Logical Reasoning · Strengthen
PrepTest 137 · 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
- “is like”
- “just as”
- “thus”
- “rather than”
Playground logic
Priya's argument says sports are like piano songs, so practicing fewer sports longer is better, just as learning fewer songs longer is better. The sauce is that time spent on one song really pays off more later than at the start. Show that, and the comparison stands on solid ground.
Step 2 · The kid story
One Song or Twenty?
Marcus announces at recess that he has tried six sports this month. 'Soccer, tennis, hockey, archery, fencing, and a little bit of curling,' he says. 'I'm an expert at all of them.' Priya shakes her head. 'Learning a sport is like learning a piano song,' she says. 'You don't do it just to say you tried. You do it to get good. My piano teacher says it is better to learn a few songs well than to plunk through twenty.' Marcus frowns. 'So?' 'So it's better to stick with fewer sports, longer.' Lulu writes it down, then asks the key question: 'Is it true that piano kids get way better after the first few days on a song?' Priya smiles. 'If it is, my point gets stronger.'
Step 3 · Try the model question
Priya: Practicing a new sport is like learning a new piano song. In both cases, the goal is real skill, not just a quick try. So it is better to practice fewer sports and spend more weeks on each, just as it is better to learn fewer songs and spend more weeks on each than to sample many songs briefly.
Suppose each choice below is true. Which one gives Priya's reasoning the most support?
Step 4 · The courtroom tale
The Taste-Tester Trial
A cooking school was sued for teaching only three recipes all year. Mr. Whitfield defended it. 'Your Honor, learning recipes is like learning a language. Just as a student who stays in one class longer speaks better than one who hops between ten, a cook who repeats a dish learns it deeply.' The judge squinted. 'That only works if language students truly improve more with longer study.' Mr. Whitfield held up a study: students who stayed a full year in one class spoke far better than those in their first month. 'Then your comparison has legs,' said the judge.
Step 5 · Work the real question
Open PrepTest 137, Section 2, Question 3 in your official copy from LSAC (for example in LawHub) and read it there.
Your answer
How to apply it
Spot the comparison: the conclusion about one activity rests on a claim about another. Ask what must be true of the model side for the lesson to carry over. Pick the choice that confirms longer time with fewer things really produces more understanding there. Ignore choices that drift to other goals, other sources of learning, or details that do not touch the depth versus breadth claim.