Traditionally, students at Kelly University have evaluated professors

Question

Traditionally, students at Kelly University have evaluated professors on the last day of class. But some professors at Kelly either do not distribute the paper evaluation forms or do so selectively, and many students cannot attend the last of day of class. Soon, students will be able to use school computers to evaluate their professors at any time during the semester. Therefore evaluations under the new system will accurately reflect the distribution of student opinion about teaching performance.

Which one of the following is an assumption required by the argument?

(A) Professors who distribute the paper evaluation forms selectively distribute them only to students they personally like
(B) Student can wisely and insightfully asses a professor’s performance before the end of the semester
(C) The traditional system for evaluating teaching performance should not be used at any university
(D) Nearly all professors who fail to distribute the paper evaluation forms do so because they believe the students will evaluate them unfavorably 
(E) Dissatisfied students are in general not more likely than satisfied student to submit a computerized evaluation

Source: LSAT

US09 · Accepted Answer

IMO E.

The conclusion states that the computerised system will be able to capture "accurate distribution of student opinion" now that the professors cannot choose their students or do away with the process completely.

A. It is tempting but gives no information whether the students they like also represent accurate distribution of student opinion or not. For example, in a class of 100, 90% rate the teacher favourably and 10% unfavourably and of the 10 students selected by the teacher, 9 rate her favourably and 1 rates her unfavourably then the students selected give the accurate distribution, otherwise not. No such information provided. Incorrect.

B. The conclusion is about the "distribution of student opinion" and not about "the accuracy of student opinion". Even if they accurately evaluate or not has got nothing to do with our conclusion. Incorrect.

C. Irrelevant. Incorrect.

D. Tempting. But again no information provided about how such students actually end up rating the professors in the term of "distribution of opinion". This just states a reason why professors do not distribute. Not what actually happens. Does not hit the conclusion. Incorrect.

E. If those who are rate the professors negatively are more likely to submit the feedback, then the distribution of opinion will be skewed and not accurate. Negation breaks down the conclusion. Correct.

Arro44 · Answer

I feel like the choice should be E;

Incase unhappy students are significantly more likely to cast their vote, the new system would lead to a wrong distribution of the opinion of the overall student body as the results would be scewed towards the negative side.

I found the answer choices A and D very tempting too, but they are both dealing with how the rating process used to be and are thus somewhat out of scope.

B & C are quite judgemental and I thus outlined them quite quickly.
C is very irrelevant, whereas B might lure you into thinking the students ability to judge the professors in insightfully has relevance to the question.

To quote Admiral Akbar concerning point B:

"Its a trap"

Regards,
Chris

Regards, Chris

amresh09 · Answer

Premise - Students evaluate professor on last day of the semester. This evaluation is not okay as some professors do not submit evaluation paper or they give it to selected students. In addition many students do not attend last day of the class. Now, Computer based evaluation is available throughout the semester.
Conclusion - With this new change evaluation will be accurate.
Assumptions - 1. All the professors evaluation forms will be available. 
2. Students evaluating professors performance during the semester is good enough as that of evaluation done on the last day. 
3. Students won't be selective in computer based evaluation.

Which one of the following is an assumption required by the argument?

(A) Professors who distribute the paper evaluation forms selectively distribute them only to students they personally like - Same as Premise. It's not an assumption. 
(B) Student can wisely and insightfully asses a professor’s performance before the end of the semester - Correct. Students don't need to wait for the last day. They can evaluate on any day during the semester. Negate: Students cannot wisely and insightfully asses a professor's performance before the end of the semester. This means evaluation won't be good enough as many students cannot attend the last day of the class. 
(C) The traditional system for evaluating teaching performance should not be used at any university - Irrelevant. we are not concerned with any other university. 
(D) Nearly all professors who fail to distribute the paper evaluation forms do so because they believe the students will evaluate them unfavorably - But it is not supporting the cause why computer based evaluation will be accurate. 
(E) Dissatisfied students are in general not more likely than satisfied student to submit a computerized evaluation - Negate: Dissatisfied students are in general more likely than satisfied students to submit a computerized evaluation which means results may or may not be accurate.

GmatDaddy · Answer

Traditionally, students at Kelly University have evaluated professors on the last day of class. But some professors at Kelly either do not distribute the paper evaluation forms or do so selectively, and many students cannot attend the last of day of class. Soon, students will be able to use school computers to evaluate their professors at any time during the semester. Therefore  evaluations under the new system will accurately reflect the distribution of student opinion about teaching performance .

Which one of the following is an assumption required by the argument?

(A) Professors who distribute the paper evaluation forms selectively distribute them only to students they personally like
 Does not affect our conclusion. Drop it.

(B) Student can wisely and insight-fully asses a professor’s performance before the end of the semester
while the students can fill up the forms anytime, the author hopes that they are able to assess the performance correctly by the end of semester. Negating this will destroy   the conclusion that they will  accurately  be able to assess. Keep it.

(C) The traditional system for evaluating teaching performance should not be used at any university
 Irrelevant. Drop it.

(D) Nearly all professors who fail to distribute the paper evaluation forms do so because they believe the students will evaluate them unfavorably
 Irrelevant Drop it.

(E) Dissatisfied students are in general not more likely than satisfied student to submit a computerized evaluation 
 Negating this will give that the Dissatisfied students are in general as or less likely than satisfied student to submit a computerized evaluation. but this will not affect the accurate  distribution  of student opinion. Dissatisfied will still be. only the satisfied will be less. None the less. the distribution will be tiletled towards dissatisfaction but accurate. Drop it.

Answer: B

redskull1 · Answer

Close between B & E.

Not B because of the reasons urvashis09 mentioned.Spot on explanation

Ashank07 · Answer

This is a difficult Assumption question that requires you to pay particular attention to the wording of the conclusion. The argument here is that the computerized evaluations will “accurately reflect the distribution of student opinion.” For this statement to be true, it is necessary that the students who do fill out the evaluations are representative of all other students (so that an accurate reflection of all students gets presented). That is, if none of the very disappointed or very pleased students respond, then the evaluations will not accurately reflect everyone. So all types of students need to respond, and they need to respond honestly.

Answer choice (A): The conclusion is about the computerized evaluations, not the paper evaluations, so this answer choice cannot be correct.

Answer choice (B): This is a tempting wrong answer choice, but keep in mind that the conclusion is not about whether the evaluations will be correct in their assessment, but merely that they will accurately reflect how all of the students truly feel.

Answer choice (C): Whether or not the paper evaluation system should ever be used is not necessary to the argument about the representativeness of the new computerized system.

Answer choice (D): The motivation of professors who do not distribute the paper evaluations is unrelated to the argument about computerized evaluation representativeness.

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice. As mentioned above, this shows that there is no a tendency for a certain type of student to submit evaluations more frequently than other students. Negated, this answer choice would strongly attack the conclusion by showing that dissatisfied students will submit evaluations more often, and thus the overall reflection of student opinion will seem more negative than it actually is (and therefore not accurately reflect student opinion).

CounterSniper · Answer

Conclusion 
evaluations under the new system will accurately reflect the  distribution of student opinion  about teaching performance

There should not be any skew in the distribution of student opinion.
E tells us that Dissatisfied students are at most as likely as the satisfied students to submit evaluation.

E for me as well.

nightblade354 · Answer

Good job,  urvashis09 ! You have earned the Kudos for this one with your great explanation! OA is (E)!

US09 · Answer

Thank you for sharing good questions!

Mizar18 · Answer

Evidence:  Soon, students will be able to use school computers to evaluate their professors at any time during the semester.

Conclusion:  Evaluations under the new system will  accurately reflect the distribution of student opinion  about teaching performance.

As you can see the conclusion jumps from  the fact that the students will be able to evaluate professors at any time  to  the fact that the new system will accurately reflect the distribution of student opinion .

(B) Student can wisely and insightfully asses a professor’s performance before the end of the semester

That students are "able" to asses performance before the end of the semester does not help assuring that the system  will accurately reflect the distribution of student opinion .

(E) Dissatisfied students are in general not more likely than satisfied student to submit a computerized evaluation

To assure that  the new system will accurately reflect the distribution of student opinion  you need to assume that there will be no "bias" recollecting the evaluations, so by saying that dissatisfied students are no more likely to submit an evaluation, you eliminate that bias.

Best,

ChuHoaiNam2505 · Answer

Hi Nightblade,

I have a concern relating to answer E.

The conclusion is Therefore evaluations under the new system will  accurately  reflect the distribution of student opinion about teaching performance.

(E) Dissatisfied students are in general not more likely than satisfied student to submit a computerized evaluation.

In my understanding, E means that Satisfied student are more likely to submit a computerized evaluation. If satisfied students are more likely to do so, whether the new system  accurately  reflect the distribution of student opinion or it will be bias toward the satisfied students?

lakshya14 · Answer

If dissatisfied students are less likely to give the assessment on the computer than satisfied students, then it would create a false positive report of the teacher. Which is not an accurate report for which we are trying to locate? Whereas, in (B), it is giving in telling us that students are wise enough to give an accurate assessment.

CEdward · Answer

Am I missing something here? The distribution DIRECTLY depends on the accuracy of assessments. Take the extreme. Suppose everyone gave the prof a 1...then your distribution is heavily right skewed. So we can see that if students CANNOT wisely assess the performance, then the conclusion that evaluations under the new system will ACCURATELY reflect the distribution gets thrown out the window.

E is also acceptable as others have mentioned, but I don't see clearly why B is wrong.

MBAB123 · Answer

Hey CEdward , here is why I think B is wrong - The new system doesn't say that student's need to submit the evaluation before the end of the semester. They can do so at the last day. I would also like to highlight the problems solved by the new system - 1. Selective or no distribution of forms - No such distribution would happen now. 2. Not attending the last day of class? No worries, just go to the computer and fill out the form or do it before hand. Hope this helps!

Fdambro294 · Answer

To piggy back on  Brian123  great post,

It’s a really subtle shift between answer choice B and the actual conclusion given.

The conclusion is concerned with the opinions’ “accuracy” - it is not really necessary for the students to be able to make wise and insightful opinions. The author is focused on whether these submitted opinions accurately represent the students’ opinions (even if what is said is wise and insightful or rude and incomplete).

If only dissatisfied students are sending in evaluations, we end up with a skewed perception of what the opinions really are. We are missing out on all the other opinions that may be positive. Under this scenario, the author’s argument that the new system accurately reflects the student opinions is weakened.

Posted from my mobile device

VerbalBot · Answer

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Traditionally, students at Kelly University have evaluated professors

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