Logical Reasoning · Point at Issue
PrepTest 113 · Section 3 · Question 1
Phase 1 (your first ~400 questions): read the guidance, then answer. No clock.
Step 1 · Pre-Question Guidance · read this first
- “even if”
- “the cause”
- “whether”
Playground logic
Frankie's top bun: the game corner is causing the reading slump. Sharon answers: even if there is a slump, the game corner is not the cause. The Two-Clipboard Test finds one shared box with opposite checkmarks: does the game corner cause the slump?
Step 2 · The kid story
The Game Corner Grumble
Frankie marched up to the class meeting with a speech. "The new game corner in the library is turning us into worse readers. Every day kids watch game heroes win without ever opening a book. Soon everyone thinks reading is for nerds."
Sharon stood up, arms crossed. "Well, if reading really got worse, the game corner didn't do it. We only put in games kids asked for. What's wrong with letting kids pick? Besides, taking the corner away would be totally unfair."
Ms. Rivera wrote two clipboards on the board. Frankie's clipboard: game corner causes the reading slump. Sharon's clipboard: the slump, if there is one, has some other cause, plus kids should choose, plus removal is unfair. Lulu raised her hand. "Only one box is on both clipboards with opposite checks. They fight about the cause."
Step 3 · Try the model question
Frankie: The library game corner is making students worse readers, because kids watch game heroes win without reading. Sharon: If reading has slipped, the game corner is not the reason. We only offer games kids requested, and removing the corner would be unfair.
Frankie and Sharon are committed to disagreeing over which one of the following?
Step 4 · The courtroom tale
The Case of the Noisy Fountain
Judge Hana Pell peered over her glasses. "The plaintiff says the new splash fountain in the park is making the neighborhood rowdier." The plaintiff's lawyer nodded. "Kids see others shrieking there, so they think shrieking is normal everywhere." Mr. Whitfield snapped his suspenders. "Your Honor, if the neighborhood got rowdier, the fountain is not why. We built what families asked for. And shutting it down would be unfair to them." Judge Pell sorted her notes. "Fairness of a shutdown is only Mr. Whitfield's point. Family requests are only his point too. The one question both sides answer, in opposite ways, is whether the fountain caused the rowdiness. That is what I must decide."
Step 5 · Work the real question
Open PrepTest 113, Section 3, Question 1 in your official copy from LSAC (for example in LawHub) and read it there.
Your answer
How to apply it
Write the first speaker's top bun in a few words. Then read the second speaker line by line and mark which sentence directly answers that top bun. Treat any extra defenses or new arguments from the second speaker as one-clipboard items. Pick the choice where speaker one says yes and speaker two says no. Cross out choices only one speaker addresses, or that both could accept.