Logical reasoning PrepTest 133 · Section 3 · Question 5

Incorrect. The stimulus notes that a rigorous secondary school curriculum "makes sense," but that's a far cry from it being necessary for the nation to be competitive. Additionally, the stimulus is about a rigorous curriculum making sense, and this answer is about a "more rigorous" curriculum.

Incorrect. Only the developmental needs of the young students are discussed in the stimulus, not the needs of the older secondary-school students.

Incorrect. This answer is too extreme. While the stimulus notes that the curricula for very young children must address their developmental needs, that's a limited subset of students, not "all" as this answer says. And while meeting those needs is set out as a necessary part of any curriculum for these students, it's not set out as necessary for the country to be competitive.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed

Question Type:
Must Be True

Stimulus Summary:
Goal - Make the nation more competitive
Approach - Push very young children into rigorous study
Parent - There might be short-term gains, but it'll be unfair and counterproductive
Curricula for young students → Address special developmental needs

Answer Anticipation:
This stimulus is pretty long, but a lot of it is repetitive. It circles around the idea that starting kids on a tough educational path too early will be counterproductive—it'll work against the goal of making the country more competitive because the kids will burn out.

Outside of the general idea behind the stimulus, there's one very strong statement—curricula for these children "must" address developmental needs. Strong statements are often relied on in Must Be True questions since they're better able to support other statements.

There's not a great prephrase to be had here since the stimulus more describes a situation than provides information that can be combined to make inferences, so let's head into the answers with the above in mind.

Answer Explanation:
This answer deals with the developmental needs of the very young students—a topic included in the very strong statement we identified—so we should deeply consider it. The Parent believes that a curriculum for very young students must meet their developmental needs, and that a rigorous curriculum will be counterproductive, leading to only short-term gains. From that, it can be inferred that a rigorous curriculum is not going to meet those needs, as this answer states.

Key Takeaway:
When there's a lot of information thrown at you in a Must Be True stimulus, and it takes the form of an argument or a description of a scenario, it's unlikely that you'll be able to form a solid anticipation of what the correct answer is going to say. Instead, get a general idea of it, identify any statements that are likely to play a role in the answer (strong/comparative/causal/conditional), and then head to the answers.

Incorrect. This answer runs counter to everything the Parent argues.