Cracking the GMAT Question by Valmik

Valmik Desai
#1. February 9th, 2007, at 7:39 PM.

Hai koi Jawab ?

aoh
#2. February 10th, 2007, at 8:20 AM.

is it B and C?
student smoking decreased (only) because of the school program.

i was gonna go with either B or C for #1 because there is nothing mentioned about teachers. C says another cause is not the only cause, making the school program most effective.

for #2, if there is another cause, it is weakend. if students being allowed to go outside caused the decrease in student smoking, it’s weakened.

these are tough problems. what are the answers?

Jaimin
#3. February 10th, 2007, at 9:47 AM.

I think C for 1st & B for 2nd. whts yr opinions. Tricky questions..

Ravi
#4. February 10th, 2007, at 11:22 AM.

I think so too..
First C and second B.

bluesclues9
#5. February 10th, 2007, at 11:17 PM.

1) A
2) C

Kavya
#6. February 12th, 2007, at 11:07 AM.

I think
1)A
2)B

Prasad
#7. February 12th, 2007, at 12:18 PM.

1) A
2) B

Rajshree Misra
#8. February 12th, 2007, at 1:25 PM.

B&C

kartik
#9. February 12th, 2007, at 4:46 PM.

A & B

vinay
#10. February 14th, 2007, at 3:01 PM.

A
B

Renegade
#11. February 24th, 2007, at 3:21 PM.

A
B

baji4Mba
#12. February 24th, 2007, at 3:42 PM.

A&B

Yogi
#13. February 26th, 2007, at 1:36 PM.

Saw the same question in some yahoo group… following are the views for answering question 2… I concur with the same and feel that C is the answer for Q2.

————————–
Answer would C.

Reason: If you are not smoking in school ground and smoking outside, even then the porgram would be called successful. The important thing in not smoking is how long you can stay without smoking. So if you can stay without smoking for scholl hours lets say 9 hrs, then you are doing good.

But C says that people were able to go ot, so in all possibility smokers might have been smoking during that time. (Goes against the main argument).
————————————–
Here is my approach this CR

Whats the argument - The anti smoking education program was a success showing that the students smoking on the campus decreased by 70%

B says that most students who stopped smoking in the school campus - This stregthens the argument in terms of making students stop smoking inside the campus.If they smoke outside the campus or not is out of scope.

C says that There was a policy change and students can leave the campus during school hrs.If this is true, it clearly weakens the argument saying that the prog is a success as we dont know whether the students have stopped smoking or not.

A and D - Out of scope.

Yogi
#14. February 26th, 2007, at 1:38 PM.

As far as Q1 is concerned… A should be the answer
please let us know what is the answer given in the book.

reckless303
#15. March 21st, 2007, at 2:25 PM.

A & B

Roshambo
#16. June 22nd, 2007, at 7:53 PM.

1) B 2) C

KA
#17. February 26th, 2008, at 10:47 AM.

1>B
2>C

As this is a causal argument we need to remove an alternate or undermine an alternate expln to support the argument and introduce an alterate expl to weaken the argument
For 1st ques ans choice B suggests that doubling of prices is not the only reason for decrease of students smoking; thereby undermining an alternate expln
For 2nd ques ans choice C introduces an alternate expln that probably it is the new rule, which allows the students to leave the school, that is the main reason for the decrease in students smoking in school premises.

Hope the explns makes sense!!

juileed
#18. February 26th, 2008, at 11:56 AM.

i think
1)b
2)c

juileed
#19. February 26th, 2008, at 12:02 PM.

fo Q1 i am not finding anything but ‘b’
and for 2nd Q. i was between B andC but i ll go for C because the argument is about decrease percent in school premise. and c weakens that but not b because that doesnt say anything about school premise.

please correct me if i am wrong

Sarva
#20. February 27th, 2008, at 9:38 PM.

We stick just to the scope of the argument, the anti-smoking program was instituted to decrease smoking in the school premises. Considering that, author assumes that program was a success. So, for 1 - answer would be choice C, since it mentions the effectiveness of teachers in the program and supports author’s has assumption.

For, 2 answer choice C. I second Yogi’s reasoning.

Jitendra
#21. March 5th, 2008, at 7:53 AM.

Why nobody is considering ‘E’ for Q1 ?

Thinking of it, lets say the program was not effective at all, but the teachers were not vigilent enough, the students were still smoking but few were detected. And this led to decreased number on paper .
What say ?

Rajib Banerjee
#22. March 10th, 2008, at 9:44 PM.

My answers are A) and C) respectively

Explanation of Part I
==================================
A) Cigarettes are detrimental to one?s health; once people understand this they will quit smoking.
(B) The doubling of the price of a pack of cigarettes last year was not the only cause of the student?s altered smoking habits.
(C) The teachers chosen to lead the anti-smoking education program were the most effective teachers in the school system.
(D) The number of cigarettes smoked each day by those students who continued to smoke last year did not greatly increase.
(E) School policy enforcers were less vigilant in seeking out smokers last year than they were in previous years.

Considering from bottom up,
E) doesnot supports the success of anti smoking policy, hence discarded
D) Doesnot helps since it talks just opposite
C) This could be one
B) It clearly says, increasing the price doesnot helped
A) Students, once they were exposed to the hazards of smoking has understood and quit smoking.

Explanation of Part II
==================================
(A) The author of this statement is a school system official hoping to generate good publicity for the anti-smoking program.
(B) Most students who smoke stopped smoking on school premises last year but continued to smoke when away from school.
(C) Last year, another poliy change made it much easier for students to leave and return to school grounds during the school day.
(D) The school system spent more on anti-smoking education programs last year than it did in all previous years.
(E) the amount of time students spent in anti-smoking education programs last year resulted in a reduction of in-class hours devoted to academic subjects.

A) could be one reason but doesnot seem practical
B) Corcern is “smoking during school hours” not after school
C) This falls in the criteria of “smoking during school hours”, so eventhough students didnot smoke in school premise but may be during lunch breaks they did it outside
D) This supports the statement and doesnot weakens it
E) Again it supports the statement and irrelevant.

Richa
#23. March 11th, 2008, at 8:49 AM.

1. A
2. B

Prashanth
#24. March 11th, 2008, at 12:40 PM.

1.a
2.c

reetu
#25. March 11th, 2008, at 2:45 PM.

1. C
2. B

Reetu Singh
#26. March 24th, 2008, at 12:54 PM.

For Q2 , answer is ‘B’, in order to weaken the argument “the incidence of students smoking on school premises decreased by over 70 percent.” please note ’smoking on school premises’:

A) out of scope
(B) it seriously talks ab’t student not smoking on school premises but smoking outside as Most students who smoke stopped smoking on school premises last year but continued to smoke when away from school. that means the program is clrealy not susseccful if so.
(C) It doesn’t indicate if student leaving the school ground are neccesarily going out to smoke. there going out does not weakens the argument as nothing related to smoking is given here.
(D) not a good
(E) not good enough

robin
#27. April 16th, 2008, at 9:32 PM.

For 1, my choice is (B) as if this is true then only the program is successful

for 2, my choice is (C), because it gives a reason why students are not smoking in school premises, they might be smoking outside because of relaxed policies..
as with other choices we are not concerned what students are doing outside the premises

Take Gmat
#28. April 24th, 2008, at 3:42 PM.

A

urefriendforever
#29. May 16th, 2008, at 1:54 PM.

1st answer C….reason….
program was a success—evidence–70decrease in incidence of smoking on campus

program was instituted last year and for it to be successful it has to be implemented as efficiently as possible…and that requires some of the best people.

I did not choose A because, A is the motive behind the anti smoking program…a strong motive does not gurantee success, its the implementation of the program that makes it a success.

2nd question..

i choose C…because C represents that its not the program which cause a decrease in smoking….it was actually an increase in smoking last year on account of providing more liberty to students to have the opportunity to smoke..

What are the original answers?

njamal
#30. June 27th, 2008, at 11:08 AM.

What is the point of asking a question but not posting the proper answers? Unless they are posted somewhere else that I am not aware of (I am a new user).

This forum can be such a great tool…

By the way, my choices are:
1. A
2. B (It doesn’t say that it is only a success if people stop smoking on school grounds)

Manisha Sachdeva
#31. July 11th, 2008, at 12:06 AM.

Acc. to me…

1. B
2. B

ultramean2002
#32. July 15th, 2008, at 12:13 AM.

The answers according to me are:
1) A
2) B

Q 1) The statement is about Anti Smoking Education program. An education program tends to teach people something and not does not generally lower the price of some commodity. Hence, answer choice 1 which say that when people understand (learn) the cigarettes are harmful, they will stop smoking. This is the most important assumption.

Q 2) Again statement is about the Anti Smoking Education Program and it assumes that if the incidence of smoking in schools is reduced by 70% it also reduces the total smoking incidence outside of school. This is biggest assumption in the statement. Hence, answer choice B will weaken the argument the most.

Yogi - those people in Yahoo Groups have understood the questions completely wrong.

PavelZ
#33. July 18th, 2008, at 4:25 PM.

A
B

lakshmi
#34. August 2nd, 2008, at 4:40 PM.

1.C
2. B

Please let us know the correct answers for each question and also the reasoning. Unless the answers are posted at the end of the day or the next day it is of no use in checking this daily.

km
#35. August 2nd, 2008, at 9:13 PM.

Q1. The answer is A
The assumption is that the anti-smoking education was successful in explaining the students that it was harmful of them and so students left smoking.

Q2. The answer is C
The stem says that the smoking on school premises has decreased. But the students may have smoked outside school premises.

Akshit Bajaj
#36. August 3rd, 2008, at 5:17 PM.

A & C

Dharm
#37. August 4th, 2008, at 1:41 AM.

It’s C for the 1st question and B for the 2nd one

Rajesh
#38. August 4th, 2008, at 3:45 PM.

1.A
2.B

Pawan
#39. August 4th, 2008, at 4:09 PM.

1) B : The argument assumes that there is no different cause of decline in
smoking habit than the policy.

2) C : The program can be declared as Successful if authorities find
that students are not smoking on school premises.. So to weaken the clause
if there is a policy which allows students to go out and come back.. then
they might have been smoking outside and are still unnoticed..

ron
#40. August 4th, 2008, at 4:24 PM.

1. A
2. B are the answers

kapil
#41. August 5th, 2008, at 12:00 AM.

its B for q no 1 and
its C for q no 2

take gmat team pleas provide the right answers with explanation
thanx

Aditya
#42. August 5th, 2008, at 12:47 AM.

1. B
2. B

neelima
#43. August 5th, 2008, at 11:15 AM.

I feel its C for both the questions.

Rish
#44. August 5th, 2008, at 10:36 PM.

for 1) A
2) C

kapil_vats
#45. August 5th, 2008, at 11:37 PM.

My answers are 1)A
2)B

valmik pls post what are the answers given in the book……..
and also the reason.

Vamsi Krishna Kanuri
#46. August 7th, 2008, at 10:09 AM.

1st Ques - A
2nd Ques - C

nagaraju
#47. August 8th, 2008, at 7:17 PM.

C , B

Latha
#48. August 12th, 2008, at 10:36 AM.

A&C

basant23091988
#49. August 19th, 2008, at 12:20 PM.

I go for
1) A
2) B
the answer to the 1st ques was undrstood by almost all..
for the 2nd ques, the probable answers are B and C.
the question states that anti smoking program was instituted and it was a success. the explanatory example given in the statement is that incidences of smoking in school decreased by about 70%. the author has assumed that reduction in smoking incidences in school is equivalent to reduction in smoking incidences in general..
As far as answer choice C goes for the 2nd ques, it is nowhere stated that students going out of the school campus smokes.. They might be smoking or might not be smoking. so it does nowhere weakens the argument..

jeegar
#50. September 4th, 2008, at 10:02 AM.

Hi,
i would go with A and B could ne one please give the correct answers .

Best Regards,
Jeegar Mistry

jeegar
#51. September 4th, 2008, at 10:02 AM.

requesting some administrator to please give the correct answers

Arun
#52. September 5th, 2008, at 3:21 AM.

For me it looks like

1) C or A- Not sure.
C- The program was a success, the smoking reduced in school. It could be because it was led by good capable ppl.
A- it was because ppl were educated of the effects of smoking, they were ready to quit
2) B-
the best way to weaken the argument is to emphaisis that the smoking habit of ppl didnt change only the location where they smoked changed.

Valmiki bhai….Answer please…

Ramz
#53. September 5th, 2008, at 11:40 AM.

Answers are
1)B
2)B

reasonin for 1)its pretty simple to interpret that this is the assumption

reasonin for 2: 1st one clearly states they keep on smoking away from school whereas what he inferences from smoking education is that it was a success (and not only on school premises.that is just a quote)

Ramz
#54. September 5th, 2008, at 11:43 AM.

sorry..i take back the 1st one 1) A
because there that word “only” and that completely changes the circumstances