Logical reasoning PrepTest 106 · Section 3 · Question 7

Question prompt

Sam: In a recent 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/Argument

Valid or Flawed

Flawed/Valid

Question Type

Methods of Reasoning Questions

Stimulus Summary

S: 95% of people who purchased a Starlight last year are happy, which they wouldn’t be if it had a defect, so Starlight’s don’t have defects.
T: But some defects take years to show up.

Answer Anticipation

Whenever a Methods of Reasoning question features a rebuttal, we should start with a couple considerations:
Does the second speaker agree or disagree with the first speaker’s conclusion? If she disagrees, does she think it’s wrong or unsupported? Does the second speaker agree or disagree with the first speaker’s premises? Logic/assumptions? Does she bring up a new consideration?
Tiya doesn’t explicitly draw a conclusion here, but she does pivot away from Sam’s argument, so she’s clearly calling his conclusion into question. As such, we need to analyze her rebuttal to see if she’s saying he’s wrong or just hasn’t proved his conclusion.
Does she question the survey, or bring up a flaw in it? She definitely doesn’t question the results, but she does bring in a new consideration that highlights a flaw in the survey - defects often don’t show up for a few years. Since the survey was done of people who purchased a Starlight car last year, there’s a temporal issue. That doesn’t prove that Starlight will have manufacturing defects, just that they might, and so Tiya brings up a new temporal consideration to question the survey results and suggest that Sam’s conclusion isn’t proven by the evidence he cites. That falls short of saying his conclusion is false, though, so we should be wary of any answer characterizing her argument as claiming that.

Answer choices

  1. A
    It argues that Sam's Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    Tiya points out a shortcoming of Sam’s evidence, so she doesn’t argue that his conclusion is correct.
  2. B
    It provides evidence indicating Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    While Tiya does raise a consideration suggesting the survey results don’t prove Sam’s point, it’s not because there was an error with it that prevented people from conveying their attitude. In short, she doesn’t suggest 95% of people aren’t really happy with their purchase. Rather, she suggests that that may change if the survey asks the same question in a few years.
  3. C
    It offers a consideration Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C matches the stem
    This answer is abstract, but it correctly describes the flaw. Tiya offers a temporal consideration that undermines the applicability of the survey to Sam’s conclusion. In showing that the defects Sam concludes aren’t present might not show up on the timeline of the survey, Tiya weakens his argument. (Note that this answer says her argument undermines Sam’s conclusion, not that it disproves it. The latter would be incorrect, as it could be the case that the survey would have the same results even if conducted after several years.)
  4. D
    It points out that Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    This answer says that Tiya points out a Circular Reasoning flaw in Sam’s argument, which she doesn’t do - she brings up a new consideration.
  5. E
    It presents new information Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    Here’s the trap answer we anticipated! Tiya presents new information about the timeline of most manufacturing defects. However, she doesn’t imply Sam’s conclusion is false - that information just suggests it might be false. A subtle difference that makes all the difference here!

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 7%
  2. B 4%
  3. C Credited 72%
  4. D 4%
  5. E 13%

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