After performing poorly on multiple tests and receiving a failing grad

Question

After performing poorly on multiple tests and receiving a failing grade in a particular course, a student appealed the grade to a university's Office of Academic Affairs.

The student claimed that the tests did not cover subject matter highlighted in the class lectures.

Which of the following would be the most useful in determining the validity of the student's claim?

A. Compare the student's test scores with those of other students in the class.

B. Compare the material covered in the professor's lecture notes to the material covered on the test.

C. Compare the student's individual answers to those of a student who received high grades on the tests.

D. Determine whether it is university policy to only test subject material highlighted in course lectures.

E. Compare the student's class notes with the material covered on the test.

IanStewart · Accepted Answer

Everything in the question about the student failing the tests is unimportant. The question asks us to assess the "validity of the student's claim". We need first to identify just what the student's claim is, and the question tells us: "The student claimed that the tests did not cover subject matter highlighted in the class lectures". We need to compare the lecture content with the test content to evaluate that claim, so B is the best answer.

The student's claim has nothing to do with university policy, which is why D is not the right answer.

The student's claim has nothing to do with university policy, which is why D is not the right answer.

OptimusPrepJanielle · Answer

Q>After performing poorly on multiple tests and receiving a failing grade in a particular course, a student appealed the grade to a university's Office of Academic Affairs. The student claimed that the tests did not cover subject matter highlighted in the class lectures.

Which of the following would be the most useful in determining the validity of the student's claim?

The student's claim is that lecture subjects don't match the subjects that are tested. 
A>Compare the student's test scores with those of other students in the class. 
 Test scores won't help to compare test and lecture subjects. 
 B> Compare the material covered in the professor's lecture notes to the material covered on the test. 
 This would be a direct way of comparing the subjects from the lectures and those on the test. 
C>Compare the student's individual answers to those of a student who received high grades on the tests. 
 Individual answers are also out of scope. The area we're considering is the subject matter of the test. 
D>Determine whether it is university policy to only test subject material highlighted in course lectures. 
 True, if this were the policy then the university could be violating it. But first one would need to verify that they were violating it (not testing the same subjects that were covered in the lecture). 
E>Compare the student's class notes with the material covered on the test. Class notes from one student aren't reliable enough.

Nevernevergiveup · Answer

After performing poorly on multiple tests and receiving a failing grade in a particular course, a student appealed the grade to a university's Office of Academic Affairs.

The student claimed that the tests did not cover subject matter highlighted in the class lectures.

The student seems to have concentrated only on highlighted matter in class lectures ignoring non highlighted ones
The tests did not test the highlighted matter in class lectures.

Which of the following would be the most useful in  determining the validity  of the student's claim?

A. Compare the student's test scores with those of other students in the class............ we have no info on 
whether other students failed or not or 
whether other students refer class highlights or anything else.
This cannot help us and is out of scope.

C. Compare the student's individual answers to those of a student who received high grades on the tests............ other students cannot say anything regarding highlights of class and subjects covered in tests. OFS

E. Compare the student's class notes with the material covered on the test............... we have no idea whether student took any notes and what points he noted in it. Highlighted only or everything told in the class. This cannot help us.

B. Compare the material covered in the professor's lecture notes to the material covered on the test. 
 if the comparison matches then student's claim weakens.
if it does not match then student claim gets bolstered.
but  IanStewart

I doubt even
if the comparison matches then still we have no idea whether test and notes covered the highlights or not.

Thus I feel this comparison cannot help to verify the argument.

D. Determine whether it is university policy to only test subject material highlighted in course lectures. 
 if it is university policy then univerist flawed its policy and student is rightful to claim it.
if it is not then he cannot question them n thus statement or conclusion is weakened. 
 can someone explain why B is right and D is wrong for above explanation.

newconcept123 · Answer

I think both B and D have flaws, but B is closer to the argument's scope than D.
In other words, Professor's lecture notes is more important to determine if the test covers all highlighted subjects than University policy.
In B, we need to assume that professor's lecture = all highlighted subjects, for few cases, it is not like this.

Rainman91 · Answer

Hmm... There are lots of debate whether B is 100% airtight. Remember, in CR its incumbent on us to find 4 wrong answers rather than find the 1 right answer. So how do we evaluate and eliminate D for good?

D: Say the policy is YES. Then the student can claim that, "hey! it is a policy so let me off the hook." But that then we'd still have to take an ADDITIONAL step to find out whether the student's claim was right or not.

D: No. Then it really does not help the student's case.

B: YES. The notes were in the professor's book. That means the professor tested the student based on what he taught. If he did not teach ANY material from the notes, then that material was out of syllabus. (Can be evaluated)
B: No. The test did NOT cover content of the professor's notes. Again we can evaluate whether the student was right or wrong.

Hope breaking it down helped a bit more.

RutujaDeshmukh19 · Answer

Let us break down the argument and understand it in a better way:

After performing poorly on multiple tests and receiving a failing grade in a particular course, a student appealed the grade to a university's Office of Academic Affairs (UOAA).  
 
 Student performed poorly on multiple tests. 
 Thus, the student received failing grade. 
 So the student appealed the grade to the UOAA.

The student claimed that the tests did not cover subject matter highlighted in the class lectures. 
 
 Claim: The student says that the tests did not cover the subject matter highlighted in lectures.

The question asks to determine the validity of the student's claim.
 Possible answer: 
Comparison of desired events may prove that the student's claim deviates from the actual situation.

(A) Compare the student's test scores with those of other students in the class. - Incorrect  
 
 This won't be a preferred way to determine the correctness of the student's claim. 
 This method can result in a biased result. 
 If the other student's receive lesser score, there is a possibility that the test had matter out of syllabus. At the same time, it is also possible that all the student's have not studied properly and have thus obtained lower grades.

(B) Compare the material covered in the professor's lecture notes to the material covered on the test. - Correct 
 
 If the lecture notes of the professor and the material covered on the test is same, this means that the test matter was from the lectures covered by the professor. This would mean that the student has not studied well enough. 
 On the other hand, if the lecture notes of the professor and the material covered on the test is different, this would definitely mean that the test matter was not from the lectures covered by the professor. This would leverage the student's claim.

(C) Compare the student's individual answers to those of a student who received high grades on the tests. - Incorrect 
 
 This method should not be preferred. 
 There is a high chance that the result after following this method would be biased. 
 There is a possibility that the student who has scored high on the test is a bright student.

(D) Determine whether it is university policy to only test subject material highlighted in course lectures. - Incorrect 
 
 If it is the university's policy to make a test with subject material highlighted in the course lectures, the student's claim stands baseless, as the student was not well-prepared for the test. 
 If the university's policy is that the test will have material apart from the one highlighted in the course lectures, this means that the student's claim is false.

(E) Compare the student's class notes with the material covered on the test. - Incorrect 
 
 There's a chance that the student's class notes may not cover all the topics covered by a lecturer. 
 Hence, comparing the student's class notes with the material covered on the test would not be a preferred method.

MyMBAClubAccount · Answer

I disagree with your logic here. For (B) if the answrer is no, it still depends on the university policy whether or not the claim is valid. B does just as much leverage as D does to leverage the student's claim.

Overally, this is a poorly worded problem and would likely not appear on the GMAT because there is circular logic here.

MyMBAClubAccount · Answer

I disagree with your logic here, similarly as I described above. For (B) if the answrer is no, it still depends on the university policy whether or not the claim is valid. B does just as much leverage as D does to leverage the student's claim.

For (D) if the university policy is to test material only inside of the lecture, this does not prove that the student was not well-prepared. B and D both require circular logic and both cannot be used on their own.

Overally, this is a poorly worded problem and would likely not appear on the GMAT because there is circular logic here.

napolean92728 · Answer

The correct answer is:
 B. Compare the material covered in the professor's lecture notes to the material covered on the test.

Explanation: 
The student is claiming that the  tests did not cover the subject matter highlighted in the class lectures . Therefore, the  key issue  is whether  the test content is aligned with what was taught in lectures . The best way to verify this is by comparing  lecture notes (which reflect what was taught)  to the  test content .

Eliminating the Wrong Options: 
 A. Compare the student's test scores with those of other students in the class. 
 
 ❌  Irrelevant.  The student's performance relative to others doesn't tell us whether the test covered lecture material. Others might have done well even if the test content wasn't aligned.  
 C. Compare the student's individual answers to those of a student who received high grades on the tests. 
 
 ❌  Irrelevant.  This only shows how two students answered, not whether the test material matched the lectures.  
 D. Determine whether it is university policy to only test subject material highlighted in course lectures. 
 
❌ Why is this not the best answer:  
 This option looks at the  general rules or policies  of the university, not the  specific case  at hand. 
 Even  if the policy says  it's acceptable to include material beyond lectures (e.g., from readings or assignments), it  doesn't disprove  the student's claim that  the test was unfair in practice . 
 Conversely, even  if the policy says  tests should only include lecture material, we would still need to  prove whether that policy was followed , which brings us back to Option B.  
In short: 
  
  D  might be useful  context , but it doesn’t help  prove or disprove  the student’s claim. 
 It is about  what should happen , while  B  is about  what did happen .  
  
 E. Compare the student's class notes with the material covered on the test. 
 
 ❌  Unreliable source.  The student’s own notes may be incomplete or inaccurate. The professor’s lecture notes are a more objective and standardized source.

After performing poorly on multiple tests and receiving a failing grad

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

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

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

After performing poorly on multiple tests and receiving a failing grad

Prep Toolkit

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

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards