PrepTest 136 - Section 1 - Passage 2 - Question 12

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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.

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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?

Additional critique · Inadequate study of error rate

How often do examiners mistakenly find a match? One test showed a 34 percent error rate.

Passage Style

12.

Which one of the following ██████████ █████████ ███ █████████ ██ ████ █████████

Question Type

Implied

Principle or generalization

In this Inference question, we are looking for an underlying principle that applies to both passages. Remember that author A’s main point is that the trial court was allowed to admit fingerprint evidence. Author B’s main point is to criticize the practice of fingerprint identification because of the lack of objective standards for determining a “match” between two prints.

Split Approach: After reading passage A, eliminate any answer that is not a principle that underlies the argument of passage A. Then, after reading passage B, eliminate the remaining answer choices that do not contain an underlying principle for the argument of passage B.

Sequential Approach: Eliminate each answer choice that does not contain an underlying principle that applies to both passages.

Courts should be █████████ █████████ ██ ██████ █████ █████ ██ ████████ ████ ████ █████████ ███ ████ ██ █████

This goes too far for passage A, so we can eliminate (A). Author A doesn’t suggest that courts should be extremely reluctant to reject fingerprint evidence. Also, passage A is specifically about fingerprint identification within one specific case, not about what kinds of evidence courts should reject in general.

Passage B doesn’t argue about what courts should do, so this principle does not underlie the argument of passage B.

Defendants should have ███ █████ ██ █████████ █████ ██ ████████ █████ ███████████ ███ ███ ████ ██████████████ ███████

Author A argues that the trial court was allowed to admit fingerprint evidence, so (B) is not a principle that underlies author A’s argument. We can eliminate (B). Also, passage B does not argue about what defendants should have the right to do, sot this principle does not underlie passage B.

To evaluate the █████ ██ ███████████ █████████ ███ ████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ██ ████ ███████ ██████ ████ ███ █████████ ██████ █████ ██████

This isn’t an underlying principle for author A’s argument, so we can eliminate (C). In passage A, we don’t know how likely it is that partial prints from two different people would match, but the author still thinks that fingerprint evidence is valuable. Author A contradicts this principle.

12%

Fingerprint identification should ███ ██ ██████████ ██ ████ █ ███ █████ ████ ██████ ██████████ █████████ █████ ████ █████ ████ ██ ██ ███

This isn’t an underlying principle for author A’s argument, so we can eliminate (D). In passage A, the author does consider fingerprint identification to have a low error rate, even though the passage doesn’t mention rigorously conducted tests, so author A contradicts this principle.

Fingerprint examiners must ██████ █████████ █████████ ██ ███████████ ██████████████ ██ ██ ██ █████████

This principle underlies author A’s argument. Author A affirms the reliability of fingerprint identification, and also emphasizes the importance of uniform standards.

This principle also underlies author B’s argument––passage B argues that the reliability of fingerprint identification is questionable because there are not objective standards.

72%

PrepTest 136 - Section 1 - Passage 2 - Question 12

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