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Explanations

PTA.S3.Q10

SECTION 1 · lr

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13 Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25

SECTION 2 · rc

PASSAGE 1
Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7 Question 8

PASSAGE 2
Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13

PASSAGE 3
Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20

PASSAGE 4
Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25 Question 26 Question 27

SECTION 3 · lr

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13 Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25

SECTION 4 · lr

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13 Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25

PrepTest A - Section 3 - Question 10

Question

Explanation

Analytics

Show analysis

People with serious financial problems are so worried about money that they cannot be happy. █████ ██████ █████ ████████ █████ ██ ██████████████ ████████ ████████████████████ ██ █████ ████ ██ █████ █████████ ████████ ███ ██████ ███ ████ ███ █████ ██████ ████ ██ ██████

Stimulus Breakdown

The stimulus gives us a few related claims about serious financial problems and happiness.

Claim 1: People with serious financial problems are so worried about money that they cannot be happy.

Claim 2: Their misery makes everyone close to them unhappy as well.

Claim 3: Only if their financial problems are solved can they and those around them be happy.

Claims 1 and 2 are pretty straightforward. If you have serious financial problems, you're unhappy, and the people around you are unhappy too. Here's what those claims look like in diagram form:

serious financial problems → not happy

serious financial problems → people close to you not happy

Claim 3 requires more care. The phrase "only if" introduces a necessary condition. The claim says that solving the financial problems is necessary for happiness, not that it's sufficient. In other words, you can't be happy unless the problems are solved. But solving the problems doesn't guarantee you'll be happy. Maybe you solve your financial problems but then something else makes you miserable.

happy → financial problems are solved

Notice that Claim 3 doesn't really give us new information beyond what Claims 1 and 2 already established. Claims 1 and 2 told us that serious financial problems guarantee unhappiness.

Anticipation

Since this is a Must Be True question, the correct answer must be guaranteed by the statements in the stimulus. We should be careful not to pick an answer that goes beyond what the stimulus actually proves. In particular, watch out for answers that treat a necessary condition as though it were sufficient. The stimulus tells us what's required for happiness, but it doesn't tell us what guarantees happiness.

Analysis by Kevin_Lin

Show answer

10.

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

Only serious problems ████ ██████ ████████

The stimulus tells us that serious financial problems make people unhappy. But it never says that serious financial problems are the only things that make people unhappy. People could be unhappy for countless other reasons. (A) takes the stimulus's claim about one cause of unhappiness and incorrectly treats it as the only cause.

People who solve █████ ███████ █████████ ████████ ████ ██ ██████

This might be a tempting trap. It's wrong because it confuses a necessary condition with a sufficient condition. The stimulus says solving financial problems is necessary for happiness ("only if" introduces what's necessary). It doesn't tell us that solving the problems will make someone happy. Think of it this way: oxygen is necessary for a fire to burn, but having oxygen doesn't guarantee there will be a fire. Similarly, solving financial problems is necessary for happiness, but it doesn't guarantee happiness. Maybe after solving their financial problems, a person faces a health crisis, a difficult relationship, or some other source of unhappiness.

If you find this tricky, pay close attention to the difference between "if" and "only if." "If X, then Y" means X is sufficient for Y. "Only if X, can Y" means X is necessary for Y. The stimulus uses "only if," so solving financial problems is necessary, not sufficient.

People who do ███ ████ ███████ █████████ ████████ ████ ██ ██████

The stimulus tells us that having serious financial problems prevents happiness. But the absence of serious financial problems doesn't guarantee happiness. Just like (B), this treats the removal of one barrier to happiness as though it's enough to make someone happy. People without serious financial problems could still be unhappy for entirely different reasons. (C) is another version of confusing sufficient and necessary conditions.

If people are ████████ ████ ████ ███████ █████████ █████████

Yet another example of confusing sufficient and necessary conditions. The stimulus tells us that serious financial problems lead to unhappiness. But that doesn't mean unhappiness must always be a result of serious financial problems. People can be unhappy for all sorts of reasons that have nothing to do with finances. (D) treats serious financial problems as the only possible cause of unhappiness, which the stimulus never claims.

If people are ██████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ███████ █████████ █████████

This must be true based on the contrapositive of the first claim in the stimulus. We know people with serious financial problems cannot be happy. So, if someone is happy, they don't have serious financial problems. If they did have serious financial problems, they wouldn't be able to be happy in the first place.

Difficulty

Question

80% of people who answer get this correct

This is a moderately difficult question.

CURVE

Score of students with a 50% chance of getting this right

25% 138

147

75% 157

Analysis

Question Stem Tags

Inference

Stems that ask which answer choice can be "properly inferred" from the claims in the stimulus. Near-synonymous with Must Be True, with a slightly lower standard of support.

Stimulus Tags

Conditional reasoning

Stimuli that feature conditional and set logic (e.g. A → B, A is true, therefore B is true).

Answer Popularity

Popularity Avg. score

146

15%

154

155

80%

164

Question history

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