The proportion of women among students enrolled in higher education programs has increased over the past decades. This is partly...
GMAT Critical Reasoning : (CR) Questions
The proportion of women among students enrolled in higher education programs has increased over the past decades. This is partly shown by the fact that in 1959, only 11 percent of the women between twenty and twenty-one were enrolled in college, while in 1981, 30 percent of the women between twenty and twenty-one were enrolled in college.
To evaluate the argument above, it would be most useful to compare 1959 and 1981 with regard to which of the following characteristics?
Passage Analysis:
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
| The proportion of women among students enrolled in higher education programs has increased over the past decades. |
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| This is partly shown by the fact that in 1959, only 11 percent of the women between twenty and twenty-one were enrolled in college, while in 1981, 30 percent of the women between twenty and twenty-one were enrolled in college. |
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Argument Flow:
The argument starts with a broad conclusion about women's increased participation in higher education, then backs it up with specific percentage data comparing two time periods.
Main Conclusion:
The proportion of women among students in higher education has increased over the past decades.
Logical Structure:
The author uses a simple evidence-to-conclusion structure. The statistical comparison between 1959 and 1981 enrollment rates serves as proof for the broader claim about increasing female participation in higher education.
Prethinking:
Question type:
Evaluate - We need to identify what additional information would help us determine whether the evidence actually supports the conclusion about women's proportion among all students increasing
Precision of Claims
The conclusion claims that the proportion of women AMONG students has increased. The evidence shows that the percentage of women (aged 20-21) enrolling in college increased from 11% to 30%. These are measuring different things - proportion among students vs. enrollment rate of women
Strategy
The argument has a potential gap between what it concludes (women's proportion among all students) and what it proves (women's enrollment rates). We need to think about what information would help us evaluate whether this evidence actually supports the conclusion. Key areas to consider: What happened to male enrollment rates during the same period? What about other age groups? Are we comparing the right metrics?
The percentage of women between twenty and twenty-one who were not enrolled in college. This gives us the same information we already have, just inverted. If 11% of women were enrolled in 1959, then 89% were not enrolled. This doesn't help us evaluate whether women's proportion among all students increased because we still don't know anything about male enrollment patterns.
The percentage of women between twenty and twenty-five who graduated from college. This shifts the focus to a different age group (20-25 vs 20-21) and to graduation rather than enrollment. While this might be interesting demographic data, it doesn't help us evaluate whether the specific evidence provided (enrollment rates for 20-21 year olds) supports the conclusion about women's proportion among students.
The percentage of women who, after attending college, entered highly paid professions. This information is about post-graduation career outcomes, which is completely unrelated to evaluating whether women's proportion among students increased. The argument is about enrollment patterns, not career success after college.
The percentage of men between twenty and twenty-one who were enrolled in college. This is exactly what we need! To determine if women's proportion among students increased, we need to know what happened to male enrollment during the same period. If male enrollment stayed constant while female enrollment increased (11% to 30%), then women's proportion among students definitely increased. But if male enrollment also increased significantly, women's proportion might not have changed much at all. This data would allow us to calculate the actual proportions and properly evaluate the argument.
The percentage of men who graduated from high school. High school graduation rates don't directly help us evaluate college enrollment patterns. While there might be some correlation, this information is too indirect and doesn't provide the specific comparison we need to assess whether women's proportion among college students increased.