PrepTest 136 - Section 1 - Passage 2 - Question 11

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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

11.

Each passage discusses the relationship ███████ ███ ███████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███████████ ██████████████ ███ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████

Question Type

Stated

In this Stated question, we are looking for something that each passage discusses in relation with the reliability of fingerprint identification.

Split Approach: After passage A, eliminate any option that is not something that passage A mentions in relation with the reliability of fingerprint identification. Then, after reading passage B, eliminate anything that passage B doesn’t mention in relation with the reliability of fingerprint identification.

Sequential Approach: Eliminate each answer choice that is not something mentioned in both passages in relation with the reliability of fingerprint identification.

the ability of █ ████████ █████████ ██ ██████ ██████████ ██ ███ █████████████ ████

Passage A does not discuss this, so we can eliminate (A).

Passage B does not discuss this topic either.

the personal integrity ██ ██████████ ███████████ █████████

Passage A doesn’t discuss the personal integrity of individual fingerprint examiners, so we can eliminate (B).

Passage B does not discuss this topic either.

differences in the ██████████████ █████████ ████ ██ ███████ ███████████ █████████

This is discussed in P4 of passage A. Author A claims that, even while different degrees of correlation may be required, examiners are held to a consistent approach, which makes the practice reliable.

Passage B identifies at least two different practices used by different examiners. Author B highlights the lack of consistency between the different methods, which poses the risk of fingerprint identification being unreliable.

88%

the partial or ███████ ██████ ████ ███ █████████ ████ ██ ████████ ██ ████████ █████

Passage A does not discuss this, so we can eliminate (D).

use of the ████████ ████████ ██ ███████████ ██████████████

Passage A does not discuss this, so we can eliminate (E).

PrepTest 136 - Section 1 - Passage 2 - Question 11

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