Q17 - Traditionally, students at Kelly University

[Shiggins]

I was stuck between E and B and chose E. I chose E in that it shows how both sides of students, satisfied and dissatisfied students help the distibution of grades, since they both express their opinons with the new computer system. Is B not right due to the students making their assesments before the end of the semester, really does not have any bearing on the distribution since it does not indicate both sides of students like E. If anyone can help explain or refine what I wrote, much appreciated.

[noah]

You may be complicating this more than needed - consider that necessary assumptions are often "stopping" problems from ruining the argument.

The conclusion is that the computer evaluations will accurately reflect student opinion (i.e. distribution).

Why? Because students can submit their evaluations anytime during the semester.

Now, what's the gap or debate point? What comes to my mind is "couldn't there be something that makes the evaluations inaccurate?" Tons of potential issues come to mind - students lying, students not filling them in, only satisfied students filling them in, or, as (E) addresses, dissatisfied students being more likely to fill in surveys. This nicely addresses a potential gap that's specific to the issue of distribution, upon which the argument focuses.

Since this is a necessary assumption question, we can use the negation test. If we negate (E) - dissatisfied students are more likely to submit a computerized evaluation - how can we conclude that the new system will accurately reflect student opinion?

(A) is about the old system.

(B) is tempting, because it seems fishy that students can evaluate a teacher at any time during the semester. However, even if they can evaluate them wisely and insightfully only at the end of the semester, we could still draw our conclusion. Perhaps that's when students are evaluating, regardless of the freedom to do it whenever. Also, who says students need to do an evaluation wisely and insightfully for the evaluation to accurately reflect the distribution of student opinion?

(C) is about what should be done or not done - this argument is not making any suggestions.

(D) is about the old system. We're not comparing the two systems.

[shaynfernandez]

If you negate (B) it also weakens the argument.
"Students can NOT wisely and insightfully assess a professor's performance before the end of the semester."

How would that not weaken an argument that says a new system will accurately reflect the distribution of student opinion about teaching performance, if students can't wisely assess a professors performance?

[noah]

If you negate (B) it also weakens the argument.
"Students can NOT wisely and insightfully assess a professor's performance before the end of the semester."

How would that not weaken an argument that says a new system will accurately reflect the distribution of student opinion about teaching performance, if students can't wisely assess a professors performance?

Do evaluations need to be wisely and insightfully done to accurately reflect the distribution of student opinion? And, is it a problem if students have to wait until the end of the semester to do an evalution that way? Couldn't this new system - even if it's not used until the end of the semester - still allow us to conclude an accurate distribution?

Got it?

[LSAT-Chang]

Hi Noah, quick question on this one.
I was a little confused with "distribution of student opinion" since I understood it as to mean that each student will accurately evaluate the professor -- but looking at your conclusion post above, it seems like it means "distribution" -- so does this mean overall average? And so since the conclusion here is that the evaluations will accurately reflect the distribution of student opinion, is the argument assuming that it will not be leaned on one side over the other (i.e. horrible prof or amazing prof)? So (E) gets at this since if we had 100 dissatisfied students submitting the evaluation saying that the professor sucked, and only 1 not dissatisfied student saying that he/she loved the professor, then this isn't really an "accurate reflection" of the professor??? I am just confused as to what the "accurately reflect the distribution of student opinion" is referring to. Does my question make sense?

[noah]

Yes, "distribution" is referring to the evaluations accurately reflecting the range and relative frequency of opinions of the students.

If 100 dissatisfied students submitted an evaluation, and only 1 satisfied one did, this would be fine if ~ 99% of students are dissatisfied. But, as (E) notes, if that may be happening because dissatisfied students are more likely to submit an evaluation, then the actual percent of dissatisfaction could be much lower.

[shirando21]

You may be complicating this more than needed - consider that necessary assumptions are often "stopping" problems from ruining the argument.

The conclusion is that the computer evaluations will accurately reflect student opinion (i.e. distribution).

Why? Because students can submit their evaluations anytime during the semester.

Now, what's the gap or debate point? What comes to my mind is "couldn't there be something that makes the evaluations inaccurate?" Tons of potential issues come to mind - students lying, students not filling them in, only satisfied students filling them in, or, as (E) addresses, dissatisfied students being more likely to fill in surveys. This nicely addresses a potential gap that's specific to the issue of distribution, upon which the argument focuses.

Since this is a necessary assumption question, we can use the negation test. If we negate (E) - dissatisfied students are more likely to submit a computerized evaluation - how can we conclude that the new system will accurately reflect student opinion?

(A) is about the old system.

(B) is tempting, because it seems fishy that students can evaluate a teacher at any time during the semester. However, even if they can evaluate them wisely and insightfully only at the end of the semester, we could still draw our conclusion. Perhaps that's when students are evaluating, regardless of the freedom to do it whenever. Also, who says students need to do an evaluation wisely and insightfully for the evaluation to accurately reflect the distribution of student opinion?

(C) is about what should be done or not done - this argument is not making any suggestions.

(D) is about the old system. We're not comparing the two systems.

Nice explanation. B is more than necessary. I am always making this mistake.

[JovyT883]

Hi Noah, quick question on this one.
I was a little confused with "distribution of student opinion" since I understood it as to mean that each student will accurately evaluate the professor -- but looking at your conclusion post above, it seems like it means "distribution" -- so does this mean overall average? And so since the conclusion here is that the evaluations will accurately reflect the distribution of student opinion, is the argument assuming that it will not be leaned on one side over the other (i.e. horrible prof or amazing prof)? So (E) gets at this since if we had 100 dissatisfied students submitting the evaluation saying that the professor sucked, and only 1 not dissatisfied student saying that he/she loved the professor, then this isn't really an "accurate reflection" of the professor??? I am just confused as to what the "accurately reflect the distribution of student opinion" is referring to. Does my question make sense?

I was also struggling whether "accurate distribution" is saying that students are evaluating the professors accurately or the result of evaluation is not reflecting the situation because either side of students do not submit evaluation. But when I look at the stimulus again, since it has stated as premises that "some professor either do not distribute the paper evaluation forms or do so selectively, and many students cannot attend the last day of school. Can we interpret from these premises that the conclusion concerns the accuracy in terms of "result of evaluation reflects the situation accurately because there isn't much discrepancy in the number of students favorable and unfavorable to the professor submitting the evaluation" (ie. what (E) is assuming)?

Thanks!

[snoopy]

I was also struggling whether "accurate distribution" is saying that students are evaluating the professors accurately or the result of evaluation is not reflecting the situation because either side of students do not submit evaluation. But when I look at the stimulus again, since it has stated as premises that "some professor either do not distribute the paper evaluation forms or do so selectively, and many students cannot attend the last day of school. Can we interpret from these premises that the conclusion concerns the accuracy in terms of "result of evaluation reflects the situation accurately because there isn't much discrepancy in the number of students favorable and unfavorable to the professor submitting the evaluation" (ie. what (E) is assuming)?

Thanks!

Yes.

"Accurate distribution of student opinion" isn't referring to the accuracy of the student evaluations but the accuracy of student representation.