Logical reasoning PrepTest 113 · Section 3 · Question 15

Question prompt

For a ten–month period, Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: A

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

Cannot Be True Questions

Stimulus Summary

10-month period before:
Sales of new cars were constant Marvel car sales doubled, and market share doubled
End of period - New emissions standards imposed on new cars
3-month period after:
Marvel market share decreased, but new car sales remained constant

Answer Anticipation

This Cannot be True question falls into a very specific pattern of Cannot be True questions. While many of these questions present a lot of information and then have a correct answer that contradicts one of those statements, this type of question presents a situation that allows for an inference to be made, and then that inference is contradicted.
Here, the stimulus lays out information about the period before new emissions standards were imposed, and the period after.
In the 10-month period before the standards were put in place, total new car sales stayed the same, but Marvel sold twice as many cars. As such, their market share doubled - which makes sense, since they were selling twice as many cars while the overall market stayed the same.
In the 3-month period after the standards were put in place, Marvel’s car sales stayed the same, but they lost market share. So they were selling the same amount of cars, but it represented a smaller percentage of the overall new car sales. What’s missing from this half of the comparison is the total new car sales in Calistan. But we can make an inference about that number - since Marvel is selling the same number of cars, but their percentage of the overall market went down, it must be the case that the total number of new cars sold in Calistan went up. Let’s find an answer contradicting that.

Answer choices

  1. A
    The total monthly sales Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A matches the stem
    This answer can’t be true. If the total monthly sales of new cars by companies other than Marvel went down, but Marvel’s sales stayed flat, then there would be an overall decrease in the total number of new cars sold. If Marvel is selling the same number of cars in a shrinking market, then their market share would have to go up. But the stimulus says that their market share declined substantially, so this answer can’t be true.
  2. B
    Other the three months Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    First, we know what happened in the 10-month period before the new emissions standards being implemented, and the 3-month period after, but not the 3-month period before, which is what this answer choice is about. Sure, it’s a part of that 10-month period, but we don’t know anything about a subset of that time period - just what happened overall. Second, if anything, the other companies losing market share in that time period lines up with the stimulus. This answer is likely trying to get you to miss the “before” in there, as if this answer were about the 3-month period after the imposition of the emissions standards, it’d be correct.
  3. C
    If the emission standards Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    The emissions standards were imposed, and it’s impossible to tell what would have happened had they not been, so anything this answer could say in the second half is possible. When it’s impossible to know what would happen, anything can happen!
  4. D
    A decrease in the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    There’s no information in the stimulus that discusses what will happen in the future, so this could be true for all we know.
  5. E
    Since the imposition of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    The stimulus doesn’t discuss profit or profit margins, so this answer is out of scope. And since it’s out of scope, it could be true.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A Credited 54%
  2. B 12%
  3. C 17%
  4. D 5%
  5. E 12%

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