PrepTest 132

Incorrect. This answer compares the decision on two different metrics—student preference and cost—instead of comparing money saved in one way vs. lost in another.

Incorrect. This insulation saves money overall, whereas in the stimulus the cost-saving was overtaken by the "hidden" costs.

Incorrect. This answer compares the time investment of two alternative actions, not the balance of cost/benefit of one action.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed

Question Type:
Illustration (Principle)

Stimulus Summary:
Employees waste time looking at screensavers, so buying elaborate ones costs more than they save in monitor/electricity.

Answer Anticipation:
The question asks us to find an answer that matches the principle illustrated in an example from the stimulus, so we need to do a few things before we can head to the answers:

(1) Understand the scenario in the stimulus
(2) Create a principle underlying it
(3) Generalize that principle so it can be applied to other, similar situations that aren't topically related

Luckily, the stimulus isn't particularly difficult to understand—it brings up an unexpected outcome of elaborate screensavers and then notes that buying them may cost more than they save.

So for our principle, it might look something like:

Sometimes, an investment by a business that saves money in one area costs more money in other areas.

We can generalize more here, but it's already pretty general—maybe remove something about a business, as the principle here could apply to an individual's decision:

Sometimes, an investment that saves money in one way costs more money in others.

Now that we have a topic-free principle, we need to find an answer that conforms to it.

Answer Explanation:
This answer highlights one action (installing a security system) that saves money in one way (decreased theft) but costs more in another (customer goodwill)—illustrating the same principle as the stimulus.

Key Takeaway:
Some Principle questions require you to derive a principle from a scenario, and then find another scenario that conforms to that principle. These can be time-consuming. But be sure that you invest enough time during the Anticipation step to get a principle that's specific enough to only apply to correct answers while general enough to not rule them out. Creating a topic-specific principle and then rewriting it to strip content out is one great way of doing that.

Incorrect. This answer compares two different items along two different costs, not one "item" based on costs and benefits.