#20 - Students from outside the province of Markland, who

[Dave Killoran]

Complete Question Explanation

Must Be True—#%. The correct answer choice is (E)

The stimulus does not contain a conclusion, but it does contain an interesting fact set:

• “Students from outside the province of Markland, who in any given academic year pay twice as much tuition each as do students from Markland, had traditionally accounted for at least two‑thirds of the enrollment at Central Markland College.”

This sentence indicates that the non-Marklanders are paying a greater amount of tuition, and they previously accounted for at least 66% of the enrollment. This statement is followed by:

• “Over the past 10 years academic standards at the college have risen, and the proportion of students who are not Marklanders has dropped to around 40 percent.”

This sentence can be deceptive because it contains two ideas that are unrelated and many people assume that the proportion of non-Marklanders has dropped because the academic standards rose. The sentence only states that the non-Marklanders have dropped, not that they dropped because of the raised standards. You can expect to see wrong answers that attempt to see if you incorrectly assumed that the higher standards caused the non-Marklander enrollment drop.

The fact that the non-Marklanders have dropped in percent does not mean that their actual number has decreased (this would be Numerical Misconception #2, as identified in our materials). The following is an example of how the percent could decrease while numbers could increase:

10 years ago Today

Total number of students at Central 100 200
Markland

Number of non-Markland students 66 (66%) 80 (40%)
(people/percent of total)

Number of Markland students 34 (34%) 120 (60%)
(people/percent of total)



Answer choice (A): The stimulus does not cite any reason for why or how the academic standards were increased, so this answer is incorrect.

Answer choice (B): This answer tests your ability to understand the last sentence of the stimulus. As discussed above, the last sentence does not provide a reason for the decline in non-Markland students, so removing the stipulation about the rise in academic standards would not tell us whether non-Marklanders would still be enrolled in the college.

Answer choice (C): This is a difficult answer. If the size of the college stayed the same, then this answer would be correct. But, as shown by the example above, the statement in this answer does not have to be true when the total size of the college changes. In the example, both Markland and non-Markland student numbers grew.

Answer choice (D): Remember, this is a Must Be True question, so every answer must pass the Fact Test. No information was given about other Markland colleges, so this answer is incorrect.

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer. If the college’s per capita revenue from tuition remains constant while at the same time the high-tuition paying non-Marklanders have decreased in percentage, the college must have derived new tuition revenue by raising tuition. In other words, when the percentage of non-Marklanders drops, the average tuition per person must also drop because they pay twice as much as the Markland students. In order to keep the per person revenue the same, fees would have to be raised.

[GLMDYP]

Hi Powerscore!
For this question, I'm just wondering for (E), the word "tuition fee" means "revenue earned by Central Markland College", right?
Thanks!

[David Boyle]

Hi Powerscore!
For this question, I'm just wondering for (E), the word "tuition fee" means "revenue earned by Central Markland College", right?
Thanks!

Hello GLMDYP,

"More or less", although maybe they also have a stock portfolio for all we know. Obviously, the tuition fee would tend to be *one* form of revenue earned by the college, and the problem does focus on tuition.
Hope that helps,

David

[curiosity]

So I don't really understand why E is correct, especially since the stimulus says at LEAST 2/3rds, meaning it could range from 66% to 99% (leaving one percent for the Marklanders, theoretically). Hence if it dropped from 99% to around 40% then, since the Marklanders are paying double the tuition, but their percentage actually dropped to more than half of what it was, then the tuition did not necessarily have to increase after all! Am I just seriously overthinking this? I can get it by POE now, but I'd really like to know the absolute logic behind this, especially with the use of "at least" and "around" - how are you supposed to determine any mathematical calculations with such imprecise language?

Thanks for your help, Powerscore!

[Lucas Moreau]

Hello, curiosity,

It's not exactly a mathematical calculation, and the precision isn't strictly necessary to answer the question. I can see why you'd think that, though, it does get tricky!

The answer here is, we're looking at a decreasing population of higher-paying-tuition students (non-Marklanders) and an increasing population of lower-paying-tuition students (Marklanders). If less students - say, switching from 70% to 40%, to pick random numbers - are paying double tuition, but the total tuition revenue is the same per capita, then tuition must have risen.

Do you see why? You'd think having less double-tuition students would cause your tuition per capita to decrease, since on average each person would be paying less. But if the tuition per capita does not decrease, then everyone's tuition must have gone up, to keep the average where it is.

You don't need exact numbers to make this calculation, the fact of it going from at least 66% down to 40% is all you need. The difference between 66% 40% and 99.9% 40% doesn't change the answer to the question.

Hope that helps,
Lucas Moreau

[curiosity]

Makes sense, thanks for your explanation. This is embarrassing to admit, but I didn't know "per capita" meant per person, which is why I got tripped up.

I guess this is one of those common sense things I'm supposed to know, huh? Are there any other good phrases or vocab to know? Is there such a list?

Thanks again.

[Jon Denning]

No list per se, but yes, the test makers expect you to know the basics of things like science, economics, mathematics, etc., in the same way that they expect a basic command of the English language and grammar, sentence structure, and the like.

My advice is to continue to immerse yourself in test content, and also try to read academic-level type literature: the Wall Street Journal, the New Yorker/New York Times, etc.

[maximbasu]

Question, I now understand the logic.
However, what about the possibility of expanding the college?

Everyone's tuition does not have to go up if the faculty decides to expand the college and accommodate more students from Markland.

Maxim

[Emily Haney-Caron]

Hi Maxim,

E is talking about per capita revenue, meaning how much money they make from each student. That rules out the possibility that you identified.

[biskam]

B is incorrect because we don't know for sure that this hypothetical would be true, right?