PrepTest 37, Section 2, Question 3

Difficulty:

Joan got A's on all her homework assignments, so if she had gotten an A on her term paper, she could pass the course even without doing the class presentation. Unfortunately, she did not get an A on her term paper, so it is obvious that she will have to do the class presentation to pass the course.

Question

The argument's reasoning is questionable because the argument

ignores the possibility that Joan must either have an A on her term paper or do the class presentation to pass the course

presupposes without justification that Joan's not getting an A on her term paper prevents her from passing the course without doing the class presentation

overlooks the importance of class presentations to a student's overall course grade

ignores the possibility that if Joan has to do the class presentation to pass the course, then she did not get an A on her term paper

fails to take into account the possibility that some students get A's on their term papers but do not pass the course

Raise Hand ✋

Explanations

Joan's grades

Will Joan pass?

Sounds like Joan's a decent student. Here's what we know about her: She got an A on each homework assignment. If she'd gotten an A on her term paper, she could pass the course, even without doing a presentation. But, she didn't get an A on the term paper.

But then the author concludes something dumb—that Joan will obviously have to do the class presentation to pass the course.

Not necessarily. See, all we know is that getting an A on her term paper would have been sufficient to pass the course, even without doing the presentation. But that doesn't imply that the only way to pass the course without doing the presentation is acing the term paper. What if there's some extra credit? What if—like I recently saw on Instagram—you could do some corny dance and skip out on the presentation entirely? In other words, the author's made a classic sufficient-for-necessary flaw.

That's all to say, there are potentially many ways Joan could pass the course, even without doing the presentation, while still failing to ace the term paper.

Turns out this is a flaw question. Lucky for us, we've spotted the flaw a mile away. It should be super easy to catch.

No, this is a trap. Our author doesn't overlook this possibility. This is their whole argument, and is essentially why their argument is wrong. Read every word carefully.

Perfect. Yes, our author assumes (presupposes) that Joan's failing to get an A on the term paper means she can't pass without doing the presentation. Come up with even a single objection of your own and the idiocy of this argument should reveal itself to you.

Haha, no way. If anything, the author puts too much weight on the course presentation.

No, this answer choice partially articulates the contrapositive of the conditional scenario presented in the passage, so the author didn't overlook it. The author's premise is a conditional: if Joan aces all her homework and her term paper, then she doesn't have to do the presentation to pass. The contrapositive of that is if Joan has to do the presentation to pass, then she either didn't ace all her homework, or the paper, or both.

No way. We could argue the author fails to consider this possibility, but it's not the issue with the conclusion they made and the evidence they provided.