A student notes question tests whether you can use facts to meet a writing goal. Read the goal first, and list what the sentence must explain so you know which facts matter. If the goal gives a competing explanation, ask how the study’s comparisons help tell the explanations apart. Set aside sentences that don't explain that link, then check each claim against the notes. A sentence can sound convincing while claiming more than the study shows.
Hints
- Hint 1
Break the goal into its demands: what conclusion needs support, and what other explanation must the sentence address?
- Hint 2
In the fifth bullet, look for what the 0.7 percentage points measures. Which groups are being compared?
- Hint 3
Compare the interest-rate gaps at both kinds of banks. How does that comparison help you judge the guarantee’s role while benchmark rates were falling?
Step-by-step
Use the comparisons to explain the effect
Step 1Find what the goal needs
The goal’s phrase explain how the study’s comparisons support the conclusion calls for more than a report of falling rates. What must the sentence explain? We need a reason tied to the comparisons, showing why the guarantee mattered even with the economy-wide benchmark decrease.
- Step 2
Read the 0.7 as a relative change
The firms were close in size and began with nearly identical average interest rates, so we can track how their rates moved apart. What does the later 0.7 measure? At participating banks, qualifying firms’ rates fell 0.7 percentage points relative to rates for just-ineligible firms, which means a new advantage over the comparison group. The remaining 0.2 percentage points sentence treats 0.7 as a total drop and subtracts the benchmark decrease. But 0.7 measures a change in the gap.
- Step 3
Limit what the gaps tell us
At nonparticipating banks, the interest-rate gap between the two groups remained essentially unchanged. Does that tell us whether rates fell? An unchanged gap doesn't reveal each group’s rate change, because both groups could move together or stay level. The lowered rates for both size groups sentence claims rate changes the notes don't give. The no influence on any participating bank’s loan rates sentence claims the benchmark had no effect, which the notes don't show.
- Step 4
Connect the contrast to the cause
Why can't the benchmark decrease alone explain the pattern? Both kinds of banks faced the economy-wide decrease, yet the new advantage appeared only at banks offering the guarantee. The 0.7-percentage-point advantage sentence uses that contrast between participating banks and nonparticipating banks to support an added effect of the guarantee. Choice B.