The schools of Madison county perpetually face repetitive cases

Question

The schools of Madison county perpetually face repetitive cases of grave indiscipline. Experience indicates that prolonged periods of detention is the most effective way to curbing indiscipline. However, lately, the parents of the schoolchildren have formed an association and have threatened to withdraw their wards from the schools if their wards are meted out long detention periods. Therefore, these schools have decided that the best way to curb such cases of indiscipline is to levy significantly heavy fines.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the schools’ decision depends?

A. 
Instilling discipline in students is one of the primary objectives of an educational institution.

B. A system of assigning additional homework to students will not deter most repeat offenders from committing acts that amount to insubordination in the eyes of school authorities.

C. Most parents of students who are repeat offenders are motivated to tackle the indiscipline issues at home.

D. 
The school administration has tried numerous means of addressing the grave disciplinary issues over the past few years.

E. 
Many schools in the neighbouring counties have tried the system of fining their students for indiscipline and found it greatly effective.

rohit8865 · Answer

The schools of Madison county perpetually face repetitive cases of grave indiscipline. Experience indicates that prolonged periods of detention is the most effective way to curbing indiscipline. However, lately, the parents of the schoolchildren have formed an association and have threatened to withdraw their wards from the schools if their wards are meted out long detention periods. Therefore, these schools have decided that the best way to curb such cases of indiscipline is to levy significantly heavy fines.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the schools’ decision depends?

A. 
Instilling discipline in students is one of the primary objectives of an educational institution.... we r not concerned with schools objective..Out of scope

B. A system of assigning additional homework to students will not deter most repeat offenders from committing acts that amount to insubordination in the eyes of school authorities...CORRECT......no other means will work rather fine those indisciplined ones..

C. Most parents of students who are repeat offenders are motivated to tackle the indiscipline issues at home...what parents do at home is out of scope

D. 
The school administration has tried numerous means of addressing the grave disciplinary issues over the past few years.... trying numerous means is out of scope /may include fines also

E. 
Many schools in the neighbouring counties have tried the system of fining their students for indiscipline and found it greatly effective. ..this actually strengthens the argument but not any assumption

Ans B

warrior1991 · Answer

GMATNinja   VeritasKarishma   egmat

We should find an answer which states that no other means will work .

In option B there is only one such case(assigning homework) that did not work. Why are we assuming this as an answer??

The answer should clearly say that NO OTHER MEANS WORKED.

In my point of view this is not a good question.

Please correct me If I am wrong.

KarishmaB · Answer

The conclusion says that "heavy fines" is the best way (not the only way). Experience indicated that detention was the most effective way. But parents are against it. So now the school thinks that heavy fines is the best way. 
This does not imply that no other solution will be partially or mostly effective. "Best" could mean that heavy fines could be completely effective. 
Hence, I don't see how (B) is an assumption. Even if (B) were true, conclusion could still hold and best way could still be heavy fines.

By the way, if the argument had stated that levying heavy fines is the only way forward, then (B) would have been an assumption. Then there would have been many assumptions - extra HW is not a solution, a subject on discipline is not a solution, peer pressure tactics will not work etc

EpilepticLearner · Answer

Method 1 is the most effective way. We exclude method 1 and method 2 becomes the best alternative. (B) being true does not change the conclusion in any way.

dhruvasv5 · Answer

If additional homework deters students from committing crime, then that could be a cheaper and hence best solution. Hence B.

EpilepticLearner · Answer

Yes  that could be . That's an additional assumption you make.

VerbalBot · Answer

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The schools of Madison county perpetually face repetitive cases

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