Arts advocate: Few universities require that students who are speciali

Question

Arts advocate: Few universities require that students who are specializing in science and technology take many art courses. However, real progress in science and technology requires an element of creativity, which the arts foster. Thus, to help science and technology students succeed in their careers, universities should increase the number of art courses required for them.

Which of the following would, if true, most strengthen the argument above?

A. Universities required more art courses for science and technology students in the past.
B. Participation in art courses increases students' creative thinking in their science and technology courses.
C. More students who are interested in art would specialize in science and technology if the number of art courses required for those programs were increased.
D. Some of the most prominent scientists began their careers as artists.
E. Discussion of science and technology topics in art courses increases creative thinking among students in those courses.

CR700041.01
OG2020 NEW QUESTION

KarishmaB · Accepted Answer

Few (which means barely any) univs require art courses for science students.
Real progress in science and technology requires an element of creativity.
Arts foster creativity.

Conclusion: To help science and technology students succeed, universities should increase the number of art courses required for them.

The argument tells us that science needs creativity and arts foster creativity. We need to strengthen introducing art courses for science students.

A. Universities required more art courses for science and technology students in the past.

What was required in the past is irrelevant.

B. Participation in art courses increases students' creative thinking in their science and technology courses.

Correct. Art courses increase creativity. Creativity helps science students. So introducing art courses would be useful to help science students succeed.

C. More students who are interested in art would specialize in science and technology if the number of art courses required for those programs were increased.

More or less students has no relevance to our argument. We need to help science students do better.

D. Some of the most prominent scientists began their careers as artists.

Irrelevant.

E. Discussion of science and technology topics in art courses increases creative thinking among students in those courses.

Our argument talks about discussion of art for science students to increase their creativity. How discussion of science in arts courses helps students of arts courses, we do not care. The point is how discussion of art can help.

Answer (B)

OhsostudiousMJ · Answer

Hi, lemme help.
Yes, it is given that arts foster creativity, but what would give the students that art coaching? It's the art courses. This is the answer.

I know this might sound silly, but sometimes we take these assumptions for granted, as a given - as part of our general logical reasoning. And that's exactly what these questions aim to exploit.

DavidTutorexamPAL · Answer

The argument is that creativity is required for progress in science/tech and that art courses promote this creativity. Since this logic is straightforward, we can infer a likely answer (the Precise approach): we want something which shows that the art courses do in fact increase creativity and/or that this creativity does in fact lead to progress.

Skimming over our options, (B) is the only option which directly addresses the issue and is our answer.

Skywalker18 · Answer

Arts advocate: Few universities require that students who are specializing in science and technology take many art courses. However, real progress in science and technology requires an element of creativity, which the arts foster. Thus, to help science and technology students succeed in their careers, universities should increase the number of art courses required for them.

Type- strengthen
Conclusion- to help science and technology students succeed in their careers, universities should increase the number of art courses required for them.

A. Universities required more art courses for science and technology students in the past.- irrelevant, the relative comparison between the number of art courses in present and past is not relevant
B. Participation in art courses increases students' creative thinking in their science and technology courses.- Correct, this bridges the gap in our argument
C. More students who are interested in art would specialize in science and technology if the number of art courses required for those programs were increased.- irrelevant, the argument does not claim to increase the number of students in tech
D. Some of the most prominent scientists began their careers as artists.- irrelevant
E. Discussion of science and technology topics in art courses increases creative thinking among students in those courses.- irrelevant, we are bothered only about tech courses

Answer B

sayiurway · Answer

For Answer (B): Isn't it already stated clearly in the premise? "real progress in science and technology requires an element of creativity, which the arts foster"

dcummins · Answer

Conclusion : universities should increase the number of art courses required for science and technology students to help them succeed in their careers.
 Potential assumptions:
 - Studying art somehow increases one's creative abilities
- The creative abilities that are gained via studying art transpire benefits to the type of thinking undertaken by students in science and technology courses.

Which of the following would, if true, most strengthen the argument above?

A. Universities required more art courses for science and technology students in the past.

A past requirement of the university does not serve to strengthen the argument that current students should undertake more required studies in arts.

Eliminate

B. Participation in art courses increases students' creative thinking in their science and technology courses.
Boom. This validates the assumption made in forming the argument. Correct

C. More students who are interested in art would specialize in science and technology if the number of art courses required for those programs were increased.
This presents a warped, inverse-logic type answer. The argument is not that art students will better participate in science and tech courses, but rather the argument is that science and tech students will benefit by studying art subjects.

Eliminate

D. Some of the most prominent scientists began their careers as artists.
Firstly, what is true of some may not be true of all, second, the fact that some prominent scientists began their careers as artists does not serve to strengthen an argument that science students would benefit by studying art (the opposite).

Eliminate

E. Discussion of science and technology topics in art courses increases creative thinking among students in those courses.

This answer choice approaches one of the assumptions, but it doesn't apply to the students - science and technology students - in question as there is no mention of them.

Eliminate.

kanikab · Answer

GMATNinja ,  gmat1393 ,  GMATNinjaTwo ,  nightblade354   VeritasKarishma

Hi. I understand why Option B is correct but I am unable to eliminate option E. Can you please help?

Thanks,

NL15 · Answer

Arts advocate:   Datapoint --   Few universities require that students who are specializing in science and technology take many art courses.  Reasoning behind conclusion --  However, real progress in science and technology requires an element of creativity, which the arts foster.  Conclusion --  Thus, to help science and technology students succeed in their careers, universities should increase the number of art courses required for them.

Which of the following would, if true, most   strengthen   the argument above?

Since it is a strengthen type question, the correct answer choice will:
1. Reinforce/ Support the conclusion.
2. Be a new information

The correct answer choice should support the fact that - yes, to help the science & technology students succeed in their careers, universities should increase the number of art courses required for them.

A.  Universities required  more art courses for science and technology students in the  past . -->   No Tie to Conclusion -- Eliminate

B. Participation in art courses increases students' creative thinking in their science and technology courses. -->   Hold on as it's in line with the reasoning used to reach the conclusion in the argument.

C. More  students who are interested in art  would  specialize in science and technology  if the number of art courses required for those programs were increased. -->   Reverse Logic -- Eliminate

D. Some of the most prominent  scientists  began their  careers as artists.  -->   Out of Scope -- Eliminate

E. Discussion of  science and technology topics in art courses  increases creative thinking among students  in those courses . -->   Reverse Logic -- Eliminate

So, we are left with only   (B) - Correct Answer

goaltop30mba · Answer

I still don’t quite understand the reason we are eliminating option E.

As per option E, discussion of science and technology topics in art courses increases creative thinking among students in those courses. What do we really mean by students in those courses ? Students in arts courses right? So students in art courses can be both students specialising in science and technology courses and students specialising in art. If by “in those courses” we mean that we are talking only about the ones who are specialising in arts, then this option becomes totally irrelevant. BUT, if we are considering the students specialising in science and technology as well, then why not this option??

VeritasKarishma  please help

Regards,

Posted from my mobile device

So because as per option E, the discussion of science and technology topics in arts courses increases the creativity among the students, not the art courses themselves, this is why this option is wrong right?

KarishmaB · Answer

Our argument says that "art courses" should be taken by Science specialisation students. Currently they are not taking art courses much. 
We need to strengthen this.

(E) says discussion of science in Arts courses improves creative thinking. What makes arts courses more effective is irrelevant. We want to say that students specialising in science should take Arts courses.

abhola · Answer

Hi  VeritasKarishma   AndrewN

Can you please let me know your thoughts on this question?

I feel that option B is already implied in the passage.
The following statement from the passage and Option B both say the same things.

However, real progress in science and technology requires an element of creativity, which the arts foster.

I have learned to not select the option in a strengthen question that restates the information already given in the passage.

Thanks in advance.

AndrewN · Answer

Hello,  abhola . I have no problem whatsoever with the question. Regarding your last statement about selecting an answer choice "that restates the information already given in the passage," that is nothing more than superstition. In fact, I would say that many  correct  answers do the best job mimicking the language or information the passage presents. Is choice (B) a restatement of the line in question, though? No. The frame of the question stem and that of the line in question are different. Notice that  the passage  presents the line as an opinion. We can tell this from the word  however , as well as the judgmental  real  and  requires . Who thinks these thoughts? The arts advocate. They are not presented as facts in the passage. But the question stem specifies  if true —if (B) were true, then it would  substantiate  the view of the arts advocate... or, in other words, strengthen it. Keep in mind, too, that  the argument  is not the second line, but the last one, the one that starts with  thus . The arts advocate calls for schools to  increase the number of art courses required for   . Choice (B), if true, provides just the type of reason we are seeking to validate that view.

Watch the language used in the passage and answer choices to keep from passing quick judgment. If you rely on precedent rather than on critical reasoning to tackle CR questions, especially more difficult questions, you will find yourself coming up empty-handed more often than you would care to, and the CR task will prove quite frustrating.

I hope my thoughts help clarify your concerns. Thank you for thinking to ask.

- Andrew

KarishmaB · Answer

There is a difference in what is given and what the correct option gives.
 
We are given that arts foster creativity. Students are forced to get creative in arts courses. But do they then apply this creativity in science and tech courses too? We are not given in the argument. 
Option (B) states that they do. They do apply this creativity to science courses too. This does help strengthen our argument.

agrasan · Answer

Hi  GMATNinja

Can you please explain what is wrong with option D?
If some of the most prominent scientists began their careers as artists, they also studied arts and had good creative thinking, which they applied in their careers and ultimately became great scientists. This only increases our confidence that arts as a subject should be increased for science and technology students to succeed in their careers. Am I missing any other thinking or angle here?

GMATNinja · Answer

There are a couple of issues with (D). First, we're looking to strengthen the argument that the number of required art courses should be increased -- and we can't assume that these artists-turned-scientists took any such courses. Perhaps they were self-taught, or perhaps they only took formal classes through high school. We just can't say that their creativity was fostered by university arts courses.

Second, the word "some" should stand out. "Some" could mean a whole bunch, or it could mean a tiny handful. If only a few scientists started out as artists, that really doesn't provide much support for requiring more arts courses.

(B) does a much better job of strengthening the argument by directly linking participation in arts course to creativity in science and technology courses. For that reason, we can confidently say that (B) "most strengthens" the argument.

I hope that helps!

nosaj · Answer

Just a few additional thoughts, the relationshp boils down to:

Increase # of art courses --> Increase creativity in students --> Increase science and tech. student career success

B. "Participation in art courses increases students' creative thinking in their science and technology courses" - is a direct hit indicating that the relationship above will happen

A. Potential Weakener - if this occurred in the past, why did it stop? 
C. Tangential - we are focused on strengthening career success of science and tech students - we ARE NOT interested in getting more students to specialise in science and tech. from ART
D. Neutral - Is 'SOME' one or two or three or 20? Even if the statement was 'ALL of the most prominent scientists began their careers as artists' - it would not imply that increasing ART COURSES leads to CREATIVITY and SUCCESS - beginning their career as artists would indicate that increasing art courses might mean that students forgo a career in science and tech.
E. Tangential - this flips the information we are given in the stimulus

VerbalBot · Answer

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