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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 1): School Board Member: A recent study 06 Jul 2026, 09:03
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similar reasoning flaw based question

argument given by school board member states that a recent study has found that students who participate in district after school chess program scored higher on ESM exam & this score is vital for public support in district and also increase competitiveness in job market.. therefore mandate participation in chess program

we have causation and mandate

from given options

option A
does not have a causation & mandate link as it does not co relate to point of mandating strict data protocols to a mandate

option B
this does not address the link between causation & mandate , but it gives cause and effect that getting VC funding is critical to survive for a start up within 1 st year

option C

utilizing a particular method of pest control will increase yield of crops and avoid crop failure .. does not address mandate and causation

option E
pre calculus is mandatory to take up calculus this is again not on line of the argument

option D
clearly addresses the causation and mandate link of the given argument as it states that government should mandate all citizen to participate in marathon which would led to lower heart diseases ..

OPTION D is correct
Bunuel
School Board Member: A recent study of high school students in our district found that those who participate in the district's after-school chess program scored significantly higher on the State-mandated Essential Skills in Mathematics (ESM) exam than those who do not. District-wide improvements in average ESM scores are vital to retain public support for the district and to increase the competitiveness of our graduates in the job market. Therefore, the district should mandate participation in the chess program for all high school students.

Which of the following arguments exhibits a flaw similar to the flaw in the reasoning above?

(A) Financial Regulator: Any bank in our country that handles international wire transfers on behalf of their clients must comply with regulations mandating strict data encryption protocols. Meridian National Bank does not currently have the technical ability to encrypt customer data during wire transfers. Therefore, Meridian National Bank cannot legally provide international wire transfers to their customers.

(B) Tech Journalist: Industry surveys indicate that tech startups that secure venture capital funding within their first year have significantly higher survival rates than startups that do not secure funding in their first year. High survival rates are vital to maintaining a robust innovation sector and driving job growth. Therefore, any tech startup that secures venture capital funding in its first year is very likely to survive.

(C) Agricultural Advisor: A recent agricultural study found no evidence of crop failure among organic farms that utilized a new predatory wasp species for pest control. Eliminating crop failure is vital to stabilizing food prices and ensuring national food security. Therefore, commercial farming operations can completely eliminate the risk of crop failure by adopting this pest control method.

(D) Physician: National health data indicates that adults who run in at least one marathon per year have significantly lower rates of heart disease than those who do not. Reducing heart disease is vital because it is a leading cause of death, and its treatment places a massive burden on the healthcare system. Therefore, the government should require all citizens to annually participate in a marathon.

(E) Vice Principal: At our school, students who want to enroll in calculus must first take pre-calculus, because the principles taught in pre-calculus help prepare students for the more advanced topics taught in calculus. Therefore, any student who has not taken pre-calculus, here or elsewhere, will not be permitted to enroll in calculus.

 


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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 1): School Board Member: A recent study 06 Jul 2026, 09:05
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A- applies a stated rule to a specific bank, if x then y, not if y therefore not x
B- makes prediction about an individual within group and not advocating for population-wide.
C- overgeneralizes from a small group to a large one but no changing for everyone.
E-just outlines and enforces a logic, no inferences from a study.
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There has been no evidence of crop failure which led to adoption of this method, however farming operations can completely eliminate this method.
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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 1): School Board Member: A recent study 06 Jul 2026, 09:10
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I believe the answer is D.

Logical Flaw - Co-incidence = Causal Relation. Taking Causal relation as necessary premise to follow a conclusion and in turn providing flawed suggestion.

A. It does not have the structure of the flaw as per the original argument
B. It's a good option but fails to draw the final conclusion based on the premise.
C. Different flaw. General and absolute conlusion which is not based as per the original argument.
D. This fits the structure. Running marathon is taken as causal relation that running marathon leads to low rate of heart disease and it is vital for govt to avoid burden so recommendation to all people to run marathon
E. mistaken as necessary argument flaw which is not as per original structure
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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 1): School Board Member: A recent study 06 Jul 2026, 09:16
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Bunuel
School Board Member: A recent study of high school students in our district found that those who participate in the district's after-school chess program scored significantly higher on the State-mandated Essential Skills in Mathematics (ESM) exam than those who do not. District-wide improvements in average ESM scores are vital to retain public support for the district and to increase the competitiveness of our graduates in the job market. Therefore, the district should mandate participation in the chess program for all high school students.

Which of the following arguments exhibits a flaw similar to the flaw in the reasoning above?

(A) Financial Regulator: Any bank in our country that handles international wire transfers on behalf of their clients must comply with regulations mandating strict data encryption protocols. Meridian National Bank does not currently have the technical ability to encrypt customer data during wire transfers. Therefore, Meridian National Bank cannot legally provide international wire transfers to their customers.

(B) Tech Journalist: Industry surveys indicate that tech startups that secure venture capital funding within their first year have significantly higher survival rates than startups that do not secure funding in their first year. High survival rates are vital to maintaining a robust innovation sector and driving job growth. Therefore, any tech startup that secures venture capital funding in its first year is very likely to survive.

(C) Agricultural Advisor: A recent agricultural study found no evidence of crop failure among organic farms that utilized a new predatory wasp species for pest control. Eliminating crop failure is vital to stabilizing food prices and ensuring national food security. Therefore, commercial farming operations can completely eliminate the risk of crop failure by adopting this pest control method.

(D) Physician: National health data indicates that adults who run in at least one marathon per year have significantly lower rates of heart disease than those who do not. Reducing heart disease is vital because it is a leading cause of death, and its treatment places a massive burden on the healthcare system. Therefore, the government should require all citizens to annually participate in a marathon.

(E) Vice Principal: At our school, students who want to enroll in calculus must first take pre-calculus, because the principles taught in pre-calculus help prepare students for the more advanced topics taught in calculus. Therefore, any student who has not taken pre-calculus, here or elsewhere, will not be permitted to enroll in calculus.

 


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the Flaw in the School Board Member statement is that- the argument assumed a casual relationship when there may be a correlation. Forcing all students to participate will not necessarily improve the scores of the students who do not inherently have Analytical skills or interest.
only in Statement D- do we find this "mandatory " flaw - it concludes that government should mandate marathon participation for everyone - exactly reflecting the School Board Member's logic of mandating an activity to produce a desired outcome.
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The passage states that, A ( good score in ESM) is because of B ( participation in Chess.) and A is important so B should be mandated.

Similar logic is applied in option - D : A ( Reduction in heart disease) is because of B ( Participation in marathon). A is important ( lot of deaths occurring because of heart disease), hence B should be mandated.

Hence ans is opt-D.
Opt- B is close but misses in the end. it doesn't speak about mandating, just states that securing venture capital is needed.
Bunuel
School Board Member: A recent study of high school students in our district found that those who participate in the district's after-school chess program scored significantly higher on the State-mandated Essential Skills in Mathematics (ESM) exam than those who do not. District-wide improvements in average ESM scores are vital to retain public support for the district and to increase the competitiveness of our graduates in the job market. Therefore, the district should mandate participation in the chess program for all high school students.

Which of the following arguments exhibits a flaw similar to the flaw in the reasoning above?

(A) Financial Regulator: Any bank in our country that handles international wire transfers on behalf of their clients must comply with regulations mandating strict data encryption protocols. Meridian National Bank does not currently have the technical ability to encrypt customer data during wire transfers. Therefore, Meridian National Bank cannot legally provide international wire transfers to their customers.

(B) Tech Journalist: Industry surveys indicate that tech startups that secure venture capital funding within their first year have significantly higher survival rates than startups that do not secure funding in their first year. High survival rates are vital to maintaining a robust innovation sector and driving job growth. Therefore, any tech startup that secures venture capital funding in its first year is very likely to survive.

(C) Agricultural Advisor: A recent agricultural study found no evidence of crop failure among organic farms that utilized a new predatory wasp species for pest control. Eliminating crop failure is vital to stabilizing food prices and ensuring national food security. Therefore, commercial farming operations can completely eliminate the risk of crop failure by adopting this pest control method.

(D) Physician: National health data indicates that adults who run in at least one marathon per year have significantly lower rates of heart disease than those who do not. Reducing heart disease is vital because it is a leading cause of death, and its treatment places a massive burden on the healthcare system. Therefore, the government should require all citizens to annually participate in a marathon.

(E) Vice Principal: At our school, students who want to enroll in calculus must first take pre-calculus, because the principles taught in pre-calculus help prepare students for the more advanced topics taught in calculus. Therefore, any student who has not taken pre-calculus, here or elsewhere, will not be permitted to enroll in calculus.

 


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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 1): School Board Member: A recent study 06 Jul 2026, 09:23
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d. bcs both work on same logical flaw
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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 1): School Board Member: A recent study 06 Jul 2026, 09:24
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The flaw is you see a correlation and assumes it is caused by the activity and recommend making the activity mandatory.

In original the chess students score higher in math, therefor chess must improve math, therefor require all student to take chess.

Choice D Marathon runners have lower heart disease rates. Running marathons must reduce heart disease therefore everyone is to run a marathon.

Answer D
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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 1): School Board Member: A recent study 06 Jul 2026, 09:24
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Since the question mentions that an activity should be mandated - Option D is similar to the question since it also requires an activity to be mandated.

All the other options do not provide such mandate
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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 1): School Board Member: A recent study 06 Jul 2026, 09:26
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The flaw in the main startement : X happened and Y happened so to ensure Y , we must ensure X which causes it (causal assumption is flawed).

Thsi case matched exactly with only option D. Hence D is the answer
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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 1): School Board Member: A recent study 06 Jul 2026, 09:27
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Flaw in School board member arguemnet :

Confuses corelation with causation & mandate the activity to produce observed benefit

A - Logically valid, not the same flaw
B - it says " Likely to survive" doesn't advocate for everyone to do the same.
C - Not mandating participation
D - Closely mirrors the original arguement
E - No flawed causal reasoning

Answer - D
Bunuel
School Board Member: A recent study of high school students in our district found that those who participate in the district's after-school chess program scored significantly higher on the State-mandated Essential Skills in Mathematics (ESM) exam than those who do not. District-wide improvements in average ESM scores are vital to retain public support for the district and to increase the competitiveness of our graduates in the job market. Therefore, the district should mandate participation in the chess program for all high school students.

Which of the following arguments exhibits a flaw similar to the flaw in the reasoning above?

(A) Financial Regulator: Any bank in our country that handles international wire transfers on behalf of their clients must comply with regulations mandating strict data encryption protocols. Meridian National Bank does not currently have the technical ability to encrypt customer data during wire transfers. Therefore, Meridian National Bank cannot legally provide international wire transfers to their customers.

(B) Tech Journalist: Industry surveys indicate that tech startups that secure venture capital funding within their first year have significantly higher survival rates than startups that do not secure funding in their first year. High survival rates are vital to maintaining a robust innovation sector and driving job growth. Therefore, any tech startup that secures venture capital funding in its first year is very likely to survive.

(C) Agricultural Advisor: A recent agricultural study found no evidence of crop failure among organic farms that utilized a new predatory wasp species for pest control. Eliminating crop failure is vital to stabilizing food prices and ensuring national food security. Therefore, commercial farming operations can completely eliminate the risk of crop failure by adopting this pest control method.

(D) Physician: National health data indicates that adults who run in at least one marathon per year have significantly lower rates of heart disease than those who do not. Reducing heart disease is vital because it is a leading cause of death, and its treatment places a massive burden on the healthcare system. Therefore, the government should require all citizens to annually participate in a marathon.

(E) Vice Principal: At our school, students who want to enroll in calculus must first take pre-calculus, because the principles taught in pre-calculus help prepare students for the more advanced topics taught in calculus. Therefore, any student who has not taken pre-calculus, here or elsewhere, will not be permitted to enroll in calculus.

 


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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 1): School Board Member: A recent study 06 Jul 2026, 09:28
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The stem is: Students who participate in Chess program show Higher average ESM score (A). High average ESM score is help district (B). Hence District should mandadte participation in chess program (C)

The logic is: (A) shows a certain effect. (B) states that the effect shown in (A) is important/helpful/favourable in some way. C states that hence, whatever is the cause of the effect in (A) should be mandated.


Option A: The part (A) of this argument itself is not a cause-effect relationship. Hence, eliminate.
Option B: While part (A) and (B) of this option are consistent with the question stem logic, part (C) is not mandating the cause of part (A). Hence, eliminate.
Option C: Same as option B
Option D: This is the correct answer. Part (A), (B) and (C) of this option all play the same role as the part (A), (B) and (C) of the question stem.
Option E: Has a completely different structure.
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I believe the answer is D.

The logic in the argument in the question stem takes the form of:

All As who do B perform better in C. C is important. Therefore, everyone (in the larger container of A) should do B. The implied assumption is that doing B will lead to higher performance in C.
The obvious flaw is that maybe doing B is not making people perform better in C, but rather, the kind or type of person who is drawn to do B is already likely to perform better in C.

D fits this the best:
All Adult citizens (As) who run marathons (B) have lower rates of heart disease (perform better in C). Having lower incidence of heart disease is important (C is important). Therefore, all citizens (everyone) should run marathons (should do B).

All As (
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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 1): School Board Member: A recent study 06 Jul 2026, 09:32
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It was a really lengthy argument and especially the answer choices for me. Yes I did take an additional amount of time. I am not going to lie, I took somewhere around 4 minutes to come to a right answer.

Alright let us first deconstruct the argument here:
1. A district found out that people or students who participated in the post-school chess competition did fairly better in the state-mandated essential skills mathematics exam than the students who did not participate in the chess program.
2. The second premise the argument gives us is that for a district-wise improvement we need:
First to retain the public support
Second to increase the competitiveness of graduates in the job market.

Therefore the district should mandate participation in the chess program for all high school students because
the district assumes that by mandating all students in the chess program, the students from this district will do fairly well in the maths exam which is mandatory by the state and therefore eventually be more competitive in the job market.

We can clearly see the most common linkage between the premise and the conclusion in GMAT-CR, that the author assumes correlation as causation and therefore states her conclusion.

Now we simply have to look for an argument in the option choices which does similar things. Now we can also eliminate some answer choices on the basis of argument structure as well which doesn't follow the structure we discussed above.
Bunuel
School Board Member: A recent study of high school students in our district found that those who participate in the district's after-school chess program scored significantly higher on the State-mandated Essential Skills in Mathematics (ESM) exam than those who do not. District-wide improvements in average ESM scores are vital to retain public support for the district and to increase the competitiveness of our graduates in the job market. Therefore, the district should mandate participation in the chess program for all high school students.

Which of the following arguments exhibits a flaw similar to the flaw in the reasoning above?

(A) Financial Regulator: Any bank in our country that handles international wire transfers on behalf of their clients must comply with regulations mandating strict data encryption protocols. Meridian National Bank does not currently have the technical ability to encrypt customer data during wire transfers. Therefore, Meridian National Bank cannot legally provide international wire transfers to their customers.

(B) Tech Journalist: Industry surveys indicate that tech startups that secure venture capital funding within their first year have significantly higher survival rates than startups that do not secure funding in their first year. High survival rates are vital to maintaining a robust innovation sector and driving job growth. Therefore, any tech startup that secures venture capital funding in its first year is very likely to survive.

(C) Agricultural Advisor: A recent agricultural study found no evidence of crop failure among organic farms that utilized a new predatory wasp species for pest control. Eliminating crop failure is vital to stabilizing food prices and ensuring national food security. Therefore, commercial farming operations can completely eliminate the risk of crop failure by adopting this pest control method.

(D) Physician: National health data indicates that adults who run in at least one marathon per year have significantly lower rates of heart disease than those who do not. Reducing heart disease is vital because it is a leading cause of death, and its treatment places a massive burden on the healthcare system. Therefore, the government should require all citizens to annually participate in a marathon.

(E) Vice Principal: At our school, students who want to enroll in calculus must first take pre-calculus, because the principles taught in pre-calculus help prepare students for the more advanced topics taught in calculus. Therefore, any student who has not taken pre-calculus, here or elsewhere, will not be permitted to enroll in calculus.

 


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Option A is completely fine. There is no flaw in this argument.

Option B does contain a flaw but it is different from the one in the argument. Option B talks about what has happened in the past will continue to happen in the future, which is quite different from the one we have discussed in the argument.

Option C also contains a different kind of law which is not the same as in the argument. Here a premise has been used to derive a conclusion which is way too broad or goes to the extent which is not covered by the premises.

Option D. Upon close observation of option D's structure, it is similar to the one in the argument. On top of it the premises observed here are mentioning that heart rate is lower for the people who run a marathon and costs too much money for the government. The next statement tells us that heart diseases is a massive burden for the government healthcare system to provide treatment for the same. Therefore the government should mandate citizens to participate in a marathon because here the government is trying to achieve a goal of reducing the burden. Therefore the government is taking the correlated factor of heart health with marathon and assuming it has causation to derive its conclusion.

Option E doesn't contain any flaw. It's completely fine.
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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 1): School Board Member: A recent study 06 Jul 2026, 09:33
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D is the answer. Both assume voluntary participants' better outcomes= mandatory participation will produce the same outcome
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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 1): School Board Member: A recent study 06 Jul 2026, 09:39
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those who participate in after school chess program, they score higher on ESM than those who do not.
improvements in ESM scores are vital to retain public support for district and to increase competitiveness of graduates in job market.

conclusion= should mandate participation in chess program for all high school students.

passage talks about after school participation but the conclusion is about participation in chess program. also it mandates for all the students.also what if these students are the ones who already had higher math skills thats why attended chess program. so this reasoning of asking everyone to participate is bit falwed. there is big jump in this.

only B and D come closer to this reasoning.

but with B, its not as same as it seems. B says that if any one secures funding, they are likely to survive. so there is not a jump in terms of reasoning.
but with D, it says that those who run at least one marathon have lower rates of heart disease and then made conclusion that everyone should participate in marathon. but what if only people with lower heart disease participate in marathon and due to that they had lower rate of disease. its same as the one described on passage.

Choice D
Bunuel
School Board Member: A recent study of high school students in our district found that those who participate in the district's after-school chess program scored significantly higher on the State-mandated Essential Skills in Mathematics (ESM) exam than those who do not. District-wide improvements in average ESM scores are vital to retain public support for the district and to increase the competitiveness of our graduates in the job market. Therefore, the district should mandate participation in the chess program for all high school students.

Which of the following arguments exhibits a flaw similar to the flaw in the reasoning above?

(A) Financial Regulator: Any bank in our country that handles international wire transfers on behalf of their clients must comply with regulations mandating strict data encryption protocols. Meridian National Bank does not currently have the technical ability to encrypt customer data during wire transfers. Therefore, Meridian National Bank cannot legally provide international wire transfers to their customers.

(B) Tech Journalist: Industry surveys indicate that tech startups that secure venture capital funding within their first year have significantly higher survival rates than startups that do not secure funding in their first year. High survival rates are vital to maintaining a robust innovation sector and driving job growth. Therefore, any tech startup that secures venture capital funding in its first year is very likely to survive.

(C) Agricultural Advisor: A recent agricultural study found no evidence of crop failure among organic farms that utilized a new predatory wasp species for pest control. Eliminating crop failure is vital to stabilizing food prices and ensuring national food security. Therefore, commercial farming operations can completely eliminate the risk of crop failure by adopting this pest control method.

(D) Physician: National health data indicates that adults who run in at least one marathon per year have significantly lower rates of heart disease than those who do not. Reducing heart disease is vital because it is a leading cause of death, and its treatment places a massive burden on the healthcare system. Therefore, the government should require all citizens to annually participate in a marathon.

(E) Vice Principal: At our school, students who want to enroll in calculus must first take pre-calculus, because the principles taught in pre-calculus help prepare students for the more advanced topics taught in calculus. Therefore, any student who has not taken pre-calculus, here or elsewhere, will not be permitted to enroll in calculus.

 


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Maesha
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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 1): School Board Member: A recent study 06 Jul 2026, 09:42
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Both they school board member and option D denotes logical error - they simply decided to mandate a new policy just by looking at the correlation of two variables -implying that correlation results in conclusion which is not actually true .
It also can be possible the chess player students were already academically brilliant and thus they scored much higher in various activities . On the other hand , the people who ran marathon at least once a year could be already healthy and professional .
Both of these shoes logical flaw - they simply made assumption based on the correlation . Only if , they could provide relationship between academically indisciplined students and chess playing outcome as well as the relationship between unhealthier people choosing to run marathon and heart disease risk , it would be an actual proof of cause and effect experiment , not mere correlation .

so , option D is has as much as flaw as the given scenario.
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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 1): School Board Member: A recent study 06 Jul 2026, 09:47
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In this question, we need to first identify what the flaw is: The flaw is that it takes one parameter(playing chess) and establishes as a factor which could positively drive the result. While playing chess maybe a contributing factor for better scores in ESM exam but there are other factors too that must have contributed to the effect.
Understand this with the help of a case - Suppose - I play chess everyday but I do not study at all for ESM and I do not even know the syllabus for ESM then it is very likely I would not get better score to the scenario where I do not play chess at all and I know the syllabus also I study dedicatedly for ESM.
So find the option that also uses the same logical reasoning for reaching the conclusion: the exact replica is option D - Marathon decreases heart related diseases<mandate marathon<result is lower rate of heart related diseases. In option D - what about the other factors that could contribute to lower rate of heart diseases. Hence Option D is correct.
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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 1): School Board Member: A recent study 06 Jul 2026, 09:49
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The answer for this is. D. In the initial statement, the district noticed the correlation between students choosing to be in chess to their high test scores. Since the school district's goal is to have high test scores the argument is that they should mandate or force that students take chess.

A does not match this format. This is based on correlation, it is a conclusion based on compliance requirements.

B is a prediction that startups with funding are more likely to survive if they receive funding. There is no argument for any mandate.

C is a generaliztion that since the study showed an elimination of crop failures with the new technique that organic farms chose do use, commercial farms should also use it. Though the aspect of initial choice is still there, there no forced mandate for commercial farms to follow this practice.

E is not a correlation statement. It states that precalculus should be a requirement to take calculus based on the knowledge gained in the former. This is different from the original statement because chess does not directly give knowledge that would help someone succed on the test.

D is the correct answer. Adults who choose to run at least one marathon a year have lower rates of heart disease. There is a stated goal of reducing heart disease. And the conclusion is that the government should require all citizens to annually participate in a marathon. So this matches the initial formula from the statement in the question.
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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 1): School Board Member: A recent study 06 Jul 2026, 10:04
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The argument assumes that chess causes students to perform better in maths without considering the students who are already smarter or more academic inclined may just be more to participate in the program. In other words, it confuses correlation with causation.
D is closest to correlating marathon running once a year with a healthy heart so imo it’s D.
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