PrepTest 131 - Section 4 - Passage 2 - Question 15

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A proficiency in understanding, applying, and even formulating statutes—the actual texts of laws enacted by legislative bodies—is a vital aspect of the practice of law, but statutory law is often given too little attention by law schools. ███

Author's perspective · Statutes are critical to practicing law, but not given enough attention in law school

Current law school approach · Focuses on judicial decisions

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Benefit of changing focus · Much actual work is based on how statutes apply

Sometimes how statutes apply are obvious. But other times it's not, so it's important for law students to learn to interpret statutes.

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Additional benefit of changing focus · Ability to synthesize laws

Caselaw focus doesn't do good job of helping students understand interrelations among laws. Focus on statutes helps students see how laws fit together. This can help when students encounter other areas of law.

Potential objection · Statutes are different from region to region

Concession · Specific knowledge of statutes isn't usually transferrable between regions

So a focus on statutes may not seem appropriate for nationally-oriented schools.

Response to objection · Skills acquired in mastering a set of statutes are transferable

Focus on statutes is still important for national-oriented schools.

Passage Style

Critique or debate

Problem-analysis

15.

Each of the following conforms ██ ███ █████ ██ ███████████ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ █████ ██████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████

Question Type

Author’s perspective

Implied

The passage proposes more training in statutory law, arguing that this would help future lawyers both interpret statutes (P2) and understand how different laws work together (P3). We should expect the four wrong answers to be in line with those results, while the right answer will be something unrelated.

skill in locating ██████████ ██ █████ █████████ ██ ██ █████ █████████ █ ██████████ ███████ █████████ ████████

The actual skill we’re talking about in this answer choice is the ability to find references to court decisions. The decisions are related to a statute, yes, but the task described here isn’t to interpret that statute—it’s simply to research court decisions. This is the kind of skill that comes from analyzing individual cases and judicial decisions, not from training in statute law.

46%

an understanding of ███ ████ ██ █████ ███████ ██████████ ████████ ███ ██████ ██ ██ ████████████ █████ ██ █████████████ ████

The author states in P3 that one result of training in statutory law is better understanding of how a set of laws works together.

a knowledge of ███ ████████ ████████ ███ ██████████

The author says that a proficiency in understanding, applying, and even formulating statutes is a “vital aspect” of law, so we can infer that the study of statutory law should, in his opinion, result in the knowledge of how certain statutes are formulated.

17%

familiarity with the ████████ ████████ ██ █ █████ ██ ████ ████████ ██ ██████████ ██ █ ██████████ ██████ ██ ████████

Familiarity with a certain set of laws (i.e., statutes) is something the author would expect to result from training in statutory law. He acknowledges in P4 that studying statutory law builds knowledge of a particular region's statutory law. (He goes on to say that there are broader benefits to studying statutory law. But he still believes that knowledge of a region’s statutes is one result of studying statutory law.)

an appreciation of ███ ████████ ██ ███████ ████████ ██ ████████ █████████████ ████

Appreciating a difficulty in the language of certain laws is something the author would expect to result from training in statutory law. Statutes are the actual texts of laws, and as noted in P2, the ability to grapple with the wording of those texts is one of the reasons to study statutory law.

27%

PrepTest 131 - Section 4 - Passage 2 - Question 15

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