Logical reasoning PrepTest 103 · Section 3 · Question 22

Question prompt

Whenever she considers voting 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

Must Be True Questions

Answer Anticipation

Wow, is this a complicated stimulus! However, it is a Must be True question, and it sets out a rule (a principle, as the second question in this set calls it) determining how Kay votes, so let’s make sure we understand that.
First, we get a condition to when the principle applies - there must be an election, and it must include an issue that’s important to Kay.
Second, we get Kay’s principle. We diagrammed it out, but this might be a situation where it’s easier to just rephrase it. When there are issues important to Kay, it’s unacceptable for her to vote for someone who disagrees with her on more of those issues than another candidate. In other words, it’s acceptable to vote for the person she disagrees with the least, and only that person.
Third, we get some information about the upcoming mayoral election. There’s an issue important to Kay (so the principle applies to her decision), and Medina is the only candidate who agrees with her.
Since this question stem asks about “any election,” we shouldn’t spend time wondering about what Kay’s going to do in the upcoming election (that’s the next question). Instead, here, we should make sure that we understand her principle, and then head to the answer choices to find a situation that lines up with it.

Answer choices

  1. A
    If there are no Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    The principle only applies to elections where there is an issue important to Kay. That doesn’t mean that she doesn’t vote in other elections - just that she would make up her mind through some other principle. As such, this answer is unsupported.

  2. B
    If she agrees with Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    Even if she agrees with each candidate on most of the issues, that number could vary between candidates (e.g., she has 9 important issues, and the three candidates share her opinion on 5, 6, and 8 of them, respectively). That would allow her to acceptably vote for the candidate that she shares an opinion on 8/9 of her important issues.

  3. C
    If she agrees with Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    If the other candidates share no important issues with Kay, then she could acceptably vote for the candidate that she shares only one issue with.

  4. D
    If she disagrees with Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D matches the stem
    If we know that Kay disagrees with each candidate on exactly three issues important to her, then she must also agree with each candidate on the same number of issues important to her. The principle that she uses to determine who it’s acceptable to vote for requires her to find someone that she disagrees with on fewer important issues (the “otherwise” portion), and so the principle guarantees that it’s unacceptable for her to vote for any of these candidates. This answer is a necessary implication of her principle, so it’s the correct answer.

  5. E
    If there are more Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    What matters is the number of disagreements between candidates, not the relative number of disagreements and agreements with the same candidate. If there are two candidates, and Kay disagrees with one on 9 out of 10 important issues, and the other on 8 out of 10 important issues, it’s acceptable for her to vote for the latter candidate since she disagrees on fewer important issues.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 16%
  2. B 7%
  3. C 8%
  4. D Credited 48%
  5. E 22%

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