PrepTest 144, Section 4, Question 24
Professor: Many introductory undergraduate science courses are intended(72 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(8 more words not shown)
- AIf some of(29 more words not shown)
- BScience departments need(22 more words not shown)
- CSome of the(22 more words not shown)
- DNone of the(24 more words not shown)
- EIntroductory science courses(20 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Are these courses selecting the students they were designed to select?
Think of a demanding introductory chemistry course that makes students prove they are willing to do the work. The stated goal is strict: only the students most committed to being science majors should pass. The professor points to some passing students who are among the least enthusiastic about science and declares the goal unmet.
My first reaction might be that a few exceptions shouldn't condemn a course that works for almost everyone. But that response doesn't fit the goal as stated. “Only” doesn't allow uncommitted students through just because most of the other students fit the intended group. We need to check whether the students identified really establish a failure of that particular goal.
What we’re looking for
The question asks for an assumption the professor requires. Focus on the connection between the evidence about who passed and the conclusion about whom the course was supposed to select. We need a missing step in that reasoning, not a judgment about whether these demanding courses are a good idea.
Working the answers
- A
This concerns enthusiastic students failing. The professor's evidence concerns unenthusiastic students passing. Those are different situations. The argument doesn't need a rule about the former to claim that the latter shows the course isn't selecting the intended group.
- B
Whether science departments need this screening goal is separate from whether the courses achieve it. A course could fail at a goal that wasn't worth pursuing in the first place. We don't need to endorse the purpose to evaluate the professor's claim that it hasn't been served.
- C
We don't need any enthusiastic students to fail. Even if they all passed, the professor could still object that students outside the intended group were passing too. C adds a different possible outcome rather than connecting the stated outcome to the conclusion.
- DCorrect
Here is the change in wording we need to examine: enthusiasm about science isn't the same as commitment to being a science major. Someone might find the subject unexciting but work very hard to complete the major for a particular career. Low enthusiasm wouldn't establish low commitment.
The professor treats the least enthusiastic passing students as people outside the most committed group. D states that assumed separation. It lets the evidence about low enthusiasm count against the goal of allowing only the most committed students to pass. Without that connection, those passing students could be exactly the committed majors the course was meant to select.
- E
This recommends what to do after concluding that the courses haven't served their purpose. The argument is trying to establish that failure, not establish a policy for responding to it. We could believe the courses failed and still disagree about whether to continue, redesign, or replace them.
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