Logical reasoning PrepTest 122 · Section 4 · Question 3

Incorrect. There's no indication that this problem is increasing over time. While the opening line does talk about a potential crisis in education "today," that doesn't imply the same wasn't true in the past. It just limits the time period the Educator is talking about, which may be because she isn't aware of what the situation was in the past—not because she doesn't believe the problem was still present in the past.

Incorrect. Similar to answer choice (A), there's no indication that there has been any change over time.

Incorrect. The Educator doesn't make any statements suggesting a specific solution to the problem here. In fact, she even notes that there's not necessarily a serious problem—she starts by saying, "If there is a crisis . . . " As such, this answer about what "should" be done is unsupported.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed

Question Type:
Must Be True

Stimulus Summary:
People focus on degrees/certifications in learning, which can be earned without learning anything, making them meaningless. So any education crisis is about quality.

Answer Anticipation:
This is a Must Be True question that doesn't have much in the form of conditional, causal, or comparative statements. Rather, it describes a situation. When this is the case, it's likely that the correct answer will weakly generalize from the situation. The generation has to be weak because we only have a limited number of situations/examples raised.

In this case, it's even more likely that we're looking for a weak generalization because of the weak language in the stimulus. There, the language is weaker—one "can" get a degree without learning anything, and "[w]hen that happens," the degree is almost meaningless.

Let's find a weak answer that reflects this situation, where a degree/certificate doesn't actually prove someone learned anything.

Answer Explanation:
The stimulus notes that a degree/certificate can be earned without learning much of value. If that's the case, then a degree/certificate doesn't guarantee someone has learned worthwhile information. While this answer does use strong language ("do not"; "guarantee"), the strong language works together to create a weak answer. All it says is that a certificate/degree doesn't make it 100% certain that the person with it knows something valuable, or, in other words, some people with a certificate/degree might not have valuable knowledge. Super weak, and thus much easier to support.

Key Takeaway:
In Must Be True questions—especially ones that don't feature conditional logic or strong statements in the stimulus—the logical force of the answers is key. And, as we saw here, strong language can be used to create a weak answer, so watch out for these words that build together in that way. Generally, a strong negative word/phrase attached to a strong word will create a weak answer ("do not" here being the strong negative phrase).

Incorrect. The stimulus notes that one can earn a certificate/degree by plodding through coursework, which might involve quite a bit of effort despite doing so not resulting in much knowledge being earned.