PrepTest 136 - Section 1 - Passage 2 - Question 9

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Passage A.

Defendant's perspective · Challenges fingerprint evidence in trial

Fingerprint ID theory hasn't been adequately tested.

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Defendant's support · No established error rates, no objective standards

No standards for number of "points of identification" required for positive ID based on fingerprints.

Author's response · Fingerprint IDs are reliable

More testing and standards would help, but the method has stood the test of time.

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Concession / response · Different agencies have different requirements, but there's still a consistent approach

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Main point · The trial court was allowed to admit the fingerprint evidence

"The trial court below..." means that Passage A's author was an appellate court reviewing the trial court decision.

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Critique of fingerprint evidence · No consensus on what's enough for a positive ID

Some examiners use "point-counting" method, but there's no fixed requirement about how many points must match. Others use more holistic approach.

Additional critique · Don't know answers to key questions about reliability

What's likelihood that two people will have the same number of identifying characteristics in their prints? What's likelihood that partial or smudged prints from two people match?

Passage Style

The authors would be most ██████ ██ ████████ █████

Question Type

Author’s perspective

Implied

This Inference question asks for a statement that author A and author B would disagree on.

Split Approach: After passage A, eliminate any answer choice that author A does not express an opinion on. Then, after passage B, eliminate any answer choices that author B doesn’t express an opinion on OR any answer choices that author A and author B would agree on.

Sequential Approach: Eliminate any answer choices that either author doesn’t express an opinion on. Additionally, eliminate any answer choices that the two authors would agree on.

whether uniformity in ███ ████████ ██ ███████████ █████████ ██ █████████

We can infer that author A agrees that uniformity in the training of fingerprint examiners is desirable. When author A is discussing the positive aspects of fingerprint examination, she cites the uniform standards.

The author of passage B would agree that uniformity in the training of fingerprint examiners is desirable––passage B is about the problems with the inconsistencies in fingerprint identification. Since author A and author B would likely agree on this topic, we can eliminate (A).

the likelihood that █ ███████████ ████████ ████ ███████████ ███████ █ █████ ██ █ █████ ████████ ████

Author A thinks that there is an exceedingly low rate of incorrect fingerprint identification.

Author B disagrees that there is an exceedingly low error rate. In fact, author B claims that the error rate may be as high as 34 percent.

Author A and author B disagree about the likelihood that an examiner will be incorrect.

75%

whether fingerprint identification ██████ ██ ████████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████████ ███

We know that author A thinks that fingerprint identification has not attained the status of scientific law, but she doesn’t say what should be the case.

Author B doesn’t specifically mention whether fingerprint identification should be scientific law, but the whole passage is about the shortcomings of fingerprint identification, so author B would probably think that fingerprint identification shouldn’t be scientific law.

the relative merits ██ ███ ██████████████ ███ ████████ ███████ ██ ███████████ ██████████████

Author A doesn’t mention holistic methods, so we don’t know what she would think about the holistic methods of fingerprint identification. We can eliminate (D) because author A is silent on this claim. Also, author B doesn’t compare the relative merits of these two methods; author B just reports that these are two methods that are used.

13%

whether different agencies ████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███████████ ████ ███████ ███ █████████ ██ ███████ █ █████

Author A states that different agencies vary in the degree of correlation that they require for examiners to declare a match. Author B agrees that requirements for similarity vary, so author A and author B agree on this issue.

PrepTest 136 - Section 1 - Passage 2 - Question 9

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