Logical reasoning PrepTest 106 · Section 2 · Question 2

Question prompt

The law firm of Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: C

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

Argument or Facts

Argument

Valid or Flawed

Flawed

Question Type

Errors in Reasoning Questions

Stimulus Summary

SPA specializes and excels at criminal defense. Dalton specializes in divorce cases, so he doesn’t work at SPA.

Answer Anticipation

The conclusion of this argument is that someone isn’t a “member” of a larger group. That certainly sounds like it’s dealing with parts and wholes, so we should check to see if there’s a Part vs. Whole flaw here. So why does the argument think that Dalton doesn’t work at SPA? Because they specialize in criminal defense, and she specializes in divorce cases. In other words, she doesn’t have a characteristic that the group as a whole does, so she can’t be a member of the group. That assumes that all members of a group have all characteristics of the group, which is a Whole to Part flaw. Let’s find an answer reflecting that error in reasoning (while avoiding trap answers that treat it as a Part to Whole flaw).

Answer choices

  1. A
    offers in support of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    None of the premises here contradict each other - they just don’t support the conclusion.
  2. B
    overlooks the possibility that Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    The conclusion is that Dalton isn’t a member of one specific firm, not that she isn’t a member of any firm, or that she isn’t a lawyer, so this answer is out of scope.
  3. C
    concludes that someone is Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C matches the stem
    The group as a whole - SPA - specializes in criminal defense law. Dalton does not. From this, the argument concludes that she’s not a member of SPA. This answer correctly describes the Whole to Part flaw in the stimulus, so it’s the correct answer.
  4. D
    takes a high rate Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    The conclusion is about someone the argument doesn’t think is a member of SPA, so this answer is out of scope.
  5. E
    states a generalization based Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    The premise shows that criminal defense is representative of the group, as it’s their primary specialization. And the firm as a whole has a 90+% success rate, so it’s not dealing with unrepresentative samples.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 5%
  2. B 1%
  3. C Credited 87%
  4. D 1%
  5. E 7%

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