Most of the Students Who Took Spanish 101 at the University GMAT Critical Reasoning

Question: Most of the students who took Spanish 101 at the University last semester attended every class. However, each student who received a grade lower than B minus missed at least one class session.

Which one of the following statements about the students who took Spanish 101 at the University last semester can be properly inferred from the information above?

1. At least some of the students who received a grade of A-minus or higher attended every session.
2. Most, if not all, of the students who missed at least one class session, received a grade lower than B.
3. Most of the students received a grade higher B minus.
4. At least one student who received a grade of B minus or higher missed one or more class sessions.
5. More than half of the students received a grade of B minus or higher.

Most of the Students Who Took Spanish 101 at the University Last Semester Attended Every Class- is a GMAT Critical question. This particular GMAT Critical Reasoning topic has been taken from ‘The Official Guide of GMAT Verbal Review’. GMAT critical reasoning questions is examining how well a candidate can analyze the argument, find its flaws, and develop a plan of action. This is a paradox-type question. A paradox, in GMAT critical reasoning, means the presence of two contradictory pieces of information in an argument. The GMAT CR section contains 10 -13 GMAT critical reasoning questions out of 36 GMAT verbal questions. 

Answer: E

Explanation: 

Let’s go through all the available options and see which one fits the given passage the best.

Option A: At least some of the students who received a grade of A-minus or higher attended every session.

Option A states that at least some of the students who have received an A-minus grade or higher than that attended every single session. This statement is nowhere mentioned in the passage. We are talking only about students who have received a grade lower than B minus. The statement is not relevant to the information that is given to us in the above passage. So, Option A is incorrect.

Option B: Most, if not all, of the students who missed at least one class session, received a grade lower than B.

According to Option B, most of the students who have missed a minimum of one class session got a grade lower than B. We are talking about two groups here. Group X of students who received a grade lower than B minus and Group Y of students who missed at least one class. It is possible that only one student got a grade lower than B minus and the remaining group of Y got an A. So, this does not satisfy the statement given in the passage. Option B is incorrect.

Option C: Most of the students received a grade higher B minus.

Option C states that most of the students have got a grade higher than B minus. We are talking about students who got a grade of B minus and higher and not about students who have got a grade higher than B minus. It is possible that the students who attended all the classes got a B minus and the remaining who missed at least one class received a grade lower than a B minus. But no one has got a grade higher than B minus. So, Option C is incorrect.

Option D: At least one student who received a grade of B minus or higher missed one or more class sessions.

As per Option D, at least one student who got a grade of B minus or higher than that has missed one or more than one classes. This is the opposite of the statement we got in Option C and since we are not talking about students who got a grade higher than B minus, Option D is incorrect.

Option E: More than half of the students received a grade of B minus or higher.

Option E states that more than half of the students have got a grade of B minus or higher. We know that only a few students missed one class or more, let’s take the case where the students who missed at least one class get a grade less than B minus. The remaining students would have got a B minus or higher and since most of the students belong to the remaining students, more than half of the students got a grade of B minus or higher. Option E is correct.

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