers both joined and left Company Z. Among engineers who left within their first year of employment, 18 percent held an agile-project-management certification. Yet only 8 percent of all engineers who completed the annual HR survey reported holding that certification. Therefore, possessing the certification appears to make an engineer more likely to leave Company Z within a year of being hired.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

(A) Most engineers who leave company Z within their first year do so voluntarily, often for positions at competing firms.
(B) Company Z does not provide incentives for employees to obtain professional certifications.
(C) Engineers are not required to report certifications they obtained prior to joining the company.
(D) The majority of engineers at company Z work in teams that use agile methodologies.
(E) Some engineers obtain their agile project management certification only after joining the company.


 


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Scope - Calendar year
Several engineers both joined and left
Who left --> 18% had agile-project-management certification
Annual HR review --> only 8 percent reported the certification
Conclusion --> possessing the certification appears to make an engineer more likely to leave Company Z within a year of being hired.

The argument assumes that the engineers had the certification when then were hired, hence they fall into the group of joining and leaving within a calendar year

(A) Most engineers who leave company Z within their first year do so voluntarily, often for positions at competing firms.
--> Why they leave for other reasons is irrelevant? whether they leave because of the certification is the question

(B) Company Z does not provide incentives for employees to obtain professional certifications.
--> Irrelevant.

(C) Engineers are not required to report certifications they obtained prior to joining the company.
--> Correct. This is in line with the gap in the assumption. If they never reported, then this is a data discrepancy rather than an increased likelihood of leaving post the certification

(D) The majority of engineers at company Z work in teams that use agile methodologies.
--> Irrelevant

(E) Some engineers obtain their agile project management certification only after joining the company.
--> This kind of strengthens the argument by providing an explanation for the gap.

IMHO Option C
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Argument Analysis
The argument says 18% of those who left had an agile certificate. But since a smaller percentage in the survey had the cert, it assumes that possession of certification causes people to be more likely to leave.
Since there are percentages involved, a weakener could be something that shows the percentages do not imply the causation concluded by the argument. For example, the number of people taking the survey may not reflect the actual majority of people who have the certification. Or, not reporting may not mean actually not holding the certification.

Answer Choice Analysis


(A) Most engineers who leave company Z within their first year do so voluntarily, often for positions at competing firms - eliminate. This could strengthen the reasoning that possessing the certification could make the engineers search for better positions at competitive firms voluntarily - this does not weaken the argument.

(B) Company Z does not provide incentives for employees to obtain professional certifications - eliminate. Whether the company provides incentives for employees is irrelevant to the argument. We want to weaken the reasoning that certification causes them to leave, whether they receive incentives or not is irrelevant.

(C) Engineers are not required to report certifications they obtained prior to joining the company - keep. If engineers do not report certifications they obtained prior to joining the company, it is possible that many engineers who took the survey actually had the certification but did not report having it as they obtained it before joining the company. In this case, the causal relation is weakened because there are people still in the company, in possession of the certification. keep for now.

(D) The majority of engineers at company Z work in teams that use agile methodologies - for this to weaken the reasoning, we will have to use that engineers working in such teams need to be certified in agile-management, which seems like a stretch...Maybe only managers need the certification? This does not seem very convincing to weaken the causal relation by suggesting that majority of people have agile cert and the survey is not accurate in saying only 8% have the cert.

(E) Some engineers obtain their agile project management certification only after joining the company - eliminate. We don't know how many does "some" mean in terms of total employees- it could be a minority as well, in which case it is irrelevant to the argument

Between C and D, I was confused but I believe C attacks the causal relation more clearly than D does.

Answer C
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Premises: 18% of engineers who left within a year had the certification and 8% of engineers overall have it.
Conclusion: Certification make an engineer more likely to leave Company Z within a year of being hired.

Pre-thinking: Anything that shows certification is not related with leaving company within a year or percentage disparity has some flaw.

Option A & B are completely irrelevant.
Option C shows that as reporting about certification is not mandatory 8% figure might be wrong and hence widen the gap between premises and conclusion.
Option D. Doesn't talk anything about certificates.
Option E. Is not related to leaving company.

Hence, Option (C) is Correct.
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Bunuel
In a recent calendar year, several engineers both joined and left Company Z. Among engineers who left within their first year of employment, 18 percent held an agile-project-management certification. Yet only 8 percent of all engineers who completed the annual HR survey reported holding that certification. Therefore, possessing the certification appears to make an engineer more likely to leave Company Z within a year of being hired.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

(A) Most engineers who leave company Z within their first year do so voluntarily, often for positions at competing firms.
(B) Company Z does not provide incentives for employees to obtain professional certifications.
(C) Engineers are not required to report certifications they obtained prior to joining the company.
(D) The majority of engineers at company Z work in teams that use agile methodologies.
(E) Some engineers obtain their agile project management certification only after joining the company.


 


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In Company Z, 18% of the employees who left within a year had an agile certification.
Annual Survey: 8% engineers in the company hold that certification.

Argument: Agile Certification --> More likely to leave the company within a year.
We have to weaken the argument.

Let's analyse our options:

(A) Most engineers who leave company Z within their first year do so voluntarily, often for positions at competing firms.
No info or connection with the agile certification. Irrelevant.
Incorrect

(B) Company Z does not provide incentives for employees to obtain professional certifications.
Still no direct influence to weaken the argument. Employees can still get the certification.
Incorrect.

(C) Engineers are not required to report certifications they obtained prior to joining the company.
If the Engineers are not required to report, then the number of engineers holding certifications in the company might be more than expected i.e., greater than 8%. This means that holding the certification is not directly related to leaving the company within a year.
Correct.

(D) The majority of engineers at company Z work in teams that use agile methodologies.
No info on whether the people have the certifications or not. Might be an incentive to get certified but not to leave.
Incorrect.

(E) Some engineers obtain their agile project management certification only after joining the company.
This might slightly strengthen the argument, as if they obtain certifications after joining the company, then after obtaining the certifications, these employees might leave, compared to the ones who don't have the certification.
Incorrect.
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(A) Most engineers who leave company Z within their first year do so voluntarily, often for positions at competing firms.
This tells us why they leave (voluntarily for competitors), but doesn't address the certification's role. Doesn't weaken the link between certification and leaving.

(B) Company Z does not provide incentives for employees to obtain professional certifications.
This is about incentives for certifications, not about leaving. Doesn't explain why certified engineers leave more.

(C) Engineers are not required to report certifications they obtained prior to joining the company.
If true, the 8% from the HR survey might be underreported because some don't report pre-joining certifications. Maybe more than 8% actually have the certification, making the 18% among leavers less significant. This could weaken the argument by suggesting the base rate is higher than 8%. CORRECT

(D) The majority of engineers at company Z work in teams that use agile methodologies.
This explains why many engineers might have the certification (because they use agile). But doesn't explain why certified ones leave more.

(E) Some engineers obtain their agile project management certification only after joining the company.
If some get certified after joining, then the 18% who left with certification might have gotten it while at Company Z. But this doesn't explain why they left.

IMO C
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A. Most engineers who leave company Z within their first year do so voluntarily, often for positions at competing firms.
This explains why they leave, but it doesn’t weaken the claim that the people having the certification are more likely to leave. Incorrect.

B. Company Z does not provide incentives for employees to obtain professional certifications.
This is about company policy and doesn’t address the relationship between the certification and the likelihood of early departure. Out of Scope.

C. Engineers are not required to report certifications they obtained prior to joining the company.
If the people who are already in the company are not obligated to report the certification they had prior to joining, it is very possible that the figure of 8% mentioned is wrong. This could cause the number to be much larger and thus, imply that actually a lot more people hold the certification than the numbers state. This directly weakens the fact that having the certification causes people to leave. The certification might be no more common among early leavers than among everyone else. Correct.

D. The majority of engineers at company Z work in teams that use agile methodologies.
It suggests that agile is common, but it doesn't say anything about the people with certifications having a greater likelihood of leaving. Incorrect.

E. Some engineers obtain their agile project management certification only after joining the company.
This seems to be tricky. It can be assumed as weakening the causal relationship that the certifications cause the people to leave, but "some engineers" is a very vague number and when they got the certifications is not relevant to the topic. Incorrect.
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Pre-thinking: The claim depends on 18% of people who left in their 1st year having the certification vs only 8% of all engineers. If that 8% is an undercount, the argument falls apart.

A only talks about why people quit. Irrelevant. Eliminate
B says the company doesn’t reward certifications, but it doesn’t show the 8% is wrong. Eliminate
C says engineers aren’t required to report certifications they had before joining. So the survey could actually miss lots of certified employees. Keep
D is again irrelevant since it just talks about most teams using agile. Eliminate
E says some get certified after they start, but even then they’d still report it on the HR survey, so E doesn’t explain the low 8% overall rate.. Eliminate

Answer: C
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In a recent calendar year, several engineers both joined and left Company Z. Among engineers who left within their first year of employment, 18 percent held an agile-project-management certification. Yet only 8 percent of all engineers who completed the annual HR survey reported holding that certification. Therefore, possessing the certification appears to make an engineer more likely to leave Company Z within a year of being hired.

The conclusion: possessing the agile-project-management certification appears to make an engineer more likely to leave Company Z within a year of being hired

Premise: 18 percent of the engineers who left held an agile-project-management certification.

Logical Flaw: only 8 percent of all engineers who completed the annual HR survey reported holding that certification.

This could strengthen the conclusion if more engineers obtained the certification after the annual survey

This could weaken it if the percentage of engineers who actually hold the certification is understated.

Option C: Engineers are not required to report certifications they obtained prior to joining the company. This provides evidence of the understatement of the engineers who actually hold the certification.

The answer is thus C
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SaanjK26
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GMAT Club Olympics 2025 (Day 4): In a recent calendar year, several 04 Jul 2025, 03:37
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Conclusion - Possessing the agile-project-management certification appears to make an engineer more likely to leave Company Z within a year of being hired.

Evidence:
18% of engineers who left within a year had the certification.

8% of all engineers (who completed the HR survey) had the certification.

(A) Irrelevant. This explains why they leave, but doesn't challenge the connection between the certification and likelihood of leaving.

(B) Also irrelevant. The company’s policy doesn’t affect whether certified engineers are more likely to leave.

(C) Correct - This weakens the comparison the conclusion may be based on flawed data.
This challenges the data. If many engineers didn’t report certifications, then the 8% figure may be artificially low. That means more than 8% of all engineers might be certified — possibly similar to the 18% who left early.

(D) Even if most engineers use agile methods, it doesn’t affect whether having a certification makes someone more likely to leave.

(E) Doesn't weaken as the 18% who left could still have obtained certification before or after joining — this doesn’t show the certification doesn't correlate with leaving.


option C.
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cyang8
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GMAT Club Olympics 2025 (Day 4): In a recent calendar year, several 04 Jul 2025, 03:49
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(A) Most engineers who leave company Z within their first year do so voluntarily, often for positions at competing firms.
(B) Company Z does not provide incentives for employees to obtain professional certifications.
(C) Engineers are not required to report certifications they obtained prior to joining the company.
(D) The majority of engineers at company Z work in teams that use agile methodologies.
(E) Some engineers obtain their agile project management certification only after joining the company.

My guess is C. If engineers are not required to report certifications they obtained prior to joining the company, then there may be a higher percentage of all engineers who hold that certification.
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