LSAT 131 | Section 2 | Logical Reasoning: Q3

LR Question 3 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Despite the enormous number of transactions processed daily

QUESTION TYPE: Most Strongly Supported

FACTS: Banks have an enormous number of transactions.

Banks’ internal audit procedures will usually detect an error that deposits a large sum of money into a customer’s account.

ANALYSIS: This stimulus really only tells us two things:

Banks make errors.

They find the big ones after.

If you stick to that, you can easily rule out the wrong answers. The right answer might present a bit of a leap, but this is a most strongly supported question, so there is some wiggle room. And if you’ve eliminated the wrong answers, it’s easier to consider whether the right one is truly supported.

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1. CORRECT. This is fairly well supported. Obviously, the original error was produced by a computer program. If that program could detect its own errors, it probably wouldn’t make them. So, presumably the audit procedures use a different program. And if a bank checks any transactions, it will certainly check large ones. This is supported by the fact that banks will find large errors in customers’ favor.
    
   The stimulus technically didn’t mention computers, but we can assume that’s how transactions are processed at modern banks.
2. This isn’t supported: the passage doesn’t even mention in person transactions.
3. The stimulus doesn’t say what banks do or do not send customers.
4. The stimulus didn’t say why audits are effective. It could be due to more auditors, but…it’s actually possible there are fewer auditors. Maybe they’ve gotten more efficient.
5. An error made by a bank is one thing. A deliberate attack by computer hackers is another. We have no evidence about bank security.