This is a rare question type that's sometimes called "relevant information".

We want to find the piece of information that's most inside the scope of the passage. It might strengthen the stimulus, it might weaken it - but it will definitely be relevant and allow us to determine how we feel about the author's conclusion.

The 4 wrong answers will all be outside the scope, i.e. irrelevant.

its definitely a strengthen question.

think about it. if you weaken the conclusion, then the study would be inaccurate. so you want something to support the conclusion and then the study will be accurate.

IMO B

all other 4 choices are arther strong.


whats the OA?

Seems a very old post. DOes anyone know the OA. IMO D

Hi!

The question asks us to determine the accuracy of the study. Accordingly, the correct answer must be a fact that's directly related to the study itself, not the results.

This distinction is very important; we're not being asked to strengthen or weaken the study's conclusion - we're being asked about its methodology and accuracy.

Looking at the choices:

a) nothing about the study/participants
b) talks about participants - keep it alive for now
c) nothing about the study/participants
d) nothing about the study/participants
e) talks about participants - keep it alive for now

Now let's look at B and E in more detail:

B says that people who changed their diets didn't change another key factor that could lead to different grades. In terms of studies, this means that those students were a good control group. So, B does make us believe that the results were accurate.

Consider the opposite of B: students who changed their diet ALSO changed their study habits. If this were the case, then we'd be worried that the changed study habits impacted the study results, making those results less accurate.

E says that all the participants were in 1st or 2nd year. Does that have any impact on the study? Not unless we make a whole bunch of assumptions about college students, something we're not supposed to do on the GMAT. Since E requires outside information to be relevant, it must be outside of the scope.

Choose B!

I agree that B is the correct choice. However, could you please make me understand why D is irrelevant.
It does talk about diet. I was unable to eliminate D straight away. Please guide where I am going wrong.

ajaarik wrote:I agree that B is the correct choice. However, could you please make me understand why D is irrelevant.
It does talk about diet. I was unable to eliminate D straight away. Please guide where I am going wrong.

Hi,

(D) might make us doubt that the conclusion is wrong, but it doesn't help us decide if the study is accurate; only information related to the study could possibly do so.

Stuart Kovinsky wrote:

ajaarik wrote:I agree that B is the correct choice. However, could you please make me understand why D is irrelevant.
It does talk about diet. I was unable to eliminate D straight away. Please guide where I am going wrong.

Hi,

(D) might make us doubt that the conclusion is wrong, but it doesn't help us decide if the study is accurate; only information related to the study could possibly do so.

Thanks a lot Stuart!! I am clear on this now.