PTA.S3.Q18

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 18

Question

Explanation

Analytics

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Like a number of other articles, Ian Raghnall’s article relied on a recent survey in which over half the couples applying for divorces listed “money” as a major problem in their marriages. ████████████ ██████████ ████ ███ ██████ ████ ██ ████ █████████ ████████ ███ ███ █████ ███████ ██ █████████ ███ ██ █████████ ██████ ████████████ ██ ███ ████ ███████ █████ ███ ███████ █████ ███████ █████ █████ ██ ███████ ████████████ ██ █████████ ██████ ███████ ████████████ ███ ██████ ████ ██ ███ █████████ ████ █████████ ████████ ███ ███ █████ ███████ ██ ████████████ ██████████

Objective: Identify the Main Conclusion

For a Main Conclusion question, we want to pay attention to the support structure of the argument: claims acting as premises will support claims acting as conclusions. We can also pay attention to context clues to identify a conclusion. This stimulus doesn't use helpful indicator words like "therefore", but we can consider the position the stimulus agrees or disagrees with to get an idea what it's trying to say.

The context for this stimulus is an article by Ian Raghnall about a recent survey of divorcing couples. Most of the couples surveyed said "money" was a major problem for their marriages, so Raghnall concluded that financial problems are the main issue for marriages.

The stimulus, however takes issue with Raghnall's conclusion, using words of opposition like "yet" and "despite". According to the stimulus, couples express other problems in terms of money. This supports the conclusion that the survey does not establish that financial problems are the main issue for marriages, as Raghnall claims. This is the argument's conclusion, and where it reaches its disagreement with Raghnall.

Analysis by AlexandraNash

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18.

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

Financial problems are ███ ██ █████████ ██████ ████████████ ██ ███ ███████ █████

The stimulus doesn't make this claim; it only says that the survey doesn't support financial problems being the main problem for marriages. That doesn't equate to the exact opposite claim, that financial problems aren't an important problem at all.

Marital problems are ████ ██████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██████████ ████ ██ ███████ ███████ ██ █████ ████

The stimulus doesn't mention marriage counselors or how to solve marital problems at all. Because the stimulus never makes or implies this claim, it can't be the conclusion.

The conclusion drawn ██ ████████████ ███████ ██ ████████████ ██████████

In other words, to conclude that the survey supports financial problems being the main problem in marriages (Raghnall's conclusion) isn't justified. This is the claim supported by the argument: that the survey doesn't actually establish such a conclusion.

Over half the ███████ ████████ ███ ████████ ██████ █████ ██ █ █████ ███████ ██ █████ ██████████

This is a factual claim stated as context, not the argument's conclusion. Nothing else in the stimulus supports this claim.

Many articles wrongly █████ ████ █████████ ████████ ███ ███ █████ ██████ ████████████ ██ ███ ███████ █████

There are two major issues with (E). First, the stimulus only says that several articles relied on the survey; we don't know their conclusions, only Raghnall's conclusion. Without knowing if the articles make this claim, the stimulus can't be concluding that they're wrong.

Second, the stimulus never claims that Raghnall's conclusion is wrong, only that it's not supported. The stimulus leaves it open that money problems could still be couples' main issue; it's just that they survey doesn't tell us that.

Difficulty

Question

79% 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% 136

147

75% 158

Analysis

Question Stem Tags

Main conclusion or main point

Stems that ask us to articulate the main conclusion of the author's argument.

Answer Popularity

Popularity Avg. score

156

120

79%

164

144

17%

156

Question history

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