Logical Reasoning · Inference (Most Strongly Supported)

PrepTest 129 · Section 3 · Question 13

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

Step 1 · Pre-Question Guidance · read this first

Question type

Inference (Most Strongly Supported)

The one idea it tests

If one category always has a feature and that feature is the reason it beats other categories, then the other categories must not always have that feature.

The basic logic

Read the reason the argument gives for one category standing out. If the reason is something that always happens in that category, the comparison only works if it does not always happen in the others. Infer that, and nothing bigger.

Tiny words that decide it

“always”
“not always”
“more than”

Playground logic

Kevin says the inventor of a made-up game always picks the rules and the field (patty), so the inventor has more say than players of tag or kickball (top bun). For that comparison to work, players of tag or kickball must not always get to pick the rules and field. That is what fits in the lunchbox.

Step 2 · The kid story

Kevin's Game Lab

Kevin stood on the bench at recess. "Of all the games on this playground, made-up games are the best for showing who you really are! Because when you invent a game, you always pick the rules, you always change them, and you always choose the field. So the inventor has way more say than someone playing tag or kickball." Marcus scoffed. "That just proves made-up games are the best games ever." Priya shook her head. "It proves something smaller. If tag players always picked the rules and the field too, they would have just as much say. So in tag and kickball, players do not always get to pick those things." Lulu wrote it down: ALWAYS HERE, NOT ALWAYS THERE. Kevin grinned. "Also, my next game has dinosaurs."

Step 3 · Try the model question

Kevin: Made-up games, more than any other playground game, let players show who they are. That is because the inventor of a made-up game always picks, changes, and sets up the rules and the field. So the inventor has more say over the game than someone playing tag or kickball.

Kevin's statements give the best backing to which choice?

Step 4 · The courtroom tale

The Bake-Off Dispute

At the county bake-off hearing, Judge Lin read the rules aloud. "Freestyle pies let bakers show their personality more than any other category, because freestyle bakers always choose, alter, and arrange every filling. So freestyle bakers have more control than bakers in the apple or cherry categories." Mr. Whitfield raised a finger. "Your Honor, then the rule itself tells us something. If apple bakers always chose and arranged every filling too, they would have equal control." "So?" asked the judge. "So in the apple and cherry categories, bakers do not always choose every filling. That is all the rule supports, nothing grander." The judge nodded. "Modest and correct."

Step 5 · Work the real question

Open PrepTest 129, Section 3, Question 13 in your official copy from LSAC (for example in LawHub) and read it there.

Your answer

How to apply it

Find the claim about what always happens in the favored category and the comparison it supports. Ask what must hold for the other categories so the comparison works: the feature cannot always be present there too. Choose the modest choice that says so. Run the Spoiler Test on the rest: reject ones that rank categories by grand labels, add an 'only way' claim, bring in categories never discussed, or guess at how often people try something.