PrepTest 129

Incorrect. Healthy → Exercise
Exercise → Risk injury
As soon as we start reading the conclusion, we should jump out of this answer. The term in the premise is being healthy, and the conclusion is about wanting to be healthy—a term shift.

Incorrect. Learn → Making mistakes
Improve → Learn (Note we shouldn't jump out, as these two premises chain together even if they're in a different order than the stimulus—order doesn't matter!)
Therefore: not Improve → . . . and we can stop—this answer negates the sufficient condition of the chain, so it's flawed where the stimulus is valid (it's a full illegal negation if you spend the time to diagram it out).

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Valid

Question Type:
Parallel Reasoning

Stimulus Summary:
Win → Willingness to cooperate
Willingness to cooperate → Motivation
Therefore: not Motivated → not Win

Answer Anticipation:
The argument is heavily conditional, so our diagram is going to be key in analyzing the answer choices. Sadly, there are no features that are likely to lead to quick eliminations, so there's going to be a lot of diagramming in our future. Knowing this should get us to the answers more quickly, allowing us the time needed to work through them:

A → B
B → C
Therefore: not C → not A

Answer Explanation:
Retain status → Raise more money
Raise more money → Increase campaigning
Therefore: not Increase campaigning → not Retain status
This answer follows the same pattern as the stimulus to form a valid conclusion by combining two conditional statements.

Key Takeaway:
For Parallel Reasoning questions that are purely conditional and have no elements that lead to quick eliminations—quantifiers, AND/OR—you'll just have to grit your teeth and start diagramming the answers. However, jump out as soon as you can see a mismatch, as there just isn't enough time to fully diagram out every answer—especially after you've found an answer that you feel good about!

Incorrect. Repair own bicycle → Enthusiastic
Enthusiastic → Mechanical aptitude
Therefore: not Repair own bicycle → . . . and we're out, as this answer has negated the sufficient condition of the chain and is thus flawed (if you diagrammed the whole conclusion out, you'd see it's an illegal negation—and thus parallel to (B)).

Incorrect. Ticket → Waiting in line
Waiting in line → Patience
Before even diagramming the conclusion, we can see that it is an illegal negation of a single conditional, not a chain, so it's both flawed and fails to use both premises—two reasons to eliminate this answer!