Logical reasoning PrepTest 101 · Section 3 · Question 1

Incorrect. Neither voter talks about how cumbersome it is to change the voter registration process. The closest either gets is Francis's statement that the process is itself cumbersome.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument/Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed/Flawed

Question Type:
Point at Issue

Stimulus Summary:
F: 1/3 of eligible voters are unregistered, so if it were easier to register, more people would register/vote.

S: That's been tried and it didn't work, because most people don't think their vote matters. That's gotta change before more people register.

Answer Anticipation:
When dealing with a Point at Issue question, it's important to identify what both speakers talk about. And, in this case, both arguments deal with providing an explanation for the same phenomenon.

That phenomenon? That there's a relatively large number of people in Lagonia that aren't registered to vote.

Francis believes that the main reason for this is that it's "excessively cumbersome" to register. Sharon disagrees with that—she believes that making registering easier hasn't really affected the registration rate. Rather, she puts forward a different explanation—most people believe that their vote won't matter.

Since the two disagree on the explanation for a given phenomenon, we should look for an answer reflecting that.

Answer Explanation:
Francis believes the excessively burdensome registration process explains the low registration rate. Sharon, on the other hand, thinks it's the belief that votes don't matter. They disagree on why so many citizens don't register to vote, as this answer states, so it's correct.

Key Takeaway:
Our Anticipation focused on talking about the phenomenon/explanation pattern here. We've seen that pattern show up in plenty of questions, though it's much more common in Strengthen/Weaken questions than Point at Issue questions. These patterns, though, are relevant whenever they show up, so don't ignore them just because it's not the question type you normally see it in!

Incorrect. Francis puts that percentage at 33%, and Sharon never disputes that.

Incorrect. Sharon states that this is the case. While Francis says that the process is excessively cumbersome, that doesn't mean he believes they haven't made it easier—maybe it went from super-excessively cumbersome to just excessively cumbersome!

Incorrect. This answer is out of scope of Francis's argument, and Sharon also doesn't bring up the reason that people lack confidence in the effects of their voting—just that it prevents many from registering.