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Question:

ISM wants more students with entrepreneurial mind-set in the next batch. To achieve this, ISM is considering following proposals:

Preparing a question paper of two parts, Parts A and Part B of duration of one hour each. Part A and Part B would consist of formula-based problems and application-based problems, respectively. After taking away Part A, Part B would be distributed. The qualifying cut-off percentile would be calculated on the combined scores of two parts.
Preparing a question paper comprising Part A and Part B. While Part A would comprise formula-based problems, Part B would comprise application-based problems, each having a separate qualifying cut-off percentile.
Assigning one mark for formula-based problems and two marks for application based problems as an incentive for attempting application-based problems.
Allotting one mark for formula-based problems and three marks for application-based problem, without mentioning this is the question paper.

Which of the following proposal (or combination of proposals) is likely to identify students with best entrepreneurial mind-set?

Explanation:

If the percentile for formula based questions and application based questions would be combined, students might maximise their score merely by attempting formula based questions. This is undesirable.
We can rule out proposal I.
Statement II is quite strong a stance, and would force students to attempt questions from both sections. However, students may attempt close to zero application based questions.
Statement III gives additional incentive to attempt ‘application-based problems’. Another advantage is that it might avoid the extreme outcomes of students attempting very few questions from ‘application-based problems’. A combination of proposals II and III would be ideal.
As it is already mentioned in the passage that even students with an entrepreneurial mindset avoid application based questions in order to score better, the college will not be able to identify students with an entrepreneurial mindset if they decide to not disclose the higher weightage of marks allotted to application based questions. Also, it is an unfair course of action. Hence, statement IV is not valid.
Hence, the correct answer is option 4.

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