Traditionally, students at Kelly University have evaluated professors on the last day of class. But some professors a...

Victoria on March 30, 2019

Hi @Steph

I always find 'strengthen with necessary' questions to be difficult too. When answering these types of questions, I always read through the passage to understand the argument the author is making. I then go through each individual answer choice to see how it affects the author's conclusion. The correct answer choice will be the one that, when negated, negatively impacts the author's ability to logically reach the same conclusion.

This passage outlines the current evaluation system at Kelly University. Under the current system, students evaluate their professors on the last day of class. The degree to which these evaluations accurately represent student opinions is impacted by three factors: (1) some professors do not distribute the evaluation forms; (2) some professors distribute the evaluation forms selectively; and (3) many students are unable to attend the last day of class.

Soon, Kelly University will allow students to use school computers to evaluate their professors throughout the semester. The author argues that this new system will "accurately reflect the distribution of student opinion about teaching performance."

So, we are looking for the answer choice that, when negated, no longer allows the conclusion that the new system will accurately reflect student opinion distribution to be drawn.

A is incorrect because it is irrelevant to the conclusion. It does not matter which subset of students to whom professors selectively distribute evaluations as selective distribution in and of itself ensures that the results do not accurately reflect the distribution of student opinions. Additionally, the subset of students to whom the evaluations are currently distributed has no impact on whether the new system will allow student opinions to be accurately reflected.

B is incorrect as it is also irrelevant. An opinion of teaching performance does not have to be wise or insightful to accurately reflect how a student feels. Additionally, the new system allows students to submit their evaluation at any time during the semester. This could include the final day of classes.

C is incorrect because it does not impact the conclusion. Whether the traditional system for evaluating teaching performance should be used at any university has no effect on whether the new system will accurately reflect the distribution of student opinions.

D is incorrect as it does not impact the conclusion. As with answer choice A, failing to distribute the evaluation to some or all the students in a class means that the results do not accurately reflect the distribution of student opinions. This has no impact on how effective the new system will be.

E is the correct answer choice for this question because the new evaluation system is based on student rather than professor choice. Previously, whether students filled out the evaluation form or not was dependent on the professor's choices in distribution and whether they could attend the last day of class. Now that the evaluations will be conducted on a school computer, students can choose at any point in the semester to evaluate their professor's performance or they can choose not to evaluate their professor at all.
If the assumption in answer choice E is negated, it states that dissatisfied students are more likely than satisfied to submit an evaluation. This means that the evaluations will be skewed and they will not accurately reflect the distribution of student opinion about teaching performance. This means that the author can no longer logically draw their conclusion and, therefore, that E is the assumption that is required by the argument.

Hope this helps! Please let us know if you have any further questions.