[Bryson]

I sent it to my missus - who checks Masters and PhD theses for a living. She said:

"Awkward sentence. Delete it and start again."

Banana's sentence is almost correct. It need an "a";

Hargie observed that intelligent students are more eager to respond to a challenging process question over a mundane recall question.

or it needs to go plural:

Hargie observed that intelligent students are more eager to respond to challenging process questions over mundane recall questions.

I prefer the plural, because "students" is plural in the beginning of the sentence.