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Cheever College offers several online courses via remote computer connection, in addition to traditional classroom-based courses. A study of student performance at Cheever found that, overall, the average student grade for online courses matched that for classroom-based courses. In this calculation of the average grade, course withdrawals were weighted as equivalent to a course failure, and the rate of withdrawal was much lower for students enrolled in classroom-based courses than for students enrolled in online courses.
If the statements above are true, which of the following must also be true of Cheever College?
| Passage Statement | Visualization and Linkage |
|---|---|
| Cheever College offers several online courses via remote computer connection, in addition to traditional classroom-based courses. | Context Setting: Establishes two delivery formats
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| A study of student performance at Cheever found that, overall, the average student grade for online courses matched that for classroom-based courses. | Performance Equality: Equal average grades across formats
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| In this calculation of the average grade, course withdrawals were weighted as equivalent to a course failure | Grading Methodology: Withdrawal = Failure in calculations
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| the rate of withdrawal was much lower for students enrolled in classroom-based courses than for students enrolled in online courses. | Withdrawal Rate Disparity: Online has more withdrawals
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| Overall Implication | The Paradox: Despite online courses having more withdrawals (which count as failures), the average grades are still equal. This means online students who complete courses must be performing better than classroom students who complete courses to offset the withdrawal penalty. |
Inference: Among students who do not withdraw, the average grade for online courses is higher than the average grade for classroom-based courses.
Supporting Logic: Since withdrawals are counted as failures and online courses have a much higher withdrawal rate than classroom courses, yet both course types have the same overall average grade, the students who remain in online courses must be achieving higher grades to compensate for the negative impact of the additional withdrawals. The higher withdrawal rate in online courses would mathematically drag down the overall average unless offset by superior performance from non-withdrawing students.
Clarification Note: This inference focuses specifically on the performance difference among completing students, not on why online courses might produce better grades or why students withdraw more frequently from online courses.
This MUST be true based on the mathematical relationship described in the passage. Since online courses have much higher withdrawal rates (and withdrawals count as failures), yet the overall averages are equal between online and classroom courses, the only way this is possible is if the students who don't withdraw from online courses are getting higher grades than those who don't withdraw from classroom courses. The better performance of completing online students offsets the negative impact of more withdrawals.
We have no information about enrollment numbers at the start of terms. The passage tells us about withdrawal rates and grade averages, but nothing that would allow us to determine initial enrollment sizes. This is not something that must be true.
There's nothing in the passage that prevents students from taking both types of courses simultaneously. The passage discusses performance comparisons between course types but doesn't establish any mutual exclusivity. This is not required to be true.
We cannot determine the composition of the best-performing students from the given information. While we know that non-withdrawing online students perform better on average than non-withdrawing classroom students, this doesn't tell us about the distribution among the very top performers. This goes beyond what must be true.
The passage provides no information about subject matter difficulty or content. The performance differences we can infer are based on mathematical relationships involving withdrawal rates and averages, not on course content difficulty. This is not something that must be true based on the given facts.