#4 - Oscar: Clearly, student evaluations provide the best

[Administrator]

Please post your questions below!

[lsatstudying11]

Hello!

I get why C is the better answer than D, but I am a little thrown off by the fact that Bettina gives the option of a 'better alternative' to student evaluations. In this case, couldn't it be said that Oscar and Bettina disagree? I feel like what makes D problematic is that Bettina also gives the option of adding a supplement to student evaluations, which I am thinking stands in the way of D being necessarily a point of disagreement. I guess what I am wondering is whether D is wrong because it is not a point on which they necessarily disagree, though it is possible that they might disagree? More broadly, for questions like this, is the correct answer always going to refer to something that the two people necessarily (and not only possibly) disagree on? Thanks in advance

[Frank Peter]

Hi Lsatstudying,

is the correct answer always going to refer to something that the two people necessarily (and not only possibly) disagree on?

That is exactly right. With regards to (D), we know that Oscar would disagree that teacher performance should be assessed without student evaluations, but Bettina's viewpoint we can't be quite sure about. It's possible Bettina would agree, but we cannot say for sure.

(C) is the better answer because we know that they have clear viewpoints on this issue. Oscar thinks student evaluations are the "best assessment", but Bettina clearly thinks there is room for improvement.

[christinecwt]

Hi Team - I won'der why Answer Choice A is incorrect?

[atierney]

Hello,

Let's use the agree/agree test. Oscar says that the students are best at evaluating the teachers, so he would certainly agree with A. Bettina says that students' judgements of the teacher will become more accurate over time, so he would probably also agree with A, just not at the end of the class. Thus, both would agree with A, and so A is not the best answer.

Let me know if you have further questions on this.

[Morgan2cats]

Hi PowerScore,

Could you explain what answer A means for me? I found the "ever capable" part very comfusing. Thanks!

[Jeff Wren]

Hi Morgan,

In Answer A, "ever capable" basically means "it is possible that students may be capable (at some point) of adequately judging a teacher's performance."

We know that Oscar certainly believes that students are capable of adequately judging a teacher's performance, which is why Oscar believes that "student evaluations provide the best assessment of teaching performance." Oscar would agree with Answer A.

For Answer A to be correct, Bettina would need to disagree with this statement. She would need to believe that students are never capable of adequately judging a teacher's performance. However, Bettina never makes that claim; instead she only states that "students generally fail to appreciate the impact of a teacher until many years later." This allows for the fact that some students may be capable of adequately judging a teacher's performance.