GMAT Essays (AWA)

Question:
The following appeared in a letter by the principal of North Lake Academy (NLA) to parents of students enrolled in the school.

“You are probably aware of the disappointing overall scores our students received on the latest standardized test. This performance was even more disappointing in light of the above-average performance on the same test of students at Riverside Academy (RA). In order to improve our scores, we have studied the curriculum at RA, which is known for the excellence of its foreign language programs, in particular ancient Greek. Well, if it was good enough for Socrates and Aristotle, it’s good enough for us. From now on, all students of NLA will study ancient Greek.”

Answer:
Principle of NLA want to inform the parents of students through his letter that the students of NLA has performed bad and this performance is worse than the performance of the students of RA, in one standardises test. And NLA is going to take some steps to improve the performance of their students. In order to do so, NLA has studied the curriculum RA and concluded that RA students have performed good because they are studying ancient Greek, so now on all student of NLA will study ancient Greek. Principle thinks that the students of NLA will perform better in standard test after studying ancient Greek. Argument of principle is flawed in light of poor analysis and ignorance of many facts.
First of all he needs to analyse that if it was a standard test for all, and both academy was aware of the syllabus of the test then both academies was aware that what all they should include in the curriculum of the students. Also if ancient Greek was part of syllabus and was never studied in NLA then it is the problem with curriculum maker and flaw was in internal strategy. In this case it was known to all faculty members and they have not taken any action on this. For understanding this we can compare this scenario with a computer user who has not connected his computer with the power and arguing that Microsoft programs does not work in absence of power and now on he will use power for any Microsoft program. So if this is the reason, it should be rectify by redesigning the curriculum.

There is also some weakness in the claim that by studying ancient Greek performance of students will improve in standard test. What if ancient Greek is an extra subject in RA and was never a part of syllabus of the test. In this case we can compare this ill concluded position with the comparison between a Student of US and a student of China. If student of China has performed better in GMAT than the student of US, and after that student of US has concluded that as he is not proficient in Chinese language that is why he couldn’t perform good in GMAT. And now onward he will take Chinese tuitions and reappear in GMAT soon. Simply this is a flawed decision and should be backed up with the fact whether it was a test only in ancient Greek or in some other subject.

Conclusion is also flawed under the fact that all standard tests should have a common syllabus for all and if NLA students have not performed well in that then there are chances that they were never trained well. In this situation improvement in the quality of faculty members can also be one positive step.

At the end of the day, it is very much clear that the difference between the test results of the students of both academies is because of many reasons and there are many places where the improvement is required in order to improve the performance of NA. The conclusion of principal is ill formed and should be rectify in the light of examples given in above paragraphs.