Logical Reasoning · Sufficient Assumption (justify an application)
PrepTest 154 · Section 2 · Question 7
Phase 1 (your first ~400 questions): read the guidance, then answer. No clock.
Step 1 · Pre-Question Guidance · read this first
- “must”
- “only if”
- “either”
- “not”
Playground logic
To earn the Gold Helper badge, a kid must finish ten chores and have no missed day for two weeks; art club kids need three weeks. Lulu says Owen gets no badge. The clean key: Owen missed a day this week, which fails the rule for everybody.
Step 2 · The kid story
The Gold Helper Badge
Ms. Rivera posts the badge rules. Rule one: to earn a Gold Helper badge, you must finish ten classroom chores and you must not have missed a single day for over two weeks. Rule two: art club kids can earn it only if they have not missed a day for over three weeks. Marcus reads it twice. "Owen won't get the badge. I can feel it." Priya sips her juice box. "Feelings aren't proof, Detective. What fact would settle it?" Lulu flips her clipboard. "Owen missed school last Tuesday. That's inside the last two weeks." Priya nods. "Then it doesn't matter whether he's in art club or not. He fails the two-week requirement, and the three-week one is even harder. No badge." Owen shrugs and goes back to his chores.
Step 3 · Try the model question
Badge rule: To earn a Gold Helper badge, a student must finish ten chores and must not have missed a day for over two weeks. Art club members can earn it only if they have not missed a day for over three weeks. Application: Owen should not get the badge.
Which fact, if true, would make the application of the rule certain?
Step 4 · The courtroom tale
The Pumpkin Ribbon Appeal
The county fair rule: a pumpkin wins a blue ribbon only if it weighs over 200 pounds and has grown on the vine for over ninety days. Heritage-seed pumpkins must have grown over 120 days. Farmer Gourd appeals his loss. Mr. Whitfield, for the fair, stands calmly. "Your Honor, we need not debate whether Mr. Gourd's pumpkin is heritage-seed." He hands up a planting receipt. "It was planted sixty days before judging." The judge reads it. "Sixty days fails the ninety-day requirement, and the heritage requirement is even longer. Either way, no ribbon." Farmer Gourd sighs. "Next year I will plant in March."
Step 5 · Work the real question
Open PrepTest 154, Section 2, Question 7 in your official copy from LSAC (for example in LawHub) and read it there.
Your answer
How to apply it
Map the policy: list each necessary condition, and note which group gets a stricter version. The application says the outcome should not happen, so you need a fact that guarantees a necessary condition fails. Best is a fact that fails the condition for every group at once. Reject facts that satisfy a condition, facts that only place the item in a group, and facts that leave the item able to pass the stricter rule.