A student claims that if she wanted to make a solution quickly, she should use small pellets instead of powder along with heating and stirring. Do you agree or disagree with the student's claim? I am confused on this so I would greatly appreciate anyone’s help.

Yes, the student is right, one should use pellets of the reactant should be heated and stirred for mixing properly.

Explanation:

In case of smaller particles the surface area that is being exposed increases and the due to this the reaction occurs faster.

Increasing the temperature of the temperature, increases the kinetic energy of the particles which helps in easy mixing of the particles.

The collision in between the particles also increase while stirring and thus the rate of reaction increases.

So, the heating and stirring is more preferred over powered reactant for making a solution quickly.