Self-study
Traditionally, students at Kelly University have evaluated professors on the last day of class. ███ ████ ██████████ ██ █████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███ █████ ██████████ █████ ██ ██ ██ ████████████ ███ ████ ████████ ██████ ██████ ███ ████ ███ ██ ██████ █████ ████████ ████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ██████ █████████ ██ ████████ █████ ██████████ ██ ███ ████ ██████ ███ █████████ ██████████ ███████████ █████ ███ ███ ██████ ████ ██████████ ███████ ███ ████████████ ██ ███████ ███████ █████ ████████ ████████████
Summary
The author concludes that computerized evaluations of professors will accurately reflect student opinion about teaching. His reasoning is that students can submit these evaluations at any time during the semester.
Notable Assumptions
The author reaches an absolute conclusion: the new evaluations will accurately reflect student opinion. They won’t just be more accurate than the old system, they will be completely accurate. But what if some students don’t use the school computers? What if students who get disappointing grades are more likely to fill out the evaluation? What if students submit computer evaluations early, and change their minds by the end of the semester?
The author has to assume that none of the potential problems that could limit a survey’s accuracy apply. This includes problems that aren’t specific to the new computer evaluations.
17.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ████████ ██ ███ █████████
a
Professors who distribute ███ █████ ██████████ █████ ███████████ ██████████ ████ ████ ██ ████████ ████ ██████████ █████
The author’s argument is that the new, computerized evaluation forms are accurate. So whether the previous, paper evaluation was accurate is irrelevant.
b
Students can wisely ███ ████████████ ██████ █ ███████████ ███████████ ██████ ███ ███ ██ ███ █████████
The author’s conclusion is that the evaluations will accurately reflect what students think, not that what students think is accurate. Whether the students’ assessments are wise or foolish is irrelevant to the author’s argument here.
c
The traditional system ███ ██████████ ████████ ███████████ ██████ ███ ██ ████ ██ ███ ███████████
The author’s conclusion is simply that the new system of evaluation is accurate. Assuming that no university anywhere should use the old system would be far beyond the scope of his argument.
d
Nearly all professors ███ ████ ██ ██████████ ███ █████ ██████████ █████ ██ ██ ███████ ████ ███████ ███ ████████ ████ ████████ ████ ████████████
The author’s conclusion is an absolute one about the computer evaluations (specifically, that they’re accurate). So he doesn’t need to make any assumptions about the paper evaluations.
e
Dissatisfied students are ██ ███████ ███ ████ ██████ ████ █████████ ████████ ██ ██████ █ ████████████ ███████████
The negation is: dissatisfied students are more likely to submit computerized evaluations than satisfied students. If so, the evaluations would represent a biased sample, and might not be an accurate reflection of student opinion. This would undermine the author’s argument.