Logical reasoning PrepTest 152 · Section 2 · Question 3

Incorrect. A subset of people who can remember their crazy passwords doesn't impact an argument about whether for those who can't remember that password, the practice of writing down their password increases the likelihood of unauthorized access. The argument already leaves open the possibility that some people don't write their passwords down ("hard to remember", "users often write").

Incorrect. People would still have the desire to not be locked out of their accounts at all, so this answer doesn't affect the argument.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed

Question Type:
Strengthen

Stimulus Summary:
Crazy password rules result in users getting locked out of their accounts, so people write those passwords down. Thus, these rules increase the likelihood of unauthorized access.

Answer Anticipation:
The argument raises an unexpected implication of crazy password rules—people end up writing them down. From that, however, it jumps to a completely separate conclusion—that this practice results in more frequent unauthorized access. The argument never establishes that a password written down increases the frequency of unauthorized access, so the correct answer will likely raise that connection.

Answer Explanation:
This strengthens the argument by connecting the premise to the conclusion. The argument establishes that crazy password rules result in some users writing their passwords down. If, as this answer choice states, a written-down password is more likely to be used for unauthorized access, then the conclusion connecting the crazy password rules to unauthorized access holds.

Key Takeaway:
The LSAT loves to write questions that play off of commonly held beliefs. Here, the argument assumes that a password written down is more likely to lead to unauthorized access. For most people, that's a pretty solid assumption (and one that your school or work may have repeatedly stated to you during onboarding or security training). However, on the LSAT, the only jumps we're allowed to make are ones that are necessarily implied by logic and definitions, and that doesn't apply to unauthorized access and passwords written down.

Incorrect. This answer might give users a reason to write down their password when it's hard to remember, but the stimulus already established that people do this. The relevant connection that's missing is between writing that password down and an increase in unauthorized access.

Incorrect. While this argument might suggest that having crazy password rules don't make accounts more secure, it doesn't speak to whether people writing the passwords down results in more unauthorized access. In fact, if these passwords are no harder to guess than other passwords, that would cut against an argument that they "increase[]" unauthorized access.