The number of students who play for Town X's high school sports teams

Question

The number of students who play for Town X's high school sports teams is greater than the number of students who play for Town Y's high school sports teams. Because of their greater participation in school athletics, the high school student population of Town X is more physically fit than that of Town Y.

Each of the following, if true, weakens the conclusion above EXCEPT:

A. There are more high school students in Town X than in Town Y.
B. Most high school students in Town Y go to school in Town X and play on their high schools' sports teams.
C. High school sports teams in Town X play and practice for fewer hours per week than do high school sports teams in Town Y.
D. Many high school athletes from Town Y play only on club teams not affiliated with any high schools.
E. High school sports teams in Town Y accept freshman athletes, whereas high school sports teams in Town X do not.

agdimple333 · Answer

Will go with E.
the fact that Town Y accepts freshment athletes does not weaken the conclusion..

fluke · Answer

Ans: "E"

nikhiil · Answer

E is a good answer, but can some one explain, how answer A fails ?

plumber250 · Answer

Hi Nikhiil,

A weakens the argument, because the argument simply states that more students in town X play than town Y.

If (let's say) town X has 10times as many people, but only 2times as many participants, the percentage of people in X playing is way lower than in Y.

This then weakens the conclusion.

Does that help?

James

nikhiil · Answer

After re-reading the question several times, i approached answer A as follows:

Argument concludes that Because there are more no of students playing in high school teams in city X, the number of students who are fit is more than those in City Y. But If City X has more population - > More no of students, so we can reasonably assume that this is why the no of fit students is greater and the participation in sports is not the actual reason .

Thanks plumber250 for your insight.

I hate Weakens the argument EXCEPT, or Strengthens the argument EXCEPT kind of questions. Any tip on how should i proceed on such questions ?

pqhai · Answer

Hi nikhill

Each people has each strategy to tackle the "Except" questions. One strategy is:

First,  read the question stem carefully, because you  may miss the word "except" . That's easy, but very important.

Second,   turn question into positive direction. "Forget" about "except".

(1) If the question asks "which answer strengthens except..." ==> Find answers that strengthen ==>  mark them "wrong".  ==> The last answer will be the correct (even when you cannot explain why it's correct)

(2) If the question asks "which answer weakens except.." ==> Find answers that weaken ==>  mark them "wrong.  ==> The last answer will be the correct (even when you cannot explain why it's correct)

Because if  the question asks you "which answer strengthen except..."  ==>  You will find an option that strengthen the conclusion  easier   ==> mark it "wrong". The logic of GMAT is   "eliminate a wrong answer is easier than choose a correct one".   The "Except" question is always more difficult than normal questions, if you try to find the correct answer ==> You will lost time.

Hope it helps.

Sukant2010 · Answer

Hi,
I totally agree with semwal. I was mainly confused between options (a) and (e), but I marked option (a) as both the options in no significant way attack the conclusion. The reasoning for option (a) is similar to that given by semwal and for option (e) is that even if freshman students are appointed by the School Y, it doenot necessarily mean that the students in school Y are less physically fit then those in school X or vice versa. I mean it is not actually targeting just like option (a).
Plz if any expert could elaborate as to why option (e) is the answer.

KyleWiddison · Answer

Wow, this is just like the question of newspapers in Town S & Town T...

The issue on A is shifting between raw numbers and proportions. The argument states that there are more athletes in Town X than in Town Y. Answer A states that there are more students in Town X. Let's illustrate with some fake numbers. Let's say there are 101 athletes in Town X and 100 athletes in Town Y. If we say there are 10,000 students in Town X and 125 students in Town Y, we have destroyed the conclusion.

As for E, notice the switch. Most answers start with Town X, but E starts with Town Y. It states that Town Y allows for freshman athletes. Again, we will use numbers. Town X has 101 non-freshman athletes. Town Y has 100 athletes, but only 80 non-freshman athletes. This doesn't weaken the argument, it strengthens it!

KW

PriyankaPalit7 · Answer

"Because of their greater participation in school athletics, the high school student population of Town X is more physically fit than that of Town Y."
I got this one wrong because I assumed that when the argument says "the high school student population of Town X is more physically fit than that of Town Y", it was referring to the level of fitness in the students and not the proportion of fit students in the schools.

ksharayu · Answer

I'd like to understand why Option A is incorrect.

SALAKSHYA · Answer

Can someone explain how option C weaken the argument

svasan05 · Answer

Hi

The conclusion states that: "...the high school student population of Town X is more physically fit than that of Town Y". This is based on the fact that: "Because of their greater participation in school athletics...".

However, what constitutes "more/less physically fit" is not made clear. If we define it, reasonably, as the proportion of fit students in a town and accept the fact that greater participation leads to greater fitness, then option (A) throws doubt on whether a greater proportion of town X's high school students participate in school sports teams than that of town Y, and hence the conclusion about their respective fitnesses.

Therefore, since it brings the conclusion into doubt, option (A) acts as a weakener. Hope this helps.

swim2109 · Answer

Can you explain how C weakens the answer?

VerbalBot · Answer

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The number of students who play for Town X's high school sports teams

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The number of students who play for Town X's high school sports teams

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