Logical reasoning PrepTest 101 · Section 2 · Question 4

Flawed

Bizarro / Strengthen Questions

Problem - Quitting smoking is hard because it’s stressful and leads to weight gain

Study - Between those who went to a quit-smoking program, more of those who started exercising quit after a month than those who didn’t (0 of the latter group quit)

Solution - Replacing smoking with a healthy habit (e.g., exercise) may help quit

Strengthen questions require us to identify any flaws in the argument, as we strengthen arguments by providing information that makes an assumption more likely to be true. In Bizarro Strengthen questions, since there will be four answers that strengthen the argument, there’s a good chance that we’ll see multiple flaws. We should identify all that we can while staying flexible when analyzing answers in case we missed a gap in the reasoning.

Here, the argument is heavily reliant on a study. Whenever there’s a study, we should think about a Sampling flaw. Here, there’s no indication that the study was large and random. While in a normal Strengthen question the lack of a reason to doubt that it was large/random would mean a Sampling answer is unlikely, in a Bizarro question, since there are so many strengthen answers, that not being established likely means we’ll get at least one answer here - one that establishes the sample is large/random.

Also related to the study, the results were only measured at the one-month mark, bringing a timeline element into the argument. If the results change over time, that would weaken this argument, so any answer that establishes the results hold over a longer time period would strengthen this argument.

With all these potential correct answers established, let’s head to the answer choices.