Logical Reasoning · Point at Issue

PrepTest 129 · Section 2 · Question 11

Phase 1 (your first ~400 questions): read the guidance, then answer. No clock.

Step 1 · Pre-Question Guidance · read this first

Question type

Point at Issue

The one idea it tests

The second speaker does not deny the first speaker's facts; she redefines the goal so that the first speaker's method can never reach it.

The basic logic

The first speaker says a shortcut produces a deep result. The second speaker says a lookalike is not the real thing and the real thing needs a step the shortcut skips. Find the claim the first would say yes to and the second would say no to: whether the shortcut alone can ever deliver the real result.

Tiny words that decide it

“requires”
“cannot”
“without”
“not”

Playground logic

Frankie's top bun: watching soccer videos gives you skill which would otherwise need years on the field. Sharon pops it: knowing a move is not skill, and skill needs real practice on grass. Two clipboards, one question: can a kid who only ever watches videos have real skill?

Step 2 · The kid story

The Couch Soccer Debate

Frankie burst into the cafeteria waving a tablet. "Soccer videos are amazing! You can pause and replay every trick. That lets you learn moves that would take years of muddy practice to learn." Sharon set down her milk carton. "Knowing a move is not the same as having skill. Skill means your feet do it without thinking. And your feet only learn that by kicking a real ball on a real field." Priya pulled out two clipboards and a juice box. "Okay. Frankie, can a kid who only watches videos have real skill?" "Totally!" said Frankie. "Sharon?" "Nope. Not without the field." Priya checked two boxes. "There it is. You do not fight about whether videos teach moves. You fight about whether videos alone can make skill."

Step 3 · Try the model question

Frankie: Soccer videos let you replay tricks again and again, so kids can learn moves which would otherwise need years of field practice to learn. Sharon: Knowing a move is not skill. Skill means your body does the move on its own, and that only comes from kicking a real ball on a real field.

The exchange gives the best support for saying the two kids disagree over whether

Step 4 · The courtroom tale

The Pilot Who Never Left the Ground

An airline lawyer argued that a new hire was ready to fly. "Your Honor, he spent a thousand hours in the computer simulator. It shows every storm and every engine trouble. That gives him what would take years in real cockpits." Mr. Whitfield snapped his suspenders. "Knowing about a storm is not handling one. A real pilot's hands react before his brain does, and that only comes from real flights in real air." The judge folded her hands. "So you agree the simulator teaches facts. Your quarrel is whether simulator time alone can ever make a real pilot." Both lawyers nodded. "Then that is the question I must decide," said the judge.

Step 5 · Work the real question

Open PrepTest 129, Section 2, Question 11 in your official copy from LSAC (for example in LawHub) and read it there.

Your answer

How to apply it

Use the Two-Clipboard Test. Write the first speaker's top bun and the second speaker's top bun side by side. Notice whether the second speaker attacks a fact or changes the definition of the prize. Then check each choice: would speaker one say yes and speaker two say no, or the reverse? Cross out any choice only one speaker addresses (the Monologue) and any that neither speaker touches.