In order to improve the performance of students taking her course, the Statistics professor has introduced a weekly quiz for the new batch that started school this year. So far, she has found that the students’ performance has improved by 5% as compared to the performance of the senior batches in their first year. This improvement is certainly a direct result of her weekly quizzes.
Which of the following, if true, casts the most serious doubt on the conclusion drawn above?
A. Many students who would not have allotted much time to study Statistics are now spending extra time on the subject because of the weekly quizzes.
B. Some of the students in the new batch perform better in Statistics than they do in other subjects.
C. The Statistics textbook prescribed for the introductory course this year is considerably easier to understand than the textbook used previously.
D. In a recent evaluation by the school board, the Statistics professor was ranked the best professor in the school.
E. Most students feel that the weekly quizzes are making it difficult for them to concentrate on other subjects.