Logical reasoning PrepTest 155 · Section 2 · Question 1

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed

Question Type:
Strengthen

Stimulus Summary:
This company only has 9 months of data, but their sales average is up more than $5m/month over their averages from 5 prior years. Based on this, the CEO concludes that it will be a good sales year.

Answer Anticipation:
The CEO is concluding something about the entire year based on limited data—9 months instead of all 12. In order to strengthen this argument, the CEO should provide information that the months information isn't available for will match the pattern, or at least not fall far enough below to bring the average down.

Answer Explanation:
This answer presents evidence that the remaining 3 months are likely to be good ones, based on historical information, thus strengthening the argument. While it's not certain that prior patterns will hold, these patterns are evidence that there's a good chance for a good remaining 3 months, especially since the argument itself is based on comparing this year to prior years.

Key Takeaway:
When there's a missing piece of information in an argument—here, the sales data from the remaining 3 years—a correct answer will generally provide information that fills in that gap.

Incorrect. Quality isn't the same as sales—poor quality items could still sell better or worse, year to year. Additionally, the argument is predicting that this year will be better than the last, and this answer says that the quality assessment is the same.

Incorrect. If anything, this answer would call the CEO's conclusion into question.

Incorrect. A tempting answer, but this doesn't provide information that the advertising campaign will continue, or will keep up the level of effectiveness. It doesn't present any information about the remaining 3 months. It might explain why the company is having a good year so far, but it doesn't strengthen that the pattern will hold. This answer would be better if it mentioned that the company was increasing its investment in the campaign.

Incorrect. Similar to (D), this answer doesn't provide information about the remaining 3 months. It suggests that the market overall is having a good year, but that doesn't mean it'll hold into the remaining 3 months.