Beginning in 1997, high school seniors in State Q have been required to pass a comprehensive proficiency exam before the

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Beginning in 1997, high school seniors in State Q have been required to pass a comprehensive proficiency exam before they are allowed to graduate. The exam requirement was intended to ensure that a minimum level of academic quality will be achieved by the students in the state. In 1997, 20 percent of the seniors did not pass the exam and were, therefore, not allowed to graduate. In 1998, the number of seniors who passed the exam decreased by 10% from the previous year.

The argument above, if true, LEAST supports which of the following statement.


A. If the percentage of high school seniors who passed the exam increased from 1997 to 1998 , the number of high schools seniors decreased during that time period.

B. If the percentage of high school seniors who passed the exam decreased from 1997 to 1998 , the number of high schools seniors increased during that time period.

C. Unless the number of high school seniors was lower in 1998 than in 1997, the number of seniors who passed the exam in 1998 was lower than 80 percent.

D. If the number of high school seniors who did not pass the exam decreased by more than 10 percent from 1997 to 1998, the percentage of high school seniors who passed the exam in 1998 was greater than 80 percent.

E. If the percentage of high school seniors who passed the exam in 1998 was less than 70 percent, the number of high school seniors in 1997 was higher than the number in 1998.


OA E

Source: Princeton Review

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The argument given in the passage indicates that a proficiency exam was introduced in State Q in 1997, which students had to pass before they could graduate. It is said that 20% of seniors failed to pass the exam in 1997, and in 1998, there was a 10% decrease in the number of seniors who passed the exam. We need to determine the statement that is least supported by this argument.

Option A: This statement is not supported by the given argument. There is no information about the number of high school seniors in 1997 or 1998.

Option B: This statement is also not supported by the given argument. Again, there is no information about the number of high school seniors in 1997 or 1998.

Option C: This statement is a reasonable inference based on the information provided in the passage. If the number of high school seniors who passed the exam decreased by 10% from 1997 to 1998, then the number of seniors who passed the exam in 1998 would be less than 80% of the total number of seniors. However, this statement is not supported by the given argument because there is no information about the number of seniors who took the exam in 1998.

Option D: This statement is a reasonable inference based on the given argument. If the number of seniors who did not pass the exam decreased by more than 10% from 1997 to 1998, then the percentage of seniors who passed the exam in 1998 would be greater than 80%. However, this statement is not directly supported by the given argument because we do not know the number of seniors who did not pass the exam in 1998.

Option E: This statement is not supported by the given argument. There is no information about the number of high school seniors in 1997 or 1998, and therefore we cannot infer whether a decrease in the percentage of seniors who passed the exam would be correlated with a decrease in the number of seniors.

Therefore, the statement that is least supported by the argument is option A.