Critical Reasoning

Ripped from the Headlines!

I took this question from a recent news story about a school that was doing this. As always I appreciate comments so that I can edit the question as necessary. Have fun!


School official: In this difficult job market it is important to give our students every opportunity for success. Our students have had difficulty in recent years in landing jobs at prestigious firms and in gaining admission to prominent graduate programs, such as top law schools and medical schools. One reason for our difficulty is the strict grading scale used at this university. Our students graduate with lower GPAs relative to comparable students at other universities. Therefore, in order to strengthen our students' resumes, we should simply raise GPAs, retroactively, by ½ point for all current students and those who have graduated within the last 8 years.

Which of the following, if true, would most undermine the possibility of success of the official's plan?

A) Students who have already enrolled in graduate programs would not benefit from the GPA increase.

B) The plan to increase GPAs only for students who have graduated within the past 8 is unfair to students who graduated earlier.

C) Competing schools will raise the GPAs of their students and recent graduates in response to the plan above.

D) A few employers may consider the GPAs reported by the school to be less valid since they have been artificially raised.

E) Some students might have GPAs exceeding the maximum 4.0 if this plan in implemented.

I feel like you're baiting us to pick D, so I am avoiding choosing that answer. Plus a few out of the whole is rather insignificant.

I guess the answer will probably be C for me. "Competing schools" raising their GPA in response to this school raising its GPA would result in moot.

Though D is one of the contenders, IMO C is the most undermining option for this question.

D has problems. It uses word 'few' let's say there are 10 employers and out of them only 1 (few) will not consider this GPA. What about remaining 9?

D has one more problem. it is very wide and talks about school, but which school? We don't know.

However, C discards these issues.

We have school A in question and other competing schools, irrespective of name of the school, are also following the same plan. In that case net effect of school A's plan is zero.

C does not uses any limiting words such as few, more, most, some.

Therefore, C is most undermining option.

Interesting question. C, D and E - all undermine the possibility of success of this plan.

I'd go with E because for sure if the candidate's resume has a GPA beyond the max limit, it'll surely raise concerns and doubt the credibility of the institution.

My pick is C

A) Students who have already enrolled in graduate programs would not benefit from the GPA increase. - the official's plan is not really for these students...its for students who are looking to make it into graduation school (they haven't still) or are looking to get a job

B) The plan to increase GPAs only for students who have graduated within the past 8 is unfair to students who graduated earlier. ( maybe unfair ..may not be unfair...but surely doesn't undermine the official's plan )

C) Competing schools may raise the GPAs of their students and recent graduates in response to the plan above. ( this is m pick..so if the competing school increase their GPA then the official's university students loose the competitive edge of having a better GPA..It would be like their GPA's never increased)

D) A few employers may consider the GPAs reported by the school to be less valid since they have been artificially raised.
Shouldn't undermine the official's plan of ensuring better looking resumes by increasing the GPA's

E) Some students might have GPAs exceeding the maximum 4.0 if this plan in implemented. Irrelevant. Here we are talking about the over-all student population of this university and not about the geeks of the university

OA is C

This 3P/ 3S (plan) question requires an answer that weakens that connection between the plan and the goal.

The plan is to raise GPAs for current students and recent graduates by ½ point. The goal is to strengthen the resumes of these students and, by extension, their chances of getting top jobs and admission to prestigious graduate schools. The correct answer will indicate that increasing the GPAs will not necessarily lead to stronger resumes.

Choice C is the correct answer since other schools raising GPAs for their students will still leave the students attending the above university with lower GPAs relative to other schools.

Choice A is peripheral to the discussion since those students already attending graduate schools are not as much in need of the GPA boost.

Choice B does not directly address the goal of making current students and recent graduates more marketable, instead it speaks of fairness, which is not the goal of this plan.

Choice D is not correct because a few employers discounting the new grades does not mean that the plan will not succeed.

Choice E is an interesting point that the plan will have to address, but it does not mean that the entire plan will not succeed. Maybe some GPAs will have to be explained and maybe some GPAs will appear a little too high...but C undercuts the whole plan.

C is right.

Again, good question David as it had a couple of close answers.

IMO C

Can We eliminate E because only the toppers would suffer

David, If D says "most employers may consider the GPAs reported by the school to be less valid since they have been artificially raised. " Is D the correct answer.

Yes ahnan you are correct.

If most employers thought the GPAs were not valid then it would certainly undermine the plan. I would say that it would be a better answer at that point than C is because with C the other schools "may" raise their GPAs as well.

So the answer is yes, your hypothetical choice D would be the best to weaken.

School official: In this difficult job market it is important to give our students every opportunity for success. Our students have had difficulty in recent years in landing jobs at prestigious firms and in gaining admission to prominent graduate programs, such as top law schools and medical schools. One reason for our difficulty is the strict grading scale used at this university. Our students graduate with lower GPAs relative to comparable students at other universities. Therefore, in order to strengthen our students' resumes, we should simply raise GPAs, retroactively, by ½ point for all current students and those who have graduated within the last 8 years.

Which of the following, if true, would most undermine the possibility of success of the official's plan?

A) Students who have already enrolled in graduate programs would not benefit from the GPA increase.
B) The plan to increase GPAs only for students who have graduated within the past 8 is unfair to students who graduated earlier.
C) Competing schools may raise the GPAs of their students and recent graduates in response to the plan above.
D) A few employers may consider the GPAs reported by the school to be less valid since they have been artificially raised.
E) Some students might have GPAs exceeding the maximum 4.0 if this plan in implemented.

Conclusion : to strengthen our students' resumes simply raise GPAs
Premise : students have had difficulty because of lower GPA compare to other Uni. Students
Fail to consider : What if other uni also implement the same plan; students GPA will still looks relatively low. C say this, so IMO - C

School official: In this difficult job market it is important to give our students every opportunity for success. Our students have had difficulty in recent years in landing jobs at prestigious firms and in gaining admission to prominent graduate programs, such as top law schools and medical schools. One reason for our difficulty is the strict grading scale used at this university. Our students graduate with lower GPAs relative to comparable students at other universities. Therefore, in order to strengthen our students’ resumes, we should simply raise GPAs, retroactively, by ½ point for all current students and those who have graduated within the last 8 years.

Which of the following, if true, would most undermine the possibility of success of the official’s plan?

A) Students who have already enrolled in graduate programs would not benefit from the GPA increase.

B) The plan to increase GPAs only for students who have graduated within the past 8 is unfair to students who graduated earlier.

C) Competing schools may raise the GPAs of their students and recent graduates in response to the plan above.

D) A few employers may consider the GPAs reported by the school to be less valid since they have been artificially raised.

E) Some students might have GPAs exceeding the maximum 4.0 if this plan in implemented.

@David@VeritasPrep:

I liked this question because it seems to be pretty close to actual GMAT problems. Usually, though, from what I have seen, 'real' GMAT questions don't allow for more than 1 answer choice that really undermine the conclusion.

In this case, C will most likely have a negative effect on the envisioned success of the plan. However, D will also have a negative effect on the outcome of that plan although that effect will probably not be as strong as in C (because it says FEW employers). Taking C literally, if it is true that competing colleges may (or may not) raise their GPAs, that doesn't mean that the plan's success will necessarily be undermined. If only 1 out of 20 competing schools does so, the plan will likely still succeed. Basically, the test-taker has to weigh few employers against colleges that MAY EVENTUALLY do something. That seems a little too vague.

Therefore my proposal for editing this question: Replace the 'may' in choice C with 'will'. Admittedly, that will make the question a little easier, but, at least in my view, it will also make it a little better (and it's pretty good already).

What do you think?

It does make it clearer to make the change that you suggested!

I edited the question and have a few of my students try it your way...

Thank you very much for helping in this process. This is the way that questions are made better.

I will let you know what I find out!

Thanks!

David

Thanks!

Don't mention it, David!