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cybera
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Reva: Using extraneous incentives to get teenagers to change their att Updated on: 19 Dec 2018, 05:06
Originally posted by cybera on 14 Jul 2005, 10:40.
Last edited by Bunuel on 19 Dec 2018, 05:06, edited 1 time in total.
Renamed the topic and edited the question.
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E
Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!

Difficulty:

35% (medium)

Question Stats:

67% (01:32) correct 33% (01:44) wrong based on 3522 sessions

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Reva: Using extraneous incentives to get teenagers to change their attitude toward school and schoolwork won’t work. Take the program in West Virginia, for instance, where they tried to reduce their dropout rate by revoking the driving licenses of kids who left school. The program failed miserably.

Anne: It’s true that the West Virginia program failed, but many schools have devised incentive programs that have been very successful in improving attendance and reducing discipline problems.

According to Anne, the weak point in Reva’s claim is that it


(A) fails to consider the possibility that the majority of potential dropouts in West Virginia do not have driving licenses

(B) doesn’t provide any exact figures for the dropout rate in West Virginia before and during the program

(C) ignores a substantial body of evidence showing that parents and employers have been using extrinsic incentives with positive results for years

(D) assumes that a positive incentive—a prize or a reward—will be no more effective than a negative incentive, like the revoking of a driving license

(E) is based on a single example, the incentive program in West Virginia, which may not be typical
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E
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Reva: Using extraneous incentives to get teenagers to change their att 21 Jul 2008, 10:20
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x97agarwal
I always find myself taking longer and performing poorly in these type of CR's. Can anyone offer any advise as to how I may improve in such questions.

Reva: Using extraneous incentives to get teenagers to change their attitude toward school and schoolwork won’t work. Take the program in West Virginia, for instance, where they tried to reduce their dropout rate by revoking the driving licenses of kids who left school. The program failed miserably.
Anne: It’s true that the West Virginia program failed, but many schools have devised incentive programs that have been very successful in improving attendance and reducing discipline problems.

According to Anne, the weak point in Reva’s claim is that it
(A) fails to consider the possibility that the majority of potential dropouts in West Virginia do not have driving licenses -> this is too specific and is not conveyed by anne's response.anne looks at reva's
argument much more than perspective of a driving licence. -> eliminate
(B) doesn’t provide any exact figures for the dropout rate in West Virginia before and during the program -> drop out rates hardly matter and drop out rates is not the point in the argument,point is that the deviced incentive program meant to change teenargers attitude failed -> eliminate
(C) ignores a substantial body of evidence showing that parents and employers have been using extrinsic incentives with positive results for years -> out of scope ,it does not matter to anne what parents think
(D) assumes that a positive incentive—a prize or a reward—will be no more effective than a negative incentive, like the revoking of a driving license -> this is quite close but here REVA does not talk about any positive approach neither does she refute any such .So this does not fully support..
(E) is based on a single example, the incentive program in West Virginia, which may not be typical-> this is apt here since it relates to the given context.Reva takes a simple example to prove the point that devised incentive program never work but anne refutes her and says [color=#FF00FF]but many schools have devised incentive programs that have been very successful this statement itself proves that anne supports her argument over that of REVA with other examples which are opposite to REVA's.> [/color]correct
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Funda in solving CR is just READ READ and READ. :) actually if we read properly the argument answer is just hidden in the argument.I usually follow pOE ,it sort of works.one should eliminate extreme choices.They are never correct.Also dont use ur own brains anywhere .This i learnt.We need to think in a way author thinks any other info other than the one conveyed by author and is related to argument might lead to mistakes and false assumptions and wrong answer. :( I still end up doing mistakes :( anyways just post in the OA for this
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Reva: Using extraneous incentives to get teenagers to change their att 03 May 2013, 13:28
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xahead
Reva: Using extraneous incentives to get teenagers to change their attitude toward school and schoolwork won’t work. Take the program in West Virginia, for instance, where they tried to reduce their dropout rate by revoking the driving licenses of kids who left school. The program failed miserably.
Anne: It’s true that the West Virginia program failed, but many schools have devised incentive programs that have been very successful in improving attendance and reducing discipline problems.
According to Anne, the weak point in Reva’s claim is that it
(A) fails to consider the possibility that the majority of potential dropouts in West Virginia do not have driving licenses
(B) doesn’t provide any exact figures for the dropout rate in West Virginia before and during the program
(C) ignores a substantial body of evidence showing that parents and employers have been using extrinsic incentives with positive results for years
(D) assumes that a positive incentive—a prize or a reward—will be no more effective than a negative incentive, like the revoking of a driving license
(E) is based on a single example, the incentive program in West Virginia, which may not be typical
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fameatop
Hi Mike, I think both options D & E are equally strong. In fact option A is also a good contender. Can you kindly explain how to evaluate these 3 options. Waiting eagerly for your valuable inputs. Regards, Fame
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Fame: first of all, I don't consider this a particularly high quality question. It doesn't strike me as measuring up to the high standards that the GMAT holds on CR questions.

I think a crucial part of this question is the exact wording --- "According to Anne, the weak point in Reva’s claim is ..." ----- in other words, it's not enough simply to find a good weakener. Choices (A) & (D) both would be good weakeners in general, but neither is specifically to the content of what Anne says. Anne says zilch about how many West Virginia students have or don't have driver's licenses --- that's 100% unconnected to what she says ---- (A) is right out. Anne explicitly talks about incentives, but we get no clue from what she says whether the incentives she has in mind are positive or negative. We know Reva cites a negative incentive, but Anne apparently doesn't address the issue of whether incentives are positive or negative. It may be that all the incentives she cites are positive, but we have no way of knowing that. That's why (D), though a brilliant tempting answer, is ultimately untenable.

The OA is (E). Anne explicitly compares the results at West Virginia to the results elsewhere --- "many" schools have had good results with incentives. The word "many" implies those school may well be more typical than West Virginia is.

To summarize --- the fact that the question explicitly says "according to Anne" makes it incumbent on us to give her exact words extraordinary attention.

Does all this make sense?
Mike :-)
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Reva: Using extraneous incentives to get teenagers to change their att 15 Jul 2005, 04:19
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My answer is E.

Ritesh, D is wrong. Let us consider the argument.

Reva's argument can be summed up as follows - she dismisses a methodology (Using extraneous incentives to get teenagers to change their attitude toward school ), and backs it up with an example.

Anne on the other hand, admits that the example is true, but says that there are many instances where the methodology has worked successfully.

She weaken's Reva's argument, by implying that Reva's argument is based on a single example which may not be typical. Thus E

Besides D makes an invalid assumption. None of the two assume a positive incentive.

Hope this helps
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Reva: Using extraneous incentives to get teenagers to change their att 09 Dec 2009, 17:59
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Hi Mike, I think both options D & E are equally strong. In fact option A is also a good contender. Can you kindly explain how to evaluate these 3 options. Waiting eagerly for your valuable inputs. Regards, Fame
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Reva: Using extraneous incentives to get teenagers to change their att 19 Dec 2018, 04:57
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Although Anne agrees with Reva that the West Virginia program failed, she (Anne) does not agree that extraneous incentives won’t work in changing teenagers’ attitudes. Anne indicates that the weak point in the argument is the fact that West Virginia issue is a single example and the incentive program proved worthwhile in other places.Hence (e).
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Reva: Using extraneous incentives to get teenagers to change their att 07 Aug 2024, 18:03
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Reva: Using extraneous incentives to get teenagers to change their attitude toward school and schoolwork won’t work. Take the program in West Virginia, for instance, where they tried to reduce their dropout rate by revoking the driving licenses of kids who left school. The program failed miserably.

Anne: It’s true that the West Virginia program failed, but many schools have devised incentive programs that have been very successful in improving attendance and reducing discipline problems.

According to Anne, the weak point in Reva’s claim is that it


(A) fails to consider the possibility that the majority of potential dropouts in West Virginia do not have driving licenses

(B) doesn’t provide any exact figures for the dropout rate in West Virginia before and during the program

(C) ignores a substantial body of evidence showing that parents and employers have been using extrinsic incentives with positive results for years

(D) assumes that a positive incentive—a prize or a reward—will be no more effective than a negative incentive, like the revoking of a driving license

(E) is based on a single example, the incentive program in West Virginia, which may not be typical
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­Let's try to address the Anne's conclusion first, "It’s true that the West Virginia program failed, but many schools have devised incentive programs that have been very successful in improving attendance and reducing discipline problems." . The conclusion refutes argument on the fact that one bad instance cannot be implied as general principle.

A) fails to consider the possibility that the majority of potential dropouts in West Virginia do not have driving licenses - No, this explanation may be true but this is not what anne used to refute reva's claim

B) doesn’t provide any exact figures for the dropout rate in West Virginia before and during the program - The question in discussion is a logical (Yes/No) question. Why does it need absolute numbers. Also, this is not what anne used to refute reva's claim

C) ignores a substantial body of evidence showing that parents and employers have been using extrinsic incentives with positive results for years - out of scope

D) assumes that a positive incentive—a prize or a reward—will be no more effective than a negative incentive, like the revoking of a driving license - This option compares an extraneous incentive to positive incentive, which is not the case anne presents. So eliminated

E) is based on a single example, the incentive program in West Virginia, which may not be typical - Correct, The conclusion refutes argument on the fact that one bad instance cannot be implied as general principle and apply it to all situations.
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Reva: Using extraneous incentives to get teenagers to change their att 03 Dec 2024, 09:06
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Quote:
Reva: Using extraneous incentives to get teenagers to change their attitude toward school and schoolwork won’t work. Take the program in West Virginia, for instance, where they tried to reduce their dropout rate by revoking the driving licenses of kids who left school. The program failed miserably.

Anne: It’s true that the West Virginia program failed, but many schools have devised incentive programs that have been very successful in improving attendance and reducing discipline problems.

According to Anne, the weak point in Reva’s claim is that it


(A) fails to consider the possibility that the majority of potential dropouts in West Virginia do not have driving licenses

(B) doesn’t provide any exact figures for the dropout rate in West Virginia before and during the program

(C) ignores a substantial body of evidence showing that parents and employers have been using extrinsic incentives with positive results for years

(D) assumes that a positive incentive—a prize or a reward—will be no more effective than a negative incentive, like the revoking of a driving license

(E) is based on a single example, the incentive program in West Virginia, which may not be typical
Show more

Reva:
Conclusion: When it comes to changing teens’ attitudes towards school, external incentives won’t work.
Supporting Evidence: The licence-revoking program in West Virginia failed miserably.

Anne:
Counterpoint: While that particular program failed, many schools have devised very successful programs with the same goal.

A. Irrelevant. We don’t need to know why it failed if we know that it failed.
B. Irrelevant. Again, it’s specified that the WV program failed, so that’s all we need. We don’t have to prove it.
C. Irrelevant. We’re talking about schools, not parents or employers.
D. Irrelevant. Neither speaker differentiates between positive and negative incentives.
E. Reva’s argument is based on a single example. Anne’s counter is that there are many other examples that wouldn’t support Reva’s conclusion. This is correct.
Best answer: E
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