Self-study
Professor: The number of new university students who enter as chemistry majors has not changed in the last ten years, and job prospects for graduates with chemistry degrees are better than ever. ███████ █████ █████ ███ ████ █ ███████████ ███████ ████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ███████ █████████ ████████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Why has there been a significant decline over the past decade in the number of people earning chemistry degrees, even though during that period the number of new university students who enter as chemistry majors hasn’t changed, and job prospects for graduates with chemistry degrees have improved?
Objective
The correct answer should tell us about something that has changed over the past decade that could cause a decline in the number of students who graduate with a chemistry degree after starting university as a chemistry major.
20.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████
a
Many students enter ████████████ ███████ ███ ████████ ██████████ ████ ██ █████████ ███ ████████ ██ ██████████
This doesn’t tell us about something that changed over the past decade, so it can’t help explain a decline in chemistry graduates over that period. (A) might be a reason chemistry majors might change majors, but it doesn’t explain why there’s been an increase in that number.
b
There has been █ ███████████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ █████████████ ███████ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ ████████ ██ █ ██████
The stimulus gives us specific reasons to think that the number of chemistry graduates wouldn’t go down. What’s happened generally with natural sciences degrees doesn’t explain what happened to chemistry degrees.
c
Many students are ████ ██████ ██ █████ ██████ ████ ████ ████ █ █████ ████ ████████ █████████████
This doesn’t tell us about something that changed over the past decade, so it can’t help explain a decline in chemistry graduates over that period. (C) suggests students would change majors, but doesn’t explain an increase in the number who change majors.
d
Job prospects for █████████ ████ █████████ ███████ ███ ██ ██████ ████ █████████ ███ █████████ ████ ███████ █████ ███████ ████████
This doesn’t tell us about something that changed over the past decade, so it can’t help explain a decline in chemistry graduates over that period. Also, we still know job prospects for chem graduates has improved, so we’d still expect chem graduates not to decline.
e
Over the years, ██████████ █████████ ███ ████ ██ ██ ██████ ██ █ ████ █████████ ██████████ ████████ █████ ███████ ███ ████████████ ███████
This describes a change over time that could explain why the number of students who switch away from a chemistry major has increased. This is the only answer that involves a change over time that provides a potential theory that could lead to fewer chemistry graduates.