Logical Reasoning · Strengthen

PrepTest 131 · Section 2 · Question 3

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

Step 1 · Pre-Question Guidance · read this first

Question type

Strengthen

The one idea it tests

A claim that a mistake will almost surely be caught is backed by showing a separate, independent check exists.

The basic logic

The claim says that despite huge volume, a certain kind of error will rarely slip by. Look for an answer that adds a backup process aimed at exactly that kind of error. A second, different check makes it hard for one slip to survive both.

Tiny words that decide it

“extremely unlikely”
“despite”
“not”

Playground logic

Nadia claims a miscounted lunch token will almost never go unnoticed, even on crowded pizza days. The best support is a second, separate counter who rechecks the big piles, so a slip by the first counter gets caught by the second.

Step 2 · The kid story

The Token Count

On pizza day the cafeteria is wild. Two hundred kids, two hundred tokens, one shoebox. Kevin was worried. 'What if Mrs. Pell counts wrong and gives our class extra pizza credit? Nobody would ever know!' Nadia shook her head. 'Even with that many tokens, a big miscount will almost never get past them.' Kevin crossed his arms. 'Prove it.' Nadia pointed at the kitchen. 'Mrs. Pell counts every token as kids come through. But at the end, Mr. Ortiz takes the big piles and counts them again, using a scale instead of his fingers.' Kevin thought about it. 'So if one of them messes up, the other one catches it?' 'Two different ways of counting,' said Nadia. 'Both would have to mess up the same way.' Kevin sighed. 'There goes my free pizza plan.'

Step 3 · Try the model question

Nadia: Even though hundreds of lunch tokens are counted on pizza day, it is very unlikely that a large miscount would go unnoticed by the cafeteria staff.

Suppose each choice below is true. Which one provides the most support for Nadia's claim?

Step 4 · The courtroom tale

The Marble Factory Audit

A marble company was sued for shipping the wrong number of marbles. Its lawyer stood up. 'Your Honor, our machines pour a million marbles a day. Yet an order with a big extra pile will almost never leave our dock.' The judge leaned in. 'Why not?' 'Because every box is counted by the pouring machine, and then every heavy box is weighed on a separate scale run by a different team. A box that is way off fails the second check.' The judge nodded. 'So the mistake would have to fool two different systems.' 'Exactly,' said the lawyer. 'One slip is possible. Two matching slips are very rare.'

Step 5 · Work the real question

Open PrepTest 131, Section 2, Question 3 in your official copy from LSAC (for example in LawHub) and read it there.

Your answer

How to apply it

Pin down the claim: an error of a certain kind is very unlikely to go unnoticed, despite high volume. Ask what would make that true: a check aimed at the very error described, ideally separate from the first process. Prefer answers that add a backup layer catching that error. Drop answers about unrelated security, about trends over time with no tie to this error, or about processes that do not actually catch the mistake.