Logical reasoning PrepTest 111 · Section 3 · Question 23

Question prompt

Tony: A new kind 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

Argument/Facts

Valid or Flawed

Flawed/NA

Question Type

Must Be True Questions

Stimulus Summary

T: New tapes last half as long but cost a third as much, so video rental stores should buy movies on the new tapes.
A: The tape cost is about 5% of total cost, with most of the price being royalties, and they’d have to pay the latter on additional copies.

Answer Anticipation

The question stem here is asking us to find the conclusion that Anna’s argument is building towards. While it doesn’t have a blank, let’s consider this an Argument Completion (Must be True) question, since we’re trying to consolidate all of the information Anna presents into a conclusion, as we do in that question type.
Here, Anna’s reply is clearly meant to rebut Tony’s - she starts with “But.” From there, she goes through a standard analysis that we see on the LSAT - a balancing of costs. She concedes that the new tapes are less expensive, but she brings up another relevant cost - the royalties. They make up over 50% of the cost, and they’d need to be paid for additional copies of the movie. So the movie rental companies would save a third of 5% on the cost of materials, but then need to double pay on royalties, which make up over 50% of the cost.
That balance comes out on the side of it being a bad financial move, so let’s find an answer stating that.

Answer choices

  1. A
    The royalties paid to Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    Anna’s not making a judgment on the royalty fees. Rather, she’s addressing Tony’s argument that movie rental companies can save money through a certain strategy.
  2. B
    Video rental stores should Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    Anna’s argument is limited to analyzing the two options Tony brings up - this answer about what video rental stores should “always stock” is too broad based on that.
  3. C
    The largest part of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    Two issues here. First, the stimulus doesn’t state this. Anna says that the majority of the price that a store pays goes to royalties, but that doesn’t mean that the majority of the rental fee goes to pay that. The royalty fee would be paid once, and if the movie is rented enough, then the store would have that money go to profit, not royalties. Second, even if we missed that shift, Anna’s argument isn’t built to analyze where the video store company’s money goes. Rather, she’s responding to a specific claim - that the video stores would make more money by switching.
  4. D
    The cost savings to Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D matches the stem
    This answer reflects Anna’s rebuttal. She brings up new considerations that show the cost of the tape itself is small compared to the royalty fees, so if the former is saved but the latter needs to be paid multiple times, then Tony’s expected savings likely won’t materialize. This answer brings together Anna’s argument and makes sense as a rebuttal to Tony’s, so this is the correct answer.
  5. E
    If the price a Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    Neither speaker addresses the rental fees, so this answer is out of scope.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 9%
  2. B 5%
  3. C 15%
  4. D Credited 69%
  5. E 2%

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