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Explanations

PT21.S2.Q4

SECTION 1 · rc

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

PASSAGE 2
Question 7 Question 8 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 Question 21

PASSAGE 4
Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25 Question 26 Question 27 Question 28

SECTION 2 · 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 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 · 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 Question 14 Question 15 Question 16

PASSAGE 3
Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21

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

PrepTest 21 - Section 2 - Question 4

Question

Explanation

Analytics

Show analysis

The highest-ranking detectives in the city’s police department are also the most adept at solving crimes. ███ ██ ████ ██ ███ ████ ███ ██████ ███ ███████ ███████ ████ ███ ███ ████████ ███████████████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ████████ █████ ███ ████ ██ ██████ ████ ███ ███████ ███████ ████ ███ ███ ██████████████ ███████████

Structure: Surprising Phenomenon

The stimulus points out a surprising phenomenon: even though the highest-ranking detectives in the city's police department are the best at solving crimes, their rate of successfully solving cases in the last ten years has been no higher than the average success rate of the lowest-ranking detectives in the department.

Analysis: Ways to Resolve

The comparison between the success rates of the highest-ranking and lowest-ranking detectives is only surprising if we assume that they are facing cases of a similar level of difficulty. We can assume that if a high-ranking detective and a low-ranking detective were each given ten cases of the same level of difficulty, the high-ranking detective would have a higher rate of success than the low-ranking detective.

But it would make sense for the highest-ranking detectives to be assigned the most difficult cases — i.e., the hardest ones to solve. In that case, the fact that their success rate in solving such cases is no higher than the success rate of the lowest-ranking detectives for their (presumably less difficult) cases would say more about the difficulty of the cases than about the ability of the detectives. So learning about the relative difficulty of these cases would provide a straightforward way to resolve the tension in the stimulus.

Analysis by ArdaschirArguelles

Show answer

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

The detectives who ████ ███ ███████ ███████ ████ ██ ███████ ████████ █████ ███ █████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ███ ████████

Irrelevant. The length of time someone has worked as a detective doesn't help us explain why the success rate of the highest-ranking detectives in solving cases is no higher than that of the lowest-ranking detectives.

It generally takes ██ █████ ███ █████ ███ █ █████████ ██ ████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ █████ ██ ███ ████████ █████████ ██████

Irrelevant. How long it takes for someone to rise through the ranks doesn't help explain the tension in the stimulus.

Those detectives in ███ ██████ ██████████ ███ ███ ███ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ████████ █████ ███ ████ █████ ████ ██████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ ███████████

Incorrect. We're not interested in the turnover or retention rates for these detectives. We want to know why the highest-ranking detectives, who are the best at solving crimes, have not had a higher success rate solving cases over the last ten years than the lowest-ranking detectives.

The police department █████████ █████ ███ ████████ █████ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ██ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ██████████████ ███████████

Correct. In the analysis, we discussed how we could resolve the tension in the stimulus if we knew that the highest-ranking detectives were given the most difficult cases. But it works just as well to be told that the lowest-ranking detectives are given the easiest cases. This suggests that the lowest-ranking detectives might have a relatively high rate of solving cases, which helps explain why even the highest-ranking detectives have a success rate no higher than the lowest-ranking ones.

None of the ██████████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███████ ████████ █████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████ ███████████

Irrelevant. If anything, this actually intensifies the tension in the stimulus. If the lowest-ranking detectives have absolutely no crime-solving experience, then it seems even more puzzling why they have a crime-solving success rate as high or higher than the highest-ranking detectives.

Difficulty

Question

98% of people who answer get this correct

This is a low-difficulty question.

CURVE

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

25% 126

133

75% 140

Analysis

Question Stem Tags

Resolve reconcile or explain

Stems that ask us to resolve an apparent paradox, reconcile two seemingly inconsistent facts, or explain a counterintuitive phenomenon presented in the stimulus. Learn more.

Stimulus Tags

Causal reasoning

Stimuli that feature the logic of causation (e.g. phenomenon-hypothesis, causal chain, experiments). Learn more.

Phenomenon-hypothesis (LR)

Stimuli that describe a state of affairs (phenomenon), then offer a conclusion as to what has caused that state of affairs (hypothesis). A sub-type of causal reasoning. Learn more.

Answer Popularity

Popularity Avg. score

149

160

145

98%

167

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