Quote:
Politician: The current crisis in mathematics education must be overcome if we are to remain competitive in the global economy. Alleviating this crisis requires the employment of successful teaching methods. No method of teaching a subject can succeed that does not get students to spend a significant amount of time outside of class studying that subject.
Hi Folks,
This is a good example of necessity vs sufficient condition.
Premise 1: Current condition-crisis in mathematics education
Premise 2: Aim-remain competitive in global economy.
Premise 3: Solution-employ successful teaching method.
Premise 4: Condition-No method of teaching could succeed without students spending significant amount of time outside class studying that subject.
There is no conclusion in the argument. Probably, we will be asked to draw one.
Trigger points: No method.... As soon as we see such a statement, it should raise a red flag as a condition is about to follow. Identify what type of condition it is. In this case it is a necessary condition because it
also depends upon teaching method. X AND Y lead to Z.
Question statement: Which one of the following statements follows logically from the statements above?
So we are asked to
draw a conclusion.
Quote:
(A) If students spend a significant amount of time outside of class studying mathematics, the current crisis in mathematics education will be overcome.
A TRAP statement. This statement makes a given necessary condition to a sufficient one.
Loser.
Quote:
(B) The current crisis in mathematics education will not be overcome unless students spend a significant amount of time outside of class studying mathematics.
Absolutely true. Spending significant time outside class is a necessary condition and unless it is true, one will not overcome the current crisis.
Contender.
Quote:
(C) Few subjects are as important as mathematics to the effort to remain competitive in the global economy.
Well, they could or could not be. we do not care.
LoserQuote:
(D) Only if we succeed in remaining competitive in the global economy will students spend a significant amount of time outside of class studying mathematics.
Now this option presents another condition but we cannot derive this from the information presented to us.
LoserQuote:
(E) Students’ spending a significant amount of time outside of class studying mathematics would help us to remain competitive in the global economy.
No it will not. It is one of the two necessary conditions to alleviate crisis in mathematics education NOT to remain competitive in global economy.
LoserSo,
B is the best option to choose.
Note: Necessity vs sufficient conditions could be easily understood if you have the basic knowledge of AND and OR logical gates. This could be really simple for someone from engineering background.
Just treat Necessary condition as
AND operation and sufficient as
OR operation. This makes things way easier than they are.