Critical Reasoning

In 2001, a local high school implemented a new program designed to reduce the incidence of teenage pregnancy. The program, however failed to produce the desired result. If the program had been successful, the dropout rate for female students would not have increased substantially in 2001.

The argument depends on which of the following assumptions?
A) the number of teen pregnancies nation wide increased in 2001.
B) the number of teen pregnancies in 2001 was greater than the number of teen pregnancies in 1991
C) teenage pregnancy is a leading reason that female students leave school
D) the program was mandatory for all female students.
E) most 2001 female dropouts were not pregnant at any time during the year.

Does anyone else also feel that the answer should be D rather than the OA which is C?

Thanks.

all teenage girls are not getting pregnency. So we do not need it for all.

By the way.. this is an extreme answer choice.. words like mandatory/all.. are always risky..

sorry I do not understand your first statement.
Even the book I use is warning against extreme words - is it safe to say that extreme answer choices are mostly wrong on assumption questions?

please forget the first line.. I just wanted to say that there is no statement in the stem which says that all female students are dropping out of school.

cgoyal.gmat wrote:sorry I do not understand your first statement.
Even the book I use is warning against extreme words - is it safe to say that extreme answer choices are mostly wrong on assumption questions?

the answer is c.

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the argument is that a program designed to lower the rate of pregnancy did not work, because the dropout rate for female students increased. this has to be based on the assumption that pregnancy is a leading reason for female dropouts, or the argument wouldn't be able to use "dropout rate increased" as a qualification for why the program failed to produce the desired result.

if, for example, most female students dropped out because they got hooked on drugs, then it's possible that the program (designed to lower the rate of pregnancy) did work--but that un-pregnant students were still dropping out.

I have started to get the hang of what you are saying, but what I don't understand is if I negate Option C, (the program was not mandatory for all female students), doesn't the argument fall apart.
i.e. If the females did not attend the program, how can it produce the desired result. Hence the author must be assuming that it was mandatory for all females to attend the program.

"why not E?

if we negate the statement, assumption fails!!

Ozlemg wrote:"why not E?

if we negate the statement, assumption fails!!

The answer is not E, because you are still assuming that pregnancy leads to dropouts.

If being pregnant does not imply that a student will dropout, you cannot determine if the program was successful or not solely based on the realized dropout rate

IMO the answer is D. Negating it does weaken the argument.

I am not sure how C weakens the conclusion that the program failed

cgoyal.amit, what is the source for this question?

Its from Kaplan Premier 2011... Q24 Page 57.

C is the correct answer.

Always try to avoid the words like all, most, every..

In 2001, a local high school implemented a new program designed to reduce the incidence of teenage pregnancy. The program, however failed to produce the desired result. If the program had been successful, the dropout rate for female students would not have increased substantially in 2001.

The argument depends on which of the following assumptions?
A) the number of teen pregnancies nation wide increased in 2001.
B) the number of teen pregnancies in 2001 was greater than the number of teen pregnancies in 1991
C) teenage pregnancy is a leading reason that female students leave school
D) the program was mandatory for all female students.
E) most 2001 female dropouts were not pregnant at any time during the year.

Between C and E,
E suggests that most female dropouts were not pregnant during the year. this suggests that the reason for dropout was not pregnancy! This choice actually weakens the main point of the argument. Hence it is not an assumption.
C on other hand is necessary for the conclusion to be true.

cgoyal.gmat wrote:In 2001, a local high school implemented a new program designed to reduce the incidence of teenage pregnancy. The program, however failed to produce the desired result. If the program had been successful, the dropout rate for female students would not have increased substantially in 2001.

The argument depends on which of the following assumptions?
A) the number of teen pregnancies nation wide increased in 2001.
B) the number of teen pregnancies in 2001 was greater than the number of teen pregnancies in 1991
C) teenage pregnancy is a leading reason that female students leave school
D) the program was mandatory for all female students.
E) most 2001 female dropouts were not pregnant at any time during the year.

Does anyone else also feel that the answer should be D rather than the OA which is C?

Thanks.

C