LSAT 105 – Section 4 – Question 18

LSAT 105 - Section 4 - Question 18

February 1999

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Question QuickView	Type	Tags	Answer Choices	Curve	Question Difficulty	Psg/Game/S Difficulty	Explanation
PT105 S4 Q18	+LR	Weaken +Weak	A 2% 162 B 12% 162 C 7% 161 D 6% 158 E 73% 167	143 154 166	+Harder	144.839 +SubsectionEasier

In a study in which secondary school students were asked to identify the teachers they liked the best, the teachers most often identified possessed a personality type that constitutes 20 percent of the general public but only 5 percent of teachers. Thus something must discourage the people who would be the best-liked teachers from entering this profession.

Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis

The author hypothesizes that something is discouraging people who would be well-liked teachers from becoming teachers at all. This is based on a study where secondary students’ favorite teachers tended to have personality type X. However, only 5 percent of teachers are type X, compared to 20 percent of all people. In other words, teachers are much less likely to have personality type X.

Notable Assumptions

The author assumes that whatever is causing so few type X people to be teachers is happening before people take on teaching jobs, not afterwards. For example, people’s personality type may change after becoming a teacher, or type X people may quit teaching jobs more frequently.

People with the personality type constitute 5 percent of the medical profession.

This does not weaken the argument. The author’s hypothesis is limited to teachers, and there’s no apparent link that would make medicine analogous to teaching. And even if there were, we still don’t know why type-X people are only 5 percent of medical professionals.

People with the personality type constitute 5 percent of college students pursuing a degree in education.

This does not weaken the argument. Aside from anything else, we don’t know the relationship between education degrees and teaching jobs. Maybe lots of people without education degrees pursue teaching jobs. So this statistic doesn’t tell us much about teaching applicants.

Students of teachers with the personality type are intensely recruited for noneducational professions.

This does not weaken the argument. What happens to students of type X teachers has nothing to do with whether type X people are being discouraged from taking teaching jobs.

Students with the personality type are more likely to be liked by teachers than those with other personality types.

This does not weaken the argument. How teachers feel about their students is totally irrelevant to how we can explain the lower proportion of teachers with personality type X.

Teachers with the personality type are more likely to quit teaching than those with other personality types.

This weakens the argument. If type X teachers are more likely to quit teaching, that shifts the problem to a later stage than the author identifies. The author assumes that type X people aren’t taking on teaching jobs, but this undermines that assumption.

LSAT 105 – Section 4 – Question 18

LSAT 105 - Section 4 - Question 18

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LSAT PrepTest 105 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Reading Comprehension

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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