cheever college offers
Cheever College offers several online courses via remote computer connection, in addition to traditional classroom-based courses. A study of student performance at Cheever found that, overall, the average student grade for online courses matched that for classroom-based courses. In this calculation of the average grade, course withdrawals were weighted as equivalent to a course failure, and the rate of withdrawal was much lower for students enrolled in classroom-based courses than for students enrolled in online courses.
If the statements above are true, which of the following must also be true of Cheever College?
(A) Among students who did not withdraw, students enrolled in online courses got higher grades, on average, than students enrolled in classroom-based courses.
(B) The number of students enrolled per course at the start of the school term is much higher, on average, for the online courses than for the classroom-based courses.
(C) There are no students who take both an online and a classroom-based course in the same school term.
(D) Among Cheever College students with the best grades, a significant majority take online, rather than classroom-based, courses.
(E) Courses offered online tend to deal with subject matter that is less challenging than that of classroom-based courses.
My Ques: How do we infer A?
Riya
Here is my take:
Premise 1: Course withdrawal = Course failure
Premise 2: Rate of withdrawal was much lower for students enrolled in classroom-based courses than for students enrolled in online courses
This means number of failed students in class room based courses < number of failed students in online courses
Premise 3: Average student grade for online courses = Average student grade for classroom-based courses
From 2 & 3: Although online courses resulted in more failures than did class room based courses, the average grade remained same for both. This means, on an average, students enrolled in online courses must have got higher grades.
Admin:
Can you please tell how is D different from A? D seems similar to A. Is D wrong because it makes a generalised statement about enrollment of students getting best grades. The genralised statement that majority of students getting best grades are enrolled in online course implies that students enrolled in online courses got higher grades than those enrolled in classroom based courses. So isn’t D the same as A in meaning.
Hi Sandeep,
Like you mentioned, D is a generalized statement when it comes to best grades. Also, D reverses the causal relationship by saying
Best grades -> enrollment in classroom
