Logical reasoning PrepTest 102 · Section 3 · Question 5

Question prompt

Adults who work outside Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: D

The notes below walk through why it fits the stem and how to eliminate the rest.

Argument or Facts

Facts

Valid or Flawed

NA

Question Type

Paradox Questions

Stimulus Summary

Difference - Adults who work outside home spend 1.67 less each week on dinner prep than those who don’t Similarity - Both sets of adults have dinners with the same nutrition, variety, and number of courses

Answer Anticipation

As with all Paradox questions, we should start by clearly defining the paradox. And this Paradox question deals with comparisons, which is a common trend in the question type, so let’s keep our eyes on that. Here, the stimulus presents a difference - one group spends significantly less time making dinner than another group. From this, you might expect that the dinners they prepare are different as well. However, they’re not - they’re similar on multiple fronts (nutrition, variety, courses). Since this argument brings up similarities and differences in the paradox, we need to spend some time to think about whether we’re looking for an answer with a relevant similarity or a relevant difference. Here, could a relevant difference between the groups explain how one makes similar dinners in less time? Sure - for example, maybe they’re more efficient! Could a relevant similarity between them explain it? That’s harder to imagine, so let’s lean towards identifying a relevant difference.

Answer choices

  1. A
    The fat content of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    Since this group’s dinners “do not differ” from the other group’s with respect to nutritional value, this would be true of both groups. But it still doesn’t explain how that’s the case despite less time being spent on dinner by one group.
  2. B
    Adults who do not Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    The stimulus is about dinner, not breakfast, so this answer is out of scope.
  3. C
    Adults who work outside Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    This answer aligns with the stimulus without explaining it. How do they manage to spend less time and still get similar results? (Additionally, it doesn’t note that the other household responsibilities have similar outcomes, so this doesn’t have all the information we need to truly analyze it.)
  4. D
    Adults who work outside Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D matches the stem
    This answer brings up a relevant difference that explains how the group that spends less time prepping can prepare similar dinners - they prepare fewer of them! This suggests that they’re spending the same amount of time on each meal, but they’re just making fewer of them.
  5. E
    Adults who work outside Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    More planning would suggest that the well planned dinners would be different from the ones that weren’t as well planned out so, if anything, this makes the paradox worse!

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 9%
  2. B 7%
  3. C 16%
  4. D Credited 58%
  5. E 10%

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