PrepTest 130

Incorrect. This situation distinguishes between happiness and fame/wealth, because those with the latter don't have the former. That's not the same as needing to distract yourself because focus makes something harder to accomplish.

Incorrect. This situation has one still focused on the task at hand—writing. It's about not thinking about how far you have to go to reach your goal, not that thinking about the goal itself makes it harder to achieve.

Incorrect. This situation is about overcoming a mistake, not distracting yourself from a goal. Here, the initial activity that led to the mistake is supposed to be forgotten so you can move on from it, not forgotten so your brain can actually achieve the goal.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed

Question Type:
Principle (Parallel Reasoning)

Stimulus Summary:
Trying to remember something on the tip of your tongue makes it harder to remember, so you should instead distract yourself.

Answer Anticipation:
For this question, we need to start by identifying the principle underlying the argument in the stimulus, and then we need to apply that principle to the answers to find one that matches. The trick is to make the principle abstract enough that it can apply to a different scenario in the answer choices, but specific enough that only one answer (the correct one) conforms to it.

Starting with identifying the principle, we want to come up with something that justifies the conclusion based on the scenario. In this scenario, it talks about a situation where the more you focus on something, the harder it is to accomplish. From that, it concludes that, in that situation, you should distract yourself. So the principle is something like:

If you're in a situation where focus makes accomplishing something harder, you should try to think of something else.

Let's find an answer that has a similar situation and conclusion/recommendation.

Answer Explanation:
This situation is about distracting your brain from a goal—falling asleep—because focusing on that goal can make it harder to achieve. That follows the same principle as the stimulus, so this is the correct answer.

Key Takeaway:
These questions can be time-consuming because you're essentially working through a Principle (Strengthen) and Principle (Must Be True) question at the same time. However, break it down into the steps you need to go through to get to the correct answer and rely on your process to keep your timing down.

Incorrect. This situation is not about distracting yourself from a goal but about comparing your own situation to others.