Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Easy

PT135 S2 Q3 Explanation

Banking analyst: Banks often

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Logical Reasoning question.

TopicsStrengthen

Keep going in LSAT Lab

  • Save & drill this skill — build targeted practice sets from questions like this one

  • Video walkthroughs — watch every question solved step by step

  • 81 official LSATs — as questions, timed sections & full-length tests

Start practicing free

Free to start

Full official LSAT questions are available through LawHub. This page provides LSAT Lab's explanation, strategy, and review tools without republishing the full official question.

Stimulus

Banking analyst: Banks often offer various services to new customers at no charge. But this is not an ideal business practice, since regular, long-term customers, who make up the bulk of excluded from these special offers.

What this question is testing

Strengthen

Your task

Find the choice that makes the argument's conclusion more likely to be true.

Common trap

Answers that are consistent with the argument but add no real support, or that strengthen a claim the argument doesn't make.

Winning move

Locate the gap between evidence and conclusion, then pick the choice that closes it.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question
3.

Which one of the following, if true, most strengthens the banking

Answer choices

  1. Irrelevant Distinction / Opposite1% picked this

    Most banks have similar charges for most services and pay similar interest

    If anything, someone might use this to weaken the argument by saying, “Look, banks are basically all offering the same thing: same charges / same rates. So, in order to win new customers, we need to offer them these special freebies.”

  2. Correct85% picked this

    Banks do best when offering special privileges only to their most

    Why this is right

    Is a free service a special privilege? That seems fair. If so, this answer says that banks would do better to only offer special stuff to the regular loyal customers. If offering special stuff to new customers is not how banks do best, then it’s not ideal.

    Skill tested: Strengthen · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

  3. Opposite5% picked this

    Offering services at no charge to all of its current customers would be prohibitively expensive

    This comes from a weakening place. “You hate this idea? Well, what do you propose then, author? That we give free stuff to everyone? That’s not tenable.” The author isn’t asking us to choose between giving free stuff to newbies vs. free stuff to everyone. She could simply be arguing, “Don’t give free stuff to newbies (or anyone).”

  4. Opposite7% picked this

    Once they have chosen a bank, people tend to remain loyal

    This could somewhat weaken. It has the effect of, “Don’t worry about the regular customers, author. Once they’ve chosen this bank, they’re sticking with it. Missing out on the free stuff we offer to newbies isn’t going to motivate them to switch banks.”

  5. Too Weak / Opposite1% picked this

    Some banks that offer services at no charge to new customers

    Not only is this answer too weakly worded to likely be correct, it is going the wrong direction. Our author is trying to show that offering free stuff to new people is not ideal, but this answer is saying that some banks that do it are very successful.

Continue the review in LSAT Lab

Save this question, watch the video walkthrough, and drill similar questions in your LSAT Lab account.

Save and practice this skill
LSAT Lab

Turn this review into a targeted study plan.

Save this question, drill more like it, watch the video walkthrough, and track your progress in your LSAT Lab account.

Start practicing free