PrepTest 140, Section 3, Question 11
Secondary school students achieve broad mastery of the(49 more words not shown)
The conclusion can be properly(9 more words not shown)
- AAs long as(20 more words not shown)
- BEven if secondary(30 more words not shown)
- CSecondary school students(20 more words not shown)
- DTeaching secondary school(21 more words not shown)
- ESecondary school students(16 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
What if the teaching is appropriate, but the students aren't putting in the effort?
The first sentence gives us a combination: appropriate teaching methods plus significant student effort produce broad mastery. The author sees a school without broad mastery and immediately blames the teaching methods. But there were two ingredients. The students' effort could be the missing one.
We can make the problem concrete without changing the rule. Suppose the teachers choose exactly the right methods, but the students do almost no studying. The premise never promises mastery in that situation. So the students could fail to master the curriculum even though the methods are appropriate.
What we’re looking for
We're asked to make the conclusion follow. Then we need to close off that possibility. My first thought is to secure the effort part, so that a lack of mastery really does point to inappropriate methods. Watch for a rule that prevents appropriate teaching from coming with insufficient effort.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
Whenever the teaching methods are appropriate, the students will devote significant effort. That joins the two pieces we need: appropriate methods bring effort, and appropriate methods together with effort bring mastery.
Now imagine claiming that the methods were appropriate but mastery was absent. A would give us the effort, and the original premise would then give us mastery, contradicting that absence. So if mastery is absent, the methods cannot have been appropriate. A rules out the exact alternative we raised.
- B
This says that without effort, even appropriately taught students won't achieve mastery. That allows the situation we used to challenge the argument: good methods, insufficient effort, no mastery. It reinforces the need to consider effort instead of establishing that the teaching must be wrong.
- C
This gives a route from inappropriate teaching to a lack of mastery. The conclusion goes the other way: from a lack of mastery to inappropriate teaching. Even if poor methods prevent mastery, good methods paired with little effort could prevent mastery too. C doesn't rule out that second possibility.
- D
This explicitly says appropriate methods don't always produce mastery. But the conclusion needs us to rule out appropriate methods when mastery is absent. D leaves room for appropriate methods and no mastery to coexist, which doesn't establish the conclusion.
- E
Significant effort doesn't always produce mastery by itself. That is compatible with the original two-part rule, because the methods might be inappropriate. But telling us that effort alone can fail doesn't establish which ingredient is missing in the particular school.
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