Reading comp PrepTest 131 · Section 4 · Question 15

Passage

Questions 9-15  .        A proficiency in understanding, applying, and even  . formulating statutes—the actual texts of laws enacted  . Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Legal


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Problem with legal education (too little time spent on understanding and applying statutes)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Author's view
      • Law school's current focus on analyzing case law gives students the impression that lawyers don't really interpret or imply statutes, which is, in fact, a vital skill that law school gives too little attention to (first and last sentences)
    • Author's attitude: "vital aspect" (first sentence); "given too little attention" (first sentence); "can give a law student the impression" (last sentence)

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Why statute interpretation is an essential skill (legal practice involves consulting laws with not-obvious meanings/applications; tax ? example)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Author's view:
      • Much of lawyers' practice involves interpreting and applying statutes, which have meanings and applications that are not always clear or obvious, so law students need to learn how to interpret statutes (first and last sentences)
    • Example of a situation where a lawyer would consult a statute, according to the author:
      • Business asking a tax question (second sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "does not depend" (first sentence); "clear" (third sentence); "transparent" (third sentence); "not always so obvious" (last sentence)

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Another skill statutory interpretation builds (synthesis: seeing how laws interrelate; helpful because most students specialize)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Comparisons, according to the author:
      • Law professors do more to help students analyze individual cases than to help students see how laws interrelate and form a coherent system (second sentence)
      • Studying statutes in one area will do more than case analysis to help students see how laws interrelate and form a coherent system (third sentence)
    • Author's view:
      • Seeing how laws interrelate and form a coherent system in one legal area will help students apply this ability to other areas, which is important because most lawyers specialize (fourth and last sentences)
    • Author's attitude: "would improve" (first sentence); "work hard" (first sentence); "favor" (second sentence); "would enable" (third sentence); "would then be able to apply this ability to synthesize in other areas" (fourth sentence); "especially important" (last sentence)

Paragraph 4

  • Paragraph note
    • Counterpoint (laws vary by region) and author's defense (some truth, but understanding is a skill that transfers)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Counterpoint:
      • Statutes vary throughout the country, so statutory analysis is not a good idea for national schools (first and second sentences)
    • Author's view:
      • Knowledge isn't transferable, but skills acquired in mastering one set of laws are (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "possible argument" (first sentence); "some truth" (second sentence); "could seem to be an inappropriate investment" (second sentence); "the skills acquired in mastering a particular set of statutes are" (last sentence); "important undertaking" (last sentence)

Main Point: The current focus on analyzing cases in law school doesn't prepare law students for all aspects of their practice, so focusing on interpreting, synthesizing, and applying states would improve legal education.

Meta-Structure?

Problem/Solution: This passage best fits the Problem/Solution Meta-Structure.* The author kicks this passage off with a problem — the current focus of law schools excludes statutory interpretation, a key skill set that attorneys need. And while the author never explicitly states it, they strongly imply a solution — teach those skills! While the author doesn't make that recommendation explicit, they talk about its benefits and defend it against a possible counterargument, so we should view this as a Problem/Solution passage.

In such a passage, the author's preferred solution is the main point. And since the author goes into some detail on which specific skills related to statutes should be taught, those could be reflected in the main point, as well.

*That said, you could certainly call this an Old Approach/New Approach passage, with the "Old Approach" being law schools' current focus on case law and the "New Approach" including statute analysis. We just need to remember that there's no indication that the author wants to throw out the study of case law — just ensure that students are also learning skills related to statutory law.

Last Thoughts?It's rare to see a central solution to a problem implied instead of directly stated, as we see here, but it does happen. When the author argues that an action has benefits (and defends it from counterarguments), you can generally infer that they want to perform that action, even if they never say that explicitly.

Question prompt

Each of the following 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.

Question Type

Legal

Strategy Overview

Review the main point and any relevant parts of the passage and notes, if necessary, to anticipate what might happen in the scenario described

Answer Anticipation

For questions that ask us to infer, from a few details in the passage, what must be true in a novel situation, we can start by quickly finding and reviewing those details. Once we review that part of the passage, we can anticipate what might happen in the hypothetical situation described. We should consider how the hypothetical situation applies to what we reviewed and whether it might follow a similar or distinct pattern to that described in the passage.In this case, we're asked to infer what kinds of educational results would occur if the author's proposed course of action went into effect. By this question, we should have a firm handle on the author's proposal — including the teaching of statutory law into the law school curriculum. Our notes can also highlight what will likely happen. According to the second paragraph note, this focus will help future lawyers "consult[] laws with not-obvious meanings/applications." According to our third paragraph note, the proposal will help students build the skill of synthesis, which will help them see "how laws interrelate." Per our fourth paragraph note, these skills will "transfer" to laws in different regions or legal areas.Since this is a Bizarro question, we should eliminate any answer choice that reflects one of the results we reviewed or results that could be reasonably expected to occur if law schools begin teaching statutory law. Eliminating all of these answer choices is one viable path to the correct answer. We should also keep in mind law school's current focus — case law. This might allow us to find an answer that reflects this current approach, which would make it the correct answer.

Answer choices

  1. A
    skill in locating references Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A matches the stem

    (A) Does this reflect one of the educational results we reviewed from our notes or a result that could be reasonably expected to occur if law schools begin teaching statutory law?

    So tricky! But, this answer is about a case — a court decision — on what a statute means, and so it would fall under the current case law-based curriculum. Even though it involves a statute, it's not a product of statutory analysis — how to interpret and apply statutes. A court case can make rulings on how the facts of the case and statutes line up. So, such court cases will involve statutes — but students will not be expected to interpret those statutes. Since this is something that would would occur under the current case-law-oriented law school curriculum, this is the correct answer.

  2. B
    an understanding of the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) Does this reflect one of the educational results we reviewed from our notes or a result that could be reasonably expected to occur if law schools begin teaching statutory law?

    Yes! This answer lines up with our anticipation that teaching statutory law would help develop the skill of synthesis for law students, enabling them to see how the laws in one area interrelate and form a coherent whole.

  3. C
    a knowledge of how Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) Does this reflect one of the educational results we reviewed from our notes or a result that could be reasonably expected to occur if law schools begin teaching statutory law?

    Yes, this can be reasonably expected to occur if law schools begin teaching statutory law. So, we can confidently eliminate (C) without checking the passage.

    If we had to check the passage, we'd see that the author claims that studying statutory law can help students become proficient in "formulating" statutes (P1, S1).

  4. D
    familiarity with the specific Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) Does this reflect one of the educational results we reviewed from our notes or a result that could be reasonably expected to occur if law schools begin teaching statutory law?

    Yes, this can be reasonably expected to occur if law schools begin teaching statutory law. So, we can confidently eliminate (D) without checking the passage.

    If we had to check the passage, we'd see that the author claims that studying statutory law can help students gain knowledge of "a particular region's statutory law" (P4, S3).

  5. E
    an appreciation of the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) Does this reflect one of the educational results we reviewed from our notes or a result that could be reasonably expected to occur if law schools begin teaching statutory law?

    Yes, this can be reasonably expected to occur if law schools begin teaching statutory law. So, we can confidently eliminate (E) without checking the passage.

    If we had to check the passage, we'd see that the author claims that studying statutory law can help students become proficient in "formulating" statutes (P1, S1). Moreover, appreciating the problems in wording a statute would give students insight into how to interpret the language that comes out of the drafting process, which lines up with the author's argument at the end of the second paragraph (P2, S4).

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A Credited 37%
  2. B 7%
  3. C 17%
  4. D 8%
  5. E 31%

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