Critical Reasoning

The children in the second grade at a local elementary school scored lower on tests of math skills this year than the second graders did last year. The school board blames the disappointing results on the budget cuts that forced the school to consolidate several classes of second-grade students, thus depriving them of the individualized attention that they had previously enjoyed.
Which of the following, if true, best supports the explanation offered by the school board for the students' lower test scores?

A) Students at other elementary schools in the area also scored poorly on the same test of math skills this year.
B) No new textbooks were purchased by the school board this year.
C) The test that the second graders took this year was not more difficult than the test that the second graders took last year.
D) Students in the third grade at the elementary school performed better in math this year than the third graders did last year.
E)Other schools in the area also experienced severe budget cuts.

IMO C)

xcusemeplz2009 wrote:The children in the second grade at a local elementary school scored lower on tests of math skills this year than the second graders did last year. The school board blames the disappointing results on the budget cuts that forced the school to consolidate several classes of second-grade students, thus depriving them of the individualized attention that they had previously enjoyed.
Which of the following, if true, best supports the explanation offered by the school board for the students' lower test scores?

A) Students at other elementary schools in the area also scored poorly on the same test of math skills this year.
B) No new textbooks were purchased by the school board this year.
C) The test that the second graders took this year was not more difficult than the test that the second graders took last year.
D) Students in the third grade at the elementary school performed better in math this year than the third graders did last year.
E)Other schools in the area also experienced severe budget cuts.

A. Other Elementary schools is OOS
B. Irrelevant
C. Correct. eliminate alternate possibility
D.Sudents of Third grade.....irreleavnt
E. Other schools....irrelevant

A classic GMAT strengthen type of question. The rule is if a statement voids a scenario which would collapse the conclusion or weaken it - then its a good Strengthen-Statement.

The role of C is exactly this.

xcusemeplz2009 wrote:The children in the second grade at a local elementary school scored lower on tests of math skills this year than the second graders did last year. The school board blames the disappointing results on the budget cuts that forced the school to consolidate several classes of second-grade students, thus depriving them of the individualized attention that they had previously enjoyed.
Which of the following, if true, best supports the explanation offered by the school board for the students' lower test scores?

A) Students at other elementary schools in the area also scored poorly on the same test of math skills this year.
B) No new textbooks were purchased by the school board this year.
C) The test that the second graders took this year was not more difficult than the test that the second graders took last year.
D) Students in the third grade at the elementary school performed better in math this year than the third graders did last year.
E)Other schools in the area also experienced severe budget cuts.

There are certain types of arguments that appear frequently in CR; one of the most common is causality.

A causal argument boils down to "X caused Y". On the GMAT, the evidence usually details a phenomenon that's occured and the conclusion is the author's explanation for why it occured.

Here, the phenomenon is the poor test results and the author's explanation is the compacted classes. We can summarize the entire argument as:

"The compacting of the classes caused the poor test scores."

This question is asking us to support the explanation, so we have a strengthening question.

The biggest advantage to spotting a causal argument is that you can make very quick predictions about what the answer is likely to do.

For weakeners, look for an alternative cause.

For strengtheners, look to remove an alternative cause.

So, our prediction: a choice that removes another reason why scores would go down.

Quickly attacking the choices:

a) doesn't match our prediction;

b) doesn't match our prediction;

c) perfect! An alternative explanation would have been "this year's test IS more difficult"; we have removed that possibility, so (c) strengthens the argument.

xcusemeplz2009 wrote:The children in the second grade at a local elementary school scored lower on tests of math skills this year than the second graders did last year. The school board blames the disappointing results on the budget cuts that forced the school to consolidate several classes of second-grade students, thus depriving them of the individualized attention that they had previously enjoyed.
Which of the following, if true, best supports the explanation offered by the school board for the students' lower test scores?

A) Students at other elementary schools in the area also scored poorly on the same test of math skills this year.
B) No new textbooks were purchased by the school board this year.
C) The test that the second graders took this year was not more difficult than the test that the second graders took last year.
D) Students in the third grade at the elementary school performed better in math this year than the third graders did last year.
E)Other schools in the area also experienced severe budget cuts.

This question is actually simple. Given the difficulty of the test is constant the only effect is the budget cut and hence C is the answer. OA??

IMO - C

IMO-C.
I think rest of the choices are quite irrelevant.

I will Go with option C in this case.