GMAT Club World Cup 2022 (DAY 10): A team of educational researchers

Correct answer : Choice B

A. The late start of the classes would also require significant and inconvenient changes in the timing for the administrative staff. : Wrong - Not relevant

B. Only a few students who were high performers during their high school days when they had the habit of studying late at night volunteered. : ahh, that makes sense. Since the volunteered students form a biased representative group of students and applying this strategy to all students does not make sense

C. Implementing certain state of the art teaching methods would substantially increase the performance of the students, comparable to that observed in the assessment. : Wrong - Not relevant

D. The Dean of the University is not in favor of changing the current timing of the classes. : Wrong - Not relevant

E. Late start of the classes also means that it would be more inconvenient for the students to arrive at the University using the more crowded public transport. : Wrong - Not relevant

Answer is B
A. The late start of the classes would also require significant and inconvenient changes in the timing for the administrative staff.
Irrelevant
B. Only a few students who were high performers during their high school days when they had the habit of studying late at night volunteered. Correct. Since the sample of the research was inadequate, the result should not be taking seriously.

C. Implementing certain state of the art teaching methods would substantially increase the performance of the students, comparable to that observed in the assessment.
out of scope
D. The Dean of the University is not in favor of changing the current timing of the classes.
May be but irrelevant
E. Late start of the classes also means that it would be more inconvenient for the students to arrive at the University using the more crowded public transport. out of scope

Premise : anted to assess the relation between studying late at night with the performance of the students. Currently the classes at the University start very early in the morning, not encouraging the students to study late at night. However the researchers allowed a group of volunteer students to arrive for their classes late in the morning for a period of three months during which they studied late at night regularly

conclusion :
It was observed that their performance significantly improved.

if true, would have the strongest grounds against deciding, on the basis of the above assessment, to implement late start of classes in the morning at the University to improve the performance of the students

A. The late start of the classes would also require significant and inconvenient changes in the timing for the administrative staff. not relevant

B. Only a few students who were high performers during their high school days when they had the habit of studying late at night volunteered. no information about other set of students , were they or not high performers

C. Implementing certain state of the art teaching methods would substantially increase the performance of the students, comparable to that observed in the assessment. does weaken but not strongly enough

D. The Dean of the University is not in favor of changing the current timing of the classes. this is strong that if authority denies permission then plan will fail as per conclusion

E. Late start of the classes also means that it would be more inconvenient for the students to arrive at the University using the more crowded public transport irrelevant

OPTION D is correct

A. The late start of the classes would also require significant and inconvenient changes in the timing for the administrative staff. Not a strong case

B. Only a few students who were high performers during their high school days when they had the habit of studying late at night volunteered. if this is true then the whole assessment weakens hence Correct

C. Implementing certain state of the art teaching methods would substantially increase the performance of the students, comparable to that observed in the assessment. Out of context

D. The Dean of the University is not in favor of changing the current timing of the classes. Incorrect

E. Late start of the classes also means that it would be more inconvenient for the students to arrive at the University using the more crowded public transport. Not a good case
Answer B

IMO B


A. The late start of the classes would also require significant and inconvenient changes in the timing for the administrative staff.- irrelevant

B. Only a few students who were high performers during their high school days when they had the habit of studying late at night volunteered.- correct.The chosen section of students were already good at studies so any conclusion drawn keeping them in mind would not be reflective of the entire student population.

C. Implementing certain state of the art teaching methods would substantially increase the performance of the students, comparable to that observed in the assessment. - this is not given in the argument

D. The Dean of the University is not in favor of changing the current timing of the classes.- - irrelevant

E. Late start of the classes also means that it would be more inconvenient for the students to arrive at the University using the more crowded public transport. - does not impact the argument

Premise:
> A team of educational researchers at a University wanted to assess the relation between studying late at night with the performance of the students.
> Currently the classes at the University start very early in the morning, not encouraging the students to study late at night.
> However the researchers allowed a group of volunteer students to arrive for their classes late in the morning for a period of three months during which they studied late at night regularly.
> It was observed that their performance significantly improved.

Suggested Plan:
Implement late start of classes in the morning at the University to improve the performance of the students

Our job:
Weaken the suggested plan

What should the answer have?
If we say that the sample size is not a true representation of the class, then the plan falls apart because it won't really lead to an overall improvement in performance

Let's analyse the options:



This point doesn't address how the plan won't lead to the overall improvement. Hence, irrelevant.



This aligns with our pre-thinking that the volunteers were not a true representation of the whole class. So, it's possible that the overall improvement suggested will not be achieved. Let's hold on to it.



But where is it mentioned that these two methods of improving performance are mutually exclusive? We can do both at once. Hence, incorrect.



This option speaks for itself, I guess. The Dean's convenience doesn't impact the viability of the plan. Incorrect.



This is a good option because it says that it would be more inconvenient for the students to arrive, and it's possible that this affects their performance instead. But then, this would've been factored in the case of the volunteers right? If the study still shows improvement, then the effect of this option is negligible.

Hence, option B is the right answer.

Goal : to improve the performance of the students
Plan : late start of classes in the morning at the University


A. The late start of the classes would also require significant and inconvenient changes in the timing for the administrative staff.

We are concerned about the performance improvement and this option does not provide any details on that

B. Only a few students who were high performers during their high school days when they had the habit of studying late at night volunteered.

A good reason to believe that the plan wont work because the sample sized was skewed

C. Implementing certain state of the art teaching methods would substantially increase the performance of the students, comparable to that observed in the assessment.

Provides an alternate plan. Eliminate.

D. The Dean of the University is not in favor of changing the current timing of the classes

Out of scope

E. Late start of the classes also means that it would be more inconvenient for the students to arrive at the University using the more crowded public transport.

Out of scope


IMO B

Analysis: Based on study conducted by university with the group of volunteer students:
=> Late morning classes = late night study = performance improvement.

We need to find statement with strongest grounds against deciding, to implement late start of classes in the morning to improve the performance of the students.

A. The late start of the classes would also require significant and inconvenient changes in the timing for the administrative staff.
--> Incorrect: inconvenience to admin staff is irrelevant to the expected outcome for improvement in student's performance.

B. Only a few students who were high performers during their high school days when they had the habit of studying late at night volunteered.
--> Correct: If the students who volunteered for the study had the habit of studying late and were high performers then the outcome of study is biased towards these students and it is possible that the large number of students who were not part of study will not be able to perform well if classes start late.

C. Implementing certain state of the art teaching methods would substantially increase the performance of the students, comparable to that observed in the assessment.
--> Incorrect: starting classes late cannot be considered a state of art teaching method. Otherwise too, this statement could be considered supportive to decision to start late classes.

D. The Dean of the University is not in favor of changing the current timing of the classes.
--> Incorrect: Irrelevant to the decision why university wants to change timing of the classes.

E. Late start of the classes also means that it would be more inconvenient for the students to arrive at the University using the more crowded public transport.
--> Incorrect: Even if travelling is inconvenient for the students, their performance can be expected to improve based on the study's outcome.

A. The late start of the classes would also require significant and inconvenient changes in the timing for the administrative staff.
INCORRECT. The question asks: "Which of the following options, if true, would have the strongest grounds against deciding, on the basis of the above assessment, to implement late start of classes in the morning at the University to improve the performance of the students?" Here, it could well be the case that late start of the classes requiring significant and inconvenient changes in the timing for the administrative staff be considered a drawback, but we are asked to evaluate on the basis of assessment conducted, so other administrative challenges are irrelevant to the argument.

B. Only a few students who were high performers during their high school days when they had the habit of studying late at night volunteered.
CORRECT. If it is known that only a few students who were high performers during their high school days when they had the habit of studying late at night volunteered in the assessment, this could be a case of a biased sample which may not be representative of the entire university population, and the results of the assessment may not be accurate. Thus if this is true we must be cautious to use the results of the assessment in deciding to implement late start of classes in the morning at the University to improve the performance of the students.

C. Implementing certain state of the art teaching methods would substantially increase the performance of the students, comparable to that observed in the assessment.
INCORRECT. We are not talking about an alternate plan. So this is irrelevant to the argument.

D. The Dean of the University is not in favor of changing the current timing of the classes.
INCORRECT. What the Dean of the University thinks about changing the current time of the class is irrelevant in judging on the basis of the assessment whether to implement late start in class in the morning.

E. Late start of the classes also means that it would be more inconvenient for the students to arrive at the University using the more crowded public transport.
INCORRECT. Again this may very well be another drawback of starting classes late in the morning, but we are not concerned about that. Central to the argument is whether to implement late start of classes in the morning on the basis of the assessment conducted.

[quote="Bunuel"]A team of educational researchers at a University wanted to assess the relation between studying late at night with the performance of the students. Currently the classes at the University start very early in the morning, not encouraging the students to study late at night. However the researchers allowed a group of volunteer students to arrive for their classes late in the morning for a period of three months during which they studied late at night regularly. It was observed that their performance significantly improved.

Which of the following options, if true, would have the strongest grounds against deciding, on the basis of the above assessment, to implement late start of classes in the morning at the University to improve the performance of the students?


A. The late start of the classes would also require significant and inconvenient changes in the timing for the administrative staff.
-This is irrelevant because here we are mainly focusing on the improvement of the students
B. Only a few students who were high performers during their high school days when they had the habit of studying late at night volunteered.
-This is the correct choice. The researchers performed the study on high performing students ,who already had the habit of studying late. Thus the plan worked for them. But to conclude that this plan is going to work the researchers should perform the study on different types of students
C. Implementing certain state of the art teaching methods would substantially increase the performance of the students, comparable to that observed in the assessment.
This is irrelevant as we are focusing here on the teaching method mentioned in the argument
D. The Dean of the University is not in favor of changing the current timing of the classes.
This is out of scope. Whether the dean is favoring or not does not matter if this method is successful
E. Late start of the classes also means that it would be more inconvenient for the students to arrive at the University using the more crowded public transport.
This is also out of scope. The main focus here is on the performance improvement.

IMO, Option B is the correct option.

The reason is that the study participants do not represent a typical student of the university. The students volunteers in the research were students who will benefit from late night studies. Because these few students volunteers benefit from late night study does not mean other students will benefit.

A. The late start of the classes would also require significant and inconvenient changes in the timing for the administrative staff.
Irrelevant. The concern is about the performance of the students

B. Only a few students who were high performers during their high school days when they had the habit of studying late at night volunteered.
*Correct* So the students who volunteered were not only high performing students in high school but also accustomed to late night studying. This may not work out for other students
C. Implementing certain state of the art teaching methods would substantially increase the performance of the students, comparable to that observed in the assessment.
Out of scope. The concern is how late night studying helps

D. The Dean of the University is not in favor of changing the current timing of the classes.
Irrelevant. We hate Deans anyway

E. Late start of the classes also means that it would be more inconvenient for the students to arrive at the University using the more crowded public transport.

Again, this doesnt concern the stem.


B is the best answer

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Conclusion: implementing late start of classes in the morning at the University will improve the performance of the students
Gap: What if volunteers represented only a small fraction of the students who excel with late night studies -> this would harm the majority who excel with early classes.

A. The late start of the classes would also require significant and inconvenient changes in the timing for the administrative staff. - INCORRECT
Does not address the performance of the students

B. Only a few students who were high performers during their high school days when they had the habit of studying late at night volunteered. - CORRECT
This is in line with the gap: The volunteers were those with a habit of late night studying and were also high performers due to this habit.

C. Implementing certain state of the art teaching methods would substantially increase the performance of the students, comparable to that observed in the assessment.-INCORRECT
Nothing about the class timing mentioned here

D. The Dean of the University is not in favor of changing the current timing of the classes.- INCORRECT
Dean's preference affecting the performance of students is not in question

E. Late start of the classes also means that it would be more inconvenient for the students to arrive at the University using the more crowded public transport.- INCORRECT
Inconvenience does not mean the performance would be affected

A team of educational researchers at a University wanted to assess the relation between studying late at night with the performance of the students. Currently the classes at the University start very early in the morning, not encouraging the students to study late at night.
However the researchers allowed a group of volunteer students to arrive for their classes late in the morning for a period of three months during which they studied late at night regularly. It was observed that their performance significantly improved.

Which of the following options, if true, would have the strongest grounds against deciding, on the basis of the above assessment, to implement late start of classes in the morning at the University to improve the performance of the students?



We are NOT concerned with timing of administrative staffs but are concerned with performance of the students.
Incorrect


The statement provide a valid reason that the results of the study was based on a sub-set of students who were already high performer when they studied late at night during high school days. Their performance improvement may be because of their past study habits.
The results may NOT be valid for other students.
Correct


We are NOT conerend with various other methods to improve peformance of the students sicne they can be used alongwith late start of classes.
Incorrect


We are NOT concerned with arbitrary decision by any authority but are concerned with peformance of the students.
Incorrect


We are NOT conerned with convenience of the students but are concerned with improvement in their peformance.
Incorrect

IMO B

We can weaken the argument by proving that just cause few students benefited by the assessment mentioned in the argument, doesn't mean performance of all students will be improved.

A: We're just talking about the students and their performance, so this looks out of scope

B: If this is true, then it means the students who participated in the assessment benefited cause they already had experienced with the late studying. This point weakens the conclusion that all students will benefit from the same - looks like a correct choice

C: We're not talking about style of teaching, just that if we can increase the performance of the students by allowing them study late at night - Out of scope

D: it doesn't matter

E: If coming late at class is keeping their grades up, then their inconvenience is out of scope. We're just discussing the improvements in the grades.

ANSWER B

CONCLUSION: performance significantly improved when students studied late at night and came late to classes

Premise: researchers allowed a group of volunteer students to arrive for their classes late in the morning for a period of three months during which they studied late at night regularly

A. The late start of the classes would also require significant and inconvenient changes in the timing for the administrative staff. Irrelevant to the conclusion. Who cares about the admin staff?

B. Only a few students who were high performers during their high school days when they had the habit of studying late at night volunteered. CORRECT, this means that the group was a biased group

C. Implementing certain state of the art teaching methods would substantially increase the performance of the students, comparable to that observed in the assessment. Comparing methods as to what is better is not relevant to the conclusion

D. The Dean of the University is not in favor of changing the current timing of the classes. Dean not favoring is not support by logic or data so not really a strong arguent

E. Late start of the classes also means that it would be more inconvenient for the students to arrive at the University using the more crowded public transport. the inconvenience of students is not relevant to the conclusion, maybe they would be given special buses, etc.

Answer: A

A team of educational researchers at a University wanted to assess the relation between studying late at night with the performance of the students. Currently the classes at the University start very early in the morning, not encouraging the students to study late at night. However the researchers allowed a group of volunteer students to arrive for their classes late in the morning for a period of three months during which they studied late at night regularly. It was observed that their performance significantly improved.

Which of the following options, if true, would have the strongest grounds against deciding, on the basis of the above assessment, to implement late start of classes in the morning at the University to improve the performance of the students?


A. The late start of the classes would also require significant and inconvenient changes in the timing for the administrative staff. --> Correct. If implementation of late start of classes would cause lot of inconvenience to the administrative staff, then it can be used as deciding factor to go against the late start of classes. After all, administrative staff are the support system of university classes and without administrative staff if would be difficult to manage classes.

B. Only a few students who were high performers during their high school days when they had the habit of studying late at night volunteered. --> Incorrect. Even if this is true, the fact remains that performance of even these high performers was significantly improved. This cannot be the the grounds against deciding to implement late start of classes.

C. Implementing certain state of the art teaching methods would substantially increase the performance of the students, comparable to that observed in the assessment. --> Incorrect. If these teaching methods are combined with late start of classes then performance of students might even improve further than that what was observed in the assessment or what can be achieved via implementing teaching methods. This cannot be the deciding factor to go against the late start of classes.

D. The Dean of the University is not in favor of changing the current timing of the classes. --> Incorrect. Opinion of Dean is irrelevant to the argument. Even if this is true, based on one person's opinion, a decision cannot be made whether to late the classes or not.

E. Late start of the classes also means that it would be more inconvenient for the students to arrive at the University using the more crowded public transport. --> Incorrect. We do not know if what percentage of students use public transport or whether they disapprove of traveling via crowded public transport.