There are people who object to students taking tuitions. They point ou

Question

There are people who object to students taking tuitions. They point out that since 2005, the grades of students who took tuitions have been significantly lower than the grades of students who did not take such tuitions. Therefore, for schools, students taking tuitions is a bad idea and lowers the reputation of the schools.

Which of the following, if true, is the most effective challenge to the critics of tuitions by outside teachers?

A. Apart from the grades secured by students, there are multiple reasons that affect the reputation of a school.
B. The students whose grades were highest prior to 2005 are the only students who did not take tuitions.
C. The admissions to many schools whose students take tuitions from outside have fallen somewhat since 2005.
D. School authorities cannot force a student to drop tuitions even if the student does not secure good grades in school assignments.
E. The system of giving grades has become lenient in almost all schools since 2005.

Shivin9500 · Answer

Request you to explain why B is the correct answer.

nav1995 · Answer

Can anyone please explain?
 GMATNinja  ?

Carcass · Answer

Critics' Claim:
- Since 2005, students who took tuitions had significantly lower grades than those who didn't.
- Therefore, tuitions are a bad idea and lower schools' reputations.

Goal:
Find an option that most effectively challenges this criticism by providing an alternative explanation or undermining the causality implied by the critics.

Analyzing Each Option
Option A: Apart from grades, there are multiple reasons that affect the reputation of a school.
- Impact: Weak. It suggests grades aren't the only factor, but doesn't address why tuition students have lower grades or whether tuitions are harmful.
- Conclusion: Doesn't directly challenge the critics.

Option B: The students whose grades were highest prior to 2005 are the only students who did not take tuitions.
- Impact: Strong. Implies that higher-achieving students already avoided tuitions, so the lower grades of tuition students might reflect pre-existing differences (e.g., weaker students seek tuitions) rather than tuitions causing lower grades.
- Conclusion: Undermines the causality (tuitions $ \rightarrow $ lower grades) by suggesting self-selection bias.

Option C: *Admissions to schools with tuition-taking students have fallen since 2005.*
- Impact: Irrelevant. This aligns with critics' concerns (lower reputation $ \rightarrow $ fewer admissions) but doesn't challenge their reasoning.
- Conclusion: Supports critics, doesn't challenge them.

Option D: Schools cannot force students to drop tuitions even if they perform poorly.
- Impact: Neutral. Discusses schools' control over tuitions but doesn't address the grade disparity or causality.
- Conclusion: Doesn't challenge the core argument.

Option E: Grading has become lenient in almost all schools since 2005.
- Impact: Weak. If grading is lenient, why do tuition students still have lower grades? Doesn't explain the disparity.
- Conclusion: Doesn't directly refute the critics.

Why Option B is the Best Challenge
The critics assume that tuitions cause lower grades. Option B introduces an alternative explanation:
- Higher-achieving students (who already had good grades) avoided tuitions, while struggling students (who had lower grades) sought tuitions.
- Thus, the grade disparity reflects student ability, not the effect of tuitions. This breaks the causal link the critics rely on.

Why Other Options Fail
- A, D, E: Don't address the causality or provide plausible alternatives.
- C: Aligns with critics, making it ineffective as a challenge.

Final Answer
B. The students whose grades were highest prior to 2005 are the only students who did not take tuitions.

This option most effectively challenges the critics by suggesting that the correlation (tuitions + lower grades) is due to self-selection bias, not causation.

Correct Answer: B

princevora · Answer

students who do not need tuitions are the ones that are very good at studies. And the not so good ones take tuitions so, students taking tuitions score lower.

Smedhi · Answer

Can we interchange cause and effect in doing weakening questions? As i see in option B

ManifestDreamMBA · Answer

There are people who object to students taking tuitions. They point out that since 2005, the grades of students who took tuitions have been significantly lower than the grades of students who did not take such tuitions.  Therefore, for schools, students taking tuitions is a bad idea and lowers the reputation of the schools.

Which of the following, if true, is the most effective challenge to the critics of tuitions by outside teachers?

A. Apart from the grades secured by students, there are multiple reasons that affect the reputation of a school.  Irrelevant 
B. The students whose grades were highest prior to 2005 are the only students who did not take tuitions.  This makes sense. It suggests that people who took tuitions didn't score well anyway and hence, they need tuition after all. And hence, this might not be bad for school reputation. 
C. The admissions to many schools whose students take tuitions from outside have fallen somewhat since 2005.  Irrelevant 
D. School authorities cannot force a student to drop tuitions even if the student does not secure good grades in school assignments.  Irrelevant 
E. The system of giving grades has become lenient in almost all schools since 2005.  Irrelevant

Kushnomics · Answer

B. The students whose grades were highest prior to 2005 are the only students who did not take tuitions.
Aha! This shows selection bias.

It suggests: Maybe the students not taking tuition were already top performers.

So the comparison is unfair — of course, they had higher grades.

This directly challenges the assumption that tuitions caused the low performance.

There are people who object to students taking tuitions. They point ou

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There are people who object to students taking tuitions. They point ou

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

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