Many GMAT tutors love to make boastful public claims about how many pe

Question

Many GMAT tutors love to make boastful public claims about how many perfect 800s they have earned on the GMAT. Yet when GMAC publicly introduced an official score verification option in 2017, using the test-taker’s date of birth (DOB) and a unique URL only available to the test-taker, only one one of those tutors claiming perfect scores actually stepped forward to prove his perfect 800, while countless others did not. Given the fact that 2 years later, these tutors still have failed to verify their scores, it is clear that many, if not most, of those "perfect" GMAT scores were faked.

Which of the following would be most useful to know in evaluating the strength of this argument?

A) Whether GMAT scores expire after 5 years and thus some older scores could not be verified
B) Whether tutors have a financial incentive to exaggerate or inflate their scores
C) Whether tutors who have perfect 800s would choose to advertise that fact publicly
D) Whether all tutors are aware of the score verification option
E) Whether faking scores as a GMAT tutor is helpful in finding students

jrk23 · Answer

i think "a" is correct.

Conclusion: even after 2 years tutors fail to verify their score --> many tutors were faked .

What if score expire after five years and after that it could not be verify.

if that is the scenario that many were faked about their score might get wrong and

if this statement is not true than the conclusion stands correct

mcelroytutoring · Answer

Many GMAT tutors love to make boastful public claims about how many perfect 800s they have earned on the GMAT. Yet when GMAC publicly introduced an official score verification option in 2017, using the test-taker’s date of birth (DOB) and a unique URL only available to the test-taker, only one one of those tutors claiming perfect scores actually stepped forward to prove his perfect 800, while countless others did not. Given the fact that 2 years later, these tutors still have failed to verify their scores, it is clear that many, if not most, of those "perfect" GMAT scores were faked.

Which of the following would be most useful to know in evaluating the strength of this argument?

A) Whether GMAT scores expire after 5 years and thus some older scores could not be verified
B) Whether tutors have a financial incentive to exaggerate or inflate their scores
C) Whether tutors who have perfect 800s would choose to advertise that fact publicly
D) Whether all tutors are aware of the score verification option
E) Whether faking scores as a GMAT tutor is helpful in finding students

ANSWER CHOICE ANALYSIS:

A)  Correct . Although GMAT tutors can always retake a more recent GMAT to prove their ability, if it is indeed true that GMAT scores expire after 5 years and thus there is no way to verify older scores (it is!), then this could help explain why some GMAT tutors with legitimate perfect 800 scores have not verified. LIKE MANY CORRECT ANSWERS ON GMAT CRITICAL REASONING, THIS ANSWER PROVIDES AN  ALTERNATE EXPLANATION  FOR WHY SOME TUTORS MIGHT NOT HAVE VERIFIED THEIR GMAT SCORES.

If true, this consideration would weaken the conclusion in a tangible way. If false, this consideration would strengthen the conclusion in a tangible way. And that's how we know we have found the correct answer.

B) Although financial incentives would certainly help explain the motivation to fake one's scores, it doesn't directly pertain to the conclusion (whether many/most of the scores were faked). For example, in a police investigation, proving a motive in a crime (he wanted to make money!) is not as effective as providing actual evidence (he left his fingerprints at the scene!).

C) This answer is irrelevant. It is also "pre-evidence" and "out of scope" because the argument only pertains to those tutors who have previously advertised their perfect scores.

D) Being unaware of the score verification option might prevent tutors from verifying their scores, but given the wide popularity of GMAT Club (especially for GMAT experts and tutors), it is unlikely that any professional GMAT tutor would not be privy to this information.

E) Similar to B. Provides a possible motive, but not hard evidence.

zhanbo · Answer

I feel that A and D are plausible answers.

Argument for A: If the option supplied by GMAC cannot be used to verify scores obtained over 5 years ago (which, I think, is indeed the case), many perfect scorers simply have no such option to advertise their feats.
Argument against A: But Scores over 5 years ago is no longer valid. Can we still advertise and accept scores that are invalid? If not, asking this question is not productive.

Argument for D: Good question to ask. I, for one, am not aware of this option until I read this question. If 99% of tutors are unaware of the option, it should come as no surprise that only one perfect scorer came forward. 
Argument against D: Well, they are tutors. They had better read all the announcements from GMAC. Failures to do so may disqualify them as well-regarded tutors.

I chose A.

rajkoushik17 · Answer

There was a clash between Option A & D for the right answer, after a lot of thinking process I went with A.

In option D it was mentioned Whether "all" tutors are aware of the score verification option.

Lets say Yes, then conclusion is right.

Lets say no they don't. Not All but maybe many do, the conlusion is still right.

So Option D doesn't really help to evaluate.

licrolicro · Answer

To evaluate the strength of the argument that many tutors' claimed perfect 800 GMAT scores were faked, we need to identify whether there are alternative explanations for why tutors didn’t verify their scores—other than dishonesty.
Core Argument:

Many tutors boast about perfect 800 GMAT scores.

GMAC introduced a verification system in 2017, but only one tutor verified his score.

Since others didn’t verify, the argument concludes that most of these claims are fake.

Potential Weaknesses in the Argument:

Are there legitimate reasons tutors didn’t verify?

Maybe they weren’t aware of the verification option.

Maybe their scores were too old to verify.

Maybe they didn’t feel the need to prove themselves publicly.

Does lack of verification necessarily mean the scores were fake?

The argument assumes that if the scores were real, tutors would have verified them.

Evaluating the Options:

(A) If scores expire after 5 years, some tutors might not be able to verify older scores—weakening the argument by providing an alternative explanation.

(B) Tutors having a financial incentive to lie is consistent with the argument, but it doesn’t help evaluate whether the lack of verification proves fakery.

(C) If tutors with real 800s choose not to advertise, this could mean that many who boast are lying—supporting the argument, but not evaluating its strength.

(D) If some tutors aren’t aware of the verification option, their failure to verify doesn’t prove fakery—weakening the argument.

(E) Whether faking scores helps tutors find students is irrelevant to whether they actually faked them.

Best Choice:

(A) and (D) both provide alternative explanations, but (D) is stronger because:

The verification system was introduced in 2017, and the argument mentions that two years later, tutors still hadn’t verified.

If tutors simply didn’t know about the option, their inaction doesn’t imply fakery.

Final Answer: D

mcelroytutoring · Answer

Good morning  licrolicro ,

You are correct that Choice D is  relevant --after all, it is of course an ALTERNATE EXPLANATION as to why these tutors may not have verified.

However, when I wrote the question, I intentionally constructed Choice D as a second-best decoy answer to match the wrong answer type we so often see on real GMAT CR questions.

Though relevant and  possible , it's also  unlikely  that a GMAT tutor would be unaware of the GMAT Club score verification option.

Why? Given GMAT Club's extensive repository of free GMAT questions, explanations, and resources, nearly all GMAT tutors use the site at least now and then.

In other words, GMAT Club is popular and widely known as an excellent place to (subtly) market yourself as a tutor by providing solid GMAT question explanations, strategies, and general advice -- and now, it offers GMAT score verification for students and tutors alike. What are the chances that a GMAT tutor would not be aware of this?

With regard to Choice A: most of the best GMAT tutors such as myself (24 years and counting, 10 and counting on GMAT Club!) have been tutoring for far longer than 5 years. Thus, it's simply more feasible / believable given the circumstances that this would have been the case ( scores too old to verify ) than would Choice D ( what? had no idea scores could be verified ).

As a police officer might say, ignorance (in this case, of the existence of a convenient and anonymous 3rd-party GMAT/GRE score verification option) is no excuse--especially for an expert GMAT tutor who should be paying attention to any changes to the GMAT, and staying up-to-date with the competitive test-prep landscape in general.

-Brian

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