hard assumption question

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maria: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 39; Joined: Tue May 06, 2008 11:49 am; Thanked: 1 times

by maria » Wed Jun 04, 2008 11:34 am

A recent article stated that only 5.5% of American colleges grant the majority of their degrees in the liberal arts. Citing this, a reader wrote to lament that this was further evidence of the decline of academic rigor in American post high school education.

Which of the following is an assumption on the part of the reader?
A. The percentage of American colleges granting liberal arts degrees would continue to drop.
B. All colleges should grant the majority of their degrees in the liberal arts.
C. Most post-secondary scientific, engineering, and vocational training does not involve as much academic rigor as liberal arts training.
D. Academic rigor is the most important aspect of post high school education.
E. Of the colleges that do not grant the majority of their degrees in the liberal arts, many granted fewer than a quarter of their degrees in the liberal arts.

Help me pls. Thanks

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Critical Reasoning | Wed Jun 04, 2008 11:34 am

netigen: Legendary Member; Posts: 631; Joined: Mon Feb 18, 2008 11:57 pmFollowed by: 3 members; Thanked: 29 times

by netigen » Wed Jun 04, 2008 11:40 am

Only B and C hold any water
B is too extreme as it talks about "All colleges"
hence, I would go with C.

Test C by doing a logical negation

Most post-secondary scientific, engineering, and vocational training does involve as much academic rigor as liberal arts training.

Which does weaken the argument.

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pranavc: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 167; Joined: Tue Feb 26, 2008 4:37 amFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 5 times

by pranavc » Fri Jun 06, 2008 12:25 pm

C is the only option that addresses the bit about academic rigor and that phrase seems to lie at the heart of the reader's conclusion. Hence, I think C is the answer.

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ektamatta: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 151; Joined: Tue May 13, 2008 7:04 pm; Location: dallas,tx usa; Thanked: 6 times

OA

by ektamatta » Fri Jun 06, 2008 1:47 pm

whats the OA?

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envyramana: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 19; Joined: Tue Apr 29, 2008 1:29 pm; Thanked: 2 times

by envyramana » Fri Jun 06, 2008 2:17 pm

IMO A

further evidence of the decline;

He assumed it would drop further and wanted to complain about this!

Hope this helps
Ramana

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albertrahul: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 83; Joined: Wed Jun 04, 2008 3:30 am; Thanked: 4 times

Answer = C

by albertrahul » Sat Jun 07, 2008 5:56 am

IMO C

Reader wrote drop was further evidence of decline of academic rigor in American post high school education.

A is out of scope for me.
C addresses academic rigor as well as post secondary education.

What is OA?

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lunarpower: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3380; Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:20 amFollowed by: 1535 members; Thanked: 2256 times; GMAT Score:800

Re: hard assumption question

by lunarpower » Fri Jun 13, 2008 12:10 am

maria wrote:A recent article stated that only 5.5% of American colleges grant the majority of their degrees in the liberal arts. Citing this, a reader wrote to lament that this was further evidence of the decline of academic rigor in American post high school education.

Which of the following is an assumption on the part of the reader?
A. The percentage of American colleges granting liberal arts degrees would continue to drop.
B. All colleges should grant the majority of their degrees in the liberal arts.
C. Most post-secondary scientific, engineering, and vocational training does not involve as much academic rigor as liberal arts training.
D. Academic rigor is the most important aspect of post high school education.
E. Of the colleges that do not grant the majority of their degrees in the liberal arts, many granted fewer than a quarter of their degrees in the liberal arts.

Help me pls. Thanks

whenever a conclusion contains specifics that do not appear in the premises, you have a logic gap, which MUST be filled in by an assumption.

in this case, the premises only address percentages of degrees granted in the liberal arts (vis-a-vis other subjects); the conclusion invokes academic rigor.
clearly, then, some sort of assumption is needed to CONNECT these two ideas and bridge the logic gap. only choice (c) does so effectively: it connects the ideas of (1) subject area - liberal arts vs. others - and (2) academic rigor in a manner such that the argument proceeds logically.
the assumption is of course preposterous (liberal arts more rigorous than science or engineering? ahahaha!), but that matters not.

Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

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tokaitalbo: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 8; Joined: Thu Jan 03, 2008 9:45 pm

by tokaitalbo » Fri Jun 13, 2008 7:53 am

the entire time i was thinking C couldn't possibly be it, because eschool is def harder than liberal arts.

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lunarpower: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3380; Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:20 amFollowed by: 1535 members; Thanked: 2256 times; GMAT Score:800

by lunarpower » Fri Jun 13, 2008 10:40 am

tokaitalbo wrote:the entire time i was thinking C couldn't possibly be it, because eschool is def harder than liberal arts.

take this as a very important lesson: do not let 'common sense' get in the way of your analysis of a critical reasoning passage.

for instance:
replace 'academic rigor' with 'chocolate eclairs', and change choice c to something like 'students in scientific/engineering/vocational training don't eat as many chocolate eclairs as do liberal arts students'.
if you make these changes, then the logic of the passage is completely unchanged (although the face value of the content has gone from merely implausible to completely absurd). the point is, though, that the LOGIC is still the same. that is all that matters. (you have to learn to 'think like a logical robot'.)

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Target2009: Legendary Member; Posts: 574; Joined: Sat Oct 31, 2009 1:47 pmFollowed by: 5 members; Location: USA; Thanked: 29 times

by Target2009 » Mon Jan 03, 2011 9:45 pm

IMO - C

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singalong: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 95; Joined: Wed Feb 09, 2011 6:42 amFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 1 times

by singalong » Tue Jan 10, 2012 5:27 pm

lunarpower wrote:
maria wrote:A recent article stated that only 5.5% of American colleges grant the majority of their degrees in the liberal arts. Citing this, a reader wrote to lament that this was further evidence of the decline of academic rigor in American post high school education.

Which of the following is an assumption on the part of the reader?
A. The percentage of American colleges granting liberal arts degrees would continue to drop.
B. All colleges should grant the majority of their degrees in the liberal arts.
C. Most post-secondary scientific, engineering, and vocational training does not involve as much academic rigor as liberal arts training.
D. Academic rigor is the most important aspect of post high school education.
E. Of the colleges that do not grant the majority of their degrees in the liberal arts, many granted fewer than a quarter of their degrees in the liberal arts.

Help me pls. Thanks
whenever a conclusion contains specifics that do not appear in the premises, you have a logic gap, which MUST be filled in by an assumption.

in this case, the premises only address percentages of degrees granted in the liberal arts (vis-a-vis other subjects); the conclusion invokes academic rigor.

I wasn't able to make the connection between liberal arts and 'subjects'.

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ArunangsuSahu: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 382; Joined: Thu Mar 31, 2011 5:47 pm; Thanked: 15 times

by ArunangsuSahu » Tue Jan 10, 2012 9:20 pm

The Answer is (C). Let me break down the CR

(1) only 5.5% of American colleges grant the majority of their degrees in the liberal arts--Just a Statement as of now
(2) Citing this(above)[Reader is becoming too specific]--reader laments : this was further evidence of the decline of academic rigor in American post high school education---Reader thinks (assumes)Liberal arts has more academic Rigor than any other subjects

So answer Choice is (C)

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