Logical reasoning PrepTest 157 · Section 3 · Question 18

Question prompt

Consumer demand for personal Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: B

The notes below walk through why it fits the stem and how to eliminate the rest.

Argument or Facts

Facts

Strategy Overview

Argument or facts? Always a set of facts Identify what is strange, discrepant, surprising, or paradoxical in the passage Anticipate additional facts that could be added that could make the passage make more sense Use anticipation to find the answer choice that, if added to the set of facts in the passage, would make the discrepancy/paradox make more sense

Answer Anticipation

We want to find the answer choice on Paradox questions that would make the discrepant, surprising, or paradoxical findings make more sense. Here, the surprising fact is that computers' profit margins in retail stores are lower than other technology products, even though demand for computers keeps increasing. This is a Bizarro Paradox question, so all the wrong answers will show why computers have low profit margins in retail stores despite the demand. The correct answer will either be irrelevant to this surprising fact or will make the fact even more strange.

Answer choices

  1. A
    Rapid innovation in computer Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    This explains why retail stores have low profit margins on computers, despite computers' high demand. If retail stores' stock of computers is constantly becoming obsolete, these stores may have trouble selling out their stock. They'd have to consign or sell these obsolete computers at a deep discount, losing money on the transactions. This would cut into the overall retail profit margins on computers.

  2. B
    Satisfaction with their first Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B matches the stem

    This doesn't explain why retail stores have low profit margins on computers despite computers' high demand. So, this is the correct answer to this Bizarro Paradox question. Customers may be loyal to a particular computer brand, but they could still return to retail stores to purchase that brand over and over again. This answer choice doesn't suggest why retailers wouldn't earn high profits from customers, so it doesn't explain the surprising fact from this passage.

  3. C
    A customer needs more Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    This explains why retail stores have low profit margins on computers despite computers' high demand. If customers need a lot of help from employees, retail stores must employ many people in the computer department. This makes running this department more costly, cutting into the overall retail profit margins on computers.

  4. D
    Many retail stores have Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    This explains why retail stores have low profit margins on computers despite computers' high demand. If retail stores offer deep discounts on computers to lure customers in, they won't make as much money on computers as they will on other tech products. Therefore, we'd expect the stores' overall profit margins on computers to be lower.

  5. E
    An increase in the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    This explains why retail stores have low profit margins on computers despite computers' high demand. If many discount retail outlets sell personal computers, there's a high supply of computers, which would offset the increased demand. Moreover, since these are "discount" retail outlets, we'd expect each retailer to have to offer discounts on computers to remain competitive. Both of these factors would lead to retail stores earning lower profits on computers than they will on other tech products.

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 11%
  2. B Credited 36%
  3. C 31%
  4. D 14%
  5. E 9%

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