Kravonia

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Kravonia

by daretodream » Thu Feb 18, 2010 11:11 pm
In Kravonia, the average salary for jobs requiring a college degree has always been higher than the average salary for jobs that do not require a degree. Over the last few years, the number of Kravonians enrolled in college has been growing steadily. Therefore, the number of Kravonians entering the job market who have at least the qualification of a college degree will eventuallty be significantly higher than it has been over the last few years.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

A. Kravonians with more than one college degree earn little more, on average, than do Kravonians with only one college degree
B. The average number of years Kravonian college students remain enrolled before completing a degree has been increasing over the past several of years.
C. Despite the increase in the number of Kravonians attending college, the percentage of the population attending college is lower in Kravonia than in most other countries.
D. In recent years, empoyers have been requiring college degrees for workers in jobs that were previously performed successfully by Kravonians who did not have college degrees.
E. For many years, employers in Kravonia hva ehad difficulty finding enough college graduates to fill the high-paying jobs that were available.

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by komal » Thu Feb 18, 2010 11:37 pm
daretodream wrote:In Kravonia, the average salary for jobs requiring a college degree has always been higher than the average salary for jobs that do not require a degree. Over the last few years, the number of Kravonians enrolled in college has been growing steadily. Therefore, the number of Kravonians entering the job market who have at least the qualification of a college degree will eventuallty be significantly higher than it has been over the last few years.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

A. Kravonians with more than one college degree earn little more, on average, than do Kravonians with only one college degree
Incorrect : Number of college degrees is clearly out of scope.

B. The average number of years Kravonian college students remain enrolled before completing a degree has been increasing over the past several of years.
Correct : This one states that years kravonian students remained enrolled is increasing for past several of years. So there will be not much impact of increase in enrollment on "Kravonians entering the job market with a college degree" since this has been happening for the past several years.

C. Despite the increase in the number of Kravonians attending college, the percentage of the population attending college is lower in Kravonia than in most other countries.
Incorrect : Percentage of population attending college in other countries is clearly out of scope.

D. In recent years, empoyers have been requiring college degrees for workers in jobs that were previously performed successfully by Kravonians who did not have college degrees.
Incorrect : Strengthens the argument.

E. For many years, employers in Kravonia hva ehad difficulty finding enough college graduates to fill the high-paying jobs that were available.
Incorrect : Irrelevant
Last edited by komal on Fri Feb 19, 2010 1:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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by thephoenix » Thu Feb 18, 2010 11:41 pm
A. Kravonians with more than one college degree earn little more, on average, than do Kravonians with only one college degree. Irrelevant.
B. The average number of years Kravonian college students remain enrolled before completing a degree has been increasing over the past several of years.
C. Despite the increase in the number of Kravonians attending college, the percentage of the population attending college is lower in Kravonia than in most other countries. Comparison with other countries is irrelevant .
D. In recent years, employers have been requiring college degrees for workers in jobs that were previously performed successfully by Kravonians who did not have college degrees. It supports the conclusion.
E. For many years, employers in Kravonia have had difficulty finding enough college graduates to fill the high-paying jobs that were available. Irrelevant


IMO B

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by ssgmatter » Sun Jul 11, 2010 3:15 am
Hi Guys,

So what is the correct OA for this one..I am really confused...Please advise...

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by DanaJ » Sun Jul 11, 2010 4:13 am
Received a PM.

The structure of the argument is as follows:
- jobs with college degree pay more than jobs without a degree
- the number of people enrolled in college is rising steadily
- the number of people who have a college degree will be significantly higher in the future

If you're used to reading the stimulus first, this is the type of question that you should try to anticipate. As soon as I finished reading the stimulus, my initial thought was that the correct answer must be something along the lines: "Despite the increased enrollment, about the same number of people manage to graduate". It wasn't this, but it was something close enough.

A is irrelevant because it does not discuss the number of people finishing college, it merely concerns a comparison between two categories.

B is the correct answer. If it takes longer for people to finish college, even if there are more of them studying, it won't really have an immediate impact since the extra length will compensate for the increased number of students.

C is again irrelevant, since we're only looking for comparisons between college grads now and college grads later.

D is wrong because the labor market requirements do not affect this argument. The fact that employers are asking for more qualifications does not affect the number of people who graduate college.

E may be true, but again it does not help us in the comparison between the numbers of college grads now versus later.

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by ssgmatter » Sun Jul 11, 2010 4:33 am
Thankyou Dana for sharing your thoughts.

Let me see if I got this one more clearly now:

B weakens the conclusion of the arg because if the number of years for which the students enrolled before completing the college degree then the number of kravonians entering the job market with coll degree would not be significantly higher than it has been last year....

In other words number of kravonians with coll degree would not increase immediately....

Hope this makes some sense!

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by georgepaul0071987 » Mon Sep 10, 2012 9:09 am
I arrived at (B) through the process of elimination . But the usage of the weird "eventually" makes me thing that (B) doesn't really have much of an effect on the argument .

Even if people take more time to finish their degrees , "eventually" they do finish it so "eventually" the number of Kravonians entering the job market will be higher . My question basically revolves around the usage of the "eventually" , if this word was removed then I don't have any doubt in this question .

Can any expert help me out ?

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by KapTeacherEli » Mon Sep 10, 2012 9:30 am
georgepaul0071987 wrote:I arrived at (B) through the process of elimination . But the usage of the weird "eventually" makes me thing that (B) doesn't really have much of an effect on the argument .

Even if people take more time to finish their degrees , "eventually" they do finish it so "eventually" the number of Kravonians entering the job market will be higher . My question basically revolves around the usage of the "eventually" , if this word was removed then I don't have any doubt in this question .

Can any expert help me out ?
Hi George,

If students go to 4-year college institutions instead of 2-year programs, you can have twice as many students enrolled in college at once but still have the same number graduating each year!
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by GMATGuruNY » Mon Sep 10, 2012 10:23 am
georgepaul0071987 wrote:
In Kravonia, the average salary for jobs requiring a college degree has always been higher than the average salary for jobs that do not require a degree. Over the last few years, the number of Kravonians enrolled in college has been growing steadily. Therefore, the number of Kravonians entering the job market who have at least the qualification of a college degree will eventuallty be significantly higher than it has been over the last few years.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

A. Kravonians with more than one college degree earn little more, on average, than do Kravonians with only one college degree
B. The average number of years Kravonian college students remain enrolled before completing a degree has been increasing over the past several of years.
C. Despite the increase in the number of Kravonians attending college, the percentage of the population attending college is lower in Kravonia than in most other countries.
D. In recent years, empoyers have been requiring college degrees for workers in jobs that were previously performed successfully by Kravonians who did not have college degrees.
E. For many years, employers in Kravonia hva ehad difficulty finding enough college graduates to fill the high-paying jobs that were available.
I arrived at (B) through the process of elimination . But the usage of the weird "eventually" makes me thing that (B) doesn't really have much of an effect on the argument .

Even if people take more time to finish their degrees , "eventually" they do finish it so "eventually" the number of Kravonians entering the job market will be higher . My question basically revolves around the usage of the "eventually" , if this word was removed then I don't have any doubt in this question .

Can any expert help me out ?
I received a PM asking me to comment.

Premise: In recent years, the number ENROLLED in college has been GROWING steadily.
Conclusion: The number ENTERING THE JOB MARKET who have at least a college degree will eventually be significantly HIGHER.
The ASSUMPTION is that MORE people are going to college: that the growing ENROLLMENT is due to a growing ADMISSIONS rate.

The correct answer must BREAK THE LINK between the growing enrollment and the number entering the job market.

Answer choice B: The average number of years Kravonian college students remain enrolled before completing a degree has been increasing over the past several of years.
This answer choice provides an ALTERNATE reason for the growing enrollment: students are TAKING LONGER to complete a degree.
If students are sticking around, it's entirely possible that there has been a DECREASE in the number of NEW students admitted over the last few years -- weakening the conclusion that the number ENTERING THE JOB MARKET will eventually be significantly higher.

The correct answer is B.
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by ankurjaini » Thu Oct 15, 2015 5:43 pm
komal wrote:
daretodream wrote:In Kravonia, the average salary for jobs requiring a college degree has always been higher than the average salary for jobs that do not require a degree. Over the last few years, the number of Kravonians enrolled in college has been growing steadily. Therefore, the number of Kravonians entering the job market who have at least the qualification of a college degree will eventuallty be significantly higher than it has been over the last few years.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

A. Kravonians with more than one college degree earn little more, on average, than do Kravonians with only one college degree
Incorrect : Number of college degrees is clearly out of scope.

B. The average number of years Kravonian college students remain enrolled before completing a degree has been increasing over the past several of years.
Correct : This one states that years kravonian students remained enrolled is increasing for past several of years. So there will be not much impact of increase in enrollment on "Kravonians entering the job market with a college degree" since this has been happening for the past several years.

C. Despite the increase in the number of Kravonians attending college, the percentage of the population attending college is lower in Kravonia than in most other countries.
Incorrect : Percentage of population attending college in other countries is clearly out of scope.

D. In recent years, empoyers have been requiring college degrees for workers in jobs that were previously performed successfully by Kravonians who did not have college degrees.
Incorrect : Strengthens the argument.

E. For many years, employers in Kravonia hva ehad difficulty finding enough college graduates to fill the high-paying jobs that were available.
Incorrect : Irrelevant
Hi Komal,

I am having a hard time understanding and answering this question.
Agreed A, C, D and E are incorrect. But I am unable to digest that option B actually weakens the argument.

The argument says "number of...will eventually be significantly higher than previous years" - So, it says the number of graduates will eventually be higher, which IMO is correct. Lets say, yesterday there were 100 people enrolling in college. Today, there are 1000. At the same time, the duration of college is increasing, say from 3 years to 5 years (as option B). But so what ? If not after 3 year, but then after 5 years the number of graduates will be higher ie., "eventually" they will be higher at some point in time in future. Thus, this option again strengthens the argument.

I tried looking lot many resources on internet and all the explanation says the same as yours. But again, hard time accepting the explanation.

Do you mind helping me more here ?