Forum Home > GMAT > Quantitative > Problem Solving (PS)
Events & Promotions
|
|
GMAT Club Daily Prep
Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.
Customized
for You
Track
Your Progress
Practice
Pays
Not interested in getting valuable practice questions and articles delivered to your email? No problem, unsubscribe here.
Dec 1511:00 AM IST
-01:00 PM IST
Attend this free GMAT Algebra Webinar and learn how to master the most challenging Inequalities and Absolute Value problems with ease.
Dec 1608:00 AM PST
-11:59 PM PST
GMAT Club 12 Days of Christmas is a 4th Annual GMAT Club Winter Competition based on solving questions. This is the Winter GMAT competition on GMAT Club with an amazing opportunity to win over $40,000 worth of prizes!- Dec 17
09:00 AM PST
-10:00 AM PST
Join Manhattan Prep instructor Whitney Garner for a fun—and thorough—review of logic-based (non-math) problems, with a particular emphasis on Data Sufficiency and Two-Parts. - Dec 18
10:00 AM PST
-11:00 AM PST
Here is the essential guide to securing scholarships as an MBA student! In this video, we explore the various types of scholarships available, including need-based and merit-based options. - Dec 21
11:00 AM IST
-01:00 PM IST
Do RC/MSR passages scare you? e-GMAT is conducting a masterclass to help you learn – Learn effective reading strategies Tackle difficult RC & MSR with confidence Excel in timed test environment
Updated on: 15 Jan 2019, 05:28
Originally posted by Swagatalakshmi on 26 Nov 2006, 15:20.
Last edited by Bunuel on 15 Jan 2019, 05:28, edited 1 time in total.
Last edited by Bunuel on 15 Jan 2019, 05:28, edited 1 time in total.
Renamed the topic, edited the question and added the OA.
Kudos
Bookmarks
B
Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!
Difficulty:
65%
(hard)
Question Stats:
51% (01:35) correct
49%
(01:41)
wrong
based on 493
sessions
History
Date
Time
Result
Not Attempted Yet
Parents often criticize schools for not doing their job. Many blame schools for low student achievement scores. Surprisingly, the most frequent and vociferous complaints come from those who live in districts where the achievement scores are high.
All of the following, considered individually, help to explain the apparent paradox EXCEPT:
A. Parents from districts of high achievers are very involved with the schools and are, therefore, more likely to make critical comments.
B. Parents have no knowledge of their district's own scores.
C. High scores cause parents' expectations to rise leading parents to demand that students achieve even more.
D. High-scoring districts contain low-achieving students whose parents are likely to complain when their children score below the local average.
E. Most complaints about schools come from political activists, most of whom live in high-achieving districts.
All of the following, considered individually, help to explain the apparent paradox EXCEPT:
A. Parents from districts of high achievers are very involved with the schools and are, therefore, more likely to make critical comments.
B. Parents have no knowledge of their district's own scores.
C. High scores cause parents' expectations to rise leading parents to demand that students achieve even more.
D. High-scoring districts contain low-achieving students whose parents are likely to complain when their children score below the local average.
E. Most complaints about schools come from political activists, most of whom live in high-achieving districts.
10 Dec 2012, 05:50
Kudos
Bookmarks
Swagatalakshmi
Parents often criticize schools for not doing their job. Many blame schools for low student achievement scores. Surprisingly, the most frequent and vociferous complaints come from those who live in districts where the achievement scores are high.
All of the following, considered individually, help to explain the apparent paradox EXCEPT:
A. Parents from districts of high achievers are very involved with the schools and are, therefore, more likely to make critical comments.
B. Parents have no knowledge of their district's own scores.
C. High scores cause parents' expectations to rise leading parents to demand that students achieve even more.
D. High-scoring districts contain low-achieving students whose parents are likely to complain when their children score below the local average.
E. Most complaints about schools come from political activists, most of whom live in high-achieving districts.
All of the following, considered individually, help to explain the apparent paradox EXCEPT:
A. Parents from districts of high achievers are very involved with the schools and are, therefore, more likely to make critical comments.
B. Parents have no knowledge of their district's own scores.
C. High scores cause parents' expectations to rise leading parents to demand that students achieve even more.
D. High-scoring districts contain low-achieving students whose parents are likely to complain when their children score below the local average.
E. Most complaints about schools come from political activists, most of whom live in high-achieving districts.
Responding to a pm:
It is actually not very tricky. I am surprised that many people were taken aback. The only reason I can think of is that they did not understand the argument properly.
The argument says that parents blame the schools for low scores. The question is - whose low scores? their wards' low scores. The parents blame the school for not-so-good performance of their own children. The surprising thing is that most of these parents come from high achieving districts i.e. their wards go to schools which produce better than average results. You would expect that parents of students studying in schools producing better results would be happier.
Hence, here is the paradox.
What can you say to explain this paradox?
Say, most of the toppers come from school A (a fancy private school). The local govt got 50 school complaints this year. Say, 40 of them were from from parents of students studying in school A. How can you explain this?
I can think of various things - Parents who send their kids to school A expect very high scores from their children. Parents see that their kids' classmates are getting very high scores so they are unhappy about avg scores of their own kids. When children get 80%, parents get greedy and want 90% so they complain. etc
We will look at options B and E:
B. Parents have no knowledge of their district's own scores.
It doesn't explain why parents of students studying in school A (just as an example) complain the most. They don't know the school's avg score. So what? Even if they do know that the school's avg is high, it doesn't matter. They will still complain about their children's scores. It doesn't explain why parents of this school are most unhappy about their children's score. Even if they know that the school avg is high, it will not make them happy about their kids' performance. Does not explain the paradox. Is the answer.
E. Most complaints about schools come from political activists, most of whom live in high-achieving districts.
This explains the paradox. Who are the most critical parents? Political activists. They live in high achieving districts (e.g. their children go to school A). The political activists are the most vocal. Wherever they go, they will complain. Since their kids go to school A, they complain about school A. This explains the paradox that most complaints come from school A even though the results there are good.
Answer B
General Discussion
Archit143
Joined: 21 Sep 2012
Last visit: 20 Sep 2016
Posts: 725
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 70
Status:Final Lap Up!!!
Affiliations: NYK Line
Location: India
Schools: Cox '16 (S) AGSM '16 Tulane '16 (S) McCombs '16 (S) Neeley '16 (S) Jones '16 (S) ISB '15 (D) MIT-LGO '16 (M)
GMAT 1: 410 Q35 V11
GMAT 2: 530 Q44 V20
GMAT 3: 630 Q45 V31
GPA: 3.84
WE:Engineering (Transportation)
Schools: Cox '16 (S) AGSM '16 Tulane '16 (S) McCombs '16 (S) Neeley '16 (S) Jones '16 (S) ISB '15 (D) MIT-LGO '16 (M)
GMAT 3: 630 Q45 V31
Posts: 725
Kudos:
1,957
06 Dec 2012, 07:25
Kudos
Bookmarks
Swagatalakshmi
Parents often criticize schools for not doing their job. Many blame schools for low student achievement scores. Surprisingly, the most frequent and vociferous complaints come from those who live in districts where the achievement scores are high.
All of the following, considered individually, help to explain the apparent paradox EXCEPT:
A. Parents from districts of high achievers are very involved with the schools and are, therefore, more likely to make critical comments.
B. Parents have no knowledge of their district's own scores.
C. High scores cause parents' expectations to rise leading parents to demand that students achieve even more.
D. High-scoring districts contain low-achieving students whose parents are likely to complain when their children score below the local average.
E. Most complaints about schools come from political activists, most of whom live in high-achieving districts.
All of the following, considered individually, help to explain the apparent paradox EXCEPT:
A. Parents from districts of high achievers are very involved with the schools and are, therefore, more likely to make critical comments.
B. Parents have no knowledge of their district's own scores.
C. High scores cause parents' expectations to rise leading parents to demand that students achieve even more.
D. High-scoring districts contain low-achieving students whose parents are likely to complain when their children score below the local average.
E. Most complaints about schools come from political activists, most of whom live in high-achieving districts.
The paradox is "The Parents from most achieving district complain most frequently."
We have to find an answer that explains the paradox.
I feel that E does not explain the paradox in anyway it just mentions that most complaints come from the political activists, most of whom live in high achieving districts. I agree that political activist may be parents of students but we need an answer why these activist are doing.if we assume that these activists are the parents we are just presenting an example of the paradox presented in the question.
Whereas B to some extends solves the paradox. It states that parents have no knowledge of the own districts's score. Consider if a parent does not know about the marks scored by other students in class than he can either complain about the score or he cannot. If he does than it solves our paradox. In case of E it just says political activists (may or may not be parents) complains about the low score..........................
