Studies have demonstrated that many immigrants to the United

Question

Studies have demonstrated that many immigrants to the United States receive excellent scores on the mathematics portion of standardized college entrance examinations. The high-quality mathematics education these people received in this country during their formative years is primarily responsible for this phenomenon.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the explanation above?

A. Immigrants who take standardized college entrance exams are not representative of the general population of immigrants, since only a small percentage of these people are college-bound. 
 B. Some educational experts are highly critical of the notion that standardized test scores can accurately indicate a student's level of college preparedness. 
 C. Average scores on standardized college entrance examinations have declined every year for the past two decades. 
 D. Because most immigrants are not native English speakers, their performance on the verbal portion of standardized college entrance exams is weak compared to that on the mathematics portion. 
 E. Immigrants who arrived in the United States after the age of 18 score just as high on the mathematical portion of standardized tests as those arriving at a very young age.

getgyan · Answer

+1 D (I am not too happy, but this is the best I got)

Premise - Studies have demonstrated that many immigrants to the United States receive excellent scores on the mathematics portion of standardized college entrance examinations.

Conclusion - The high-quality mathematics education these people received in this country during their formative years is primarily responsible for this phenomenon.

Any options which weakens the conclusion is our answer

A. Immigrants who take standardized college entrance exams are not representative of the general population of immigrants, since only a small percentage of these people are college-bound.  (We are not talking about the whole population but those who take the examinations, it will make a good answer in case of an absence of any other better answer) 
B. Some educational experts are highly critical of the notion that standardized test scores can accurately indicate a student's level of college preparedness.  (Irrelevant) 
C. Average scores on standardized college entrance examinations have declined every year for the past two decades.  (Irrelevant) 
D. Because most immigrants are not native English speakers, their performance on the verbal portion of standardized college entrance exams is weak compared to that on the mathematics portion.  (This is our answer, the non-natives have a weak english and therefore they study maths more to get a competitive score, thus weakening the conclusion that the high-quality mathematics education these people received in this country during their formative years is primarily responsible for this phenomenon) 
E. Immigrants who arrived in the United States after the age of 18 score just as high on the mathematical portion of standardized tests as those arriving at a very young age.  (Irrelevant)

Experts comment would be required

Daeny · Answer

IMO A...

the question stem states that the immigrants get high math scores because of the education in their country. And A counters exactly that. The people who get the high scores do not represent the entire population hence do not reflect on the education system.

IanStewart · Answer

I'm having some difficulty understanding the wording of the stem. Is the part I've highlighted in red intended to read "in their country"? As the question is written now, the argument makes no sense, since it is not at all clear what country "this country" refers to. Perhaps they mean "in the US", but then we need to assume the author of the passage is writing from the perspective of an American. The argument hinges on this point so the stem shouldn't be ambiguous about it.

If I assume the question ought to read how I've suggested, then the answer should be E. The question stem says that many immigrants to the USA receive high scores on tests, and explains that it is the education " these people received " in their own countries which is responsible. Since the argument is only about the education that the *test-takers* alone received, we don't particularly care about immigrants who are not test-takers. So while A looks like a good answer, it is not correct. What we do care about is comparing test-taking immigrants who were educated in their own countries with test-taking immigrants who were educated in the USA. Then we will have some basis for comparing US education with other countries' education, which is what the argument is all about. That's what makes E the best answer; E suggests that it makes no difference to test scores whether immigrants were educated in the USA or elsewhere.

abhi398 · Answer

I like the way you explained for D .. Even though I chose A, D can be the answer

sajini · Answer

Studies have demonstrated that many immigrants to the United States receive excellent scores on the mathematics portion of standardized college entrance examinations. The high-quality mathematics education these people received in this country during their formative years is primarily responsible for this phenomenon.

The argument states that the immigrants to the United States receive excellent scores on their mathematics portion of standardized college entrance examinations and this result is due the to high-quality mathematics education these people received in this country during their formative years.

A. Immigrants who take standardized college entrance exams are not representative of the general population of immigrants, since only a small percentage of these people are college-bound. -  we are talking about immigrants who take tests and score more and not about immigrants as a whole. So it doesnt weaken. 
B. Some educational experts are highly critical of the notion that standardized test scores can accurately indicate a student's level of college preparedness.- doesnt seem to weaken  
C. Average scores on standardized college entrance examinations have declined every year for the past two decades.-  Average scores declined.doesnt matter as we're bothered about immigrants who take tests scoring more. 
D. Because most immigrants are not native English speakers, their performance on the verbal portion of standardized college entrance exams is weak compared to that on the mathematics portion.-  saying that they're weak in verbal doesnt seem to weaken that they score more in mathematics. the question stem is "The high-quality mathematics education these people received in this country during their formative years is primarily responsible for this phenomenon" anything about verbal is irrelavant. 
E. Immigrants who arrived in the United States after the age of 18 score just as high on the mathematical portion of standardized tests as those arriving at a very young age.- weakens by saying that the formative education they receive in that particular country is not the reason because even immigrants who arrived after the age of 18 score as high as the other immigrants on the mathematical portion.

getgyan · Answer

+1 E Got it wrong the first time. Good question. :-D

getgyan · Answer

Although we both are wrong :-D

E is the answer.

Aristocrat · Answer

Someone explain these question.
A or E

I am still not satisfied with correct answer as E

In E

Immigrants who arrived in the United States after the age of 18 score just as high on the mathematical portion of standardized tests as those arriving at a very young age.

IMO these statement implies immigrants after the age of 18 or young have strong mathematic portion of standardized tests.
So how E is right?

In A 
It talks about whole immigrants population which is stated in premise.

"Studies have demonstrated that many immigrants to the United States..."

clear the ambiguity....guys

saikarthikreddy · Answer

I would go for E.

E weakens the argument by stating that even students who came to america at the age of 18 and not during the formative years have scored the same high score.This weakens the argument which says that the strong primary education which the students have undergone in america is responsible for the high score.

getgyan · Answer

Hi Aristocrat Look at the conclusion carefully “The high-quality mathematics education these people received in this country during their FORMATIVE years is primarily responsible for this phenomenon” Option E states that THOSE immigrants who had their formative years of STUDY IN US also have equivalent mathematics knowledge than those who came after 18. This implies that the formative years of study is not responsible because if it would have been then those who came after 18 should have scored more in mathematics than those who were raised and taught in US. Hope this helps! :-D

bluetrain · Answer

E should be the right answer

but "young age" is a bit ambiguous.

That makes this problem of low quality.

bluetrain · Answer

E should be the right answer

but "young age" is a bit ambiguous.

That makes this question a low quality question.

karan jethwani · Answer

Below is my analogy towards solving this question.

Studies have demonstrated that many immigrants to the United States receive excellent scores on the mathematics portion of standardized college entrance examinations. The high-quality mathematics education these people received in this country during their formative years is primarily responsible for this phenomenon.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the explanation above?

A. Immigrants who take standardized college entrance exams are not representative of the general population of immigrants, since only a small percentage of these people are college-bound. (We are not talking about all the immigrants who are taking the exam. We are specifically focused on only those who took/take the exam. This makes the answer irrelevant) 
B. Some educational experts are highly critical of the notion that standardized test scores can accurately indicate a student's level of college preparedness. (Irrelevant) 
C. Average scores on standardized college entrance examinations have declined every year for the past two decades. (Irrelevant) 
D. Because most immigrants are not native English speakers, their performance on the verbal portion of standardized college entrance exams is weak compared to that on the mathematics portion. (This doesnt work because, we are no where mentioned about the Engish exam. We only need to focus on the Maths exam, making this option also incorrect) 
E. Immigrants who arrived in the United States after the age of 18 score just as high on the mathematical portion of standardized tests as those arriving at a very young age. (This weakens the explanation because in the para they have mentioned formative years specifically and this explains that despite people being at any age have the same result. Making it the correct answer)

Studies have demonstrated that many immigrants to the United

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

Studies have demonstrated that many immigrants to the United

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