LSAT 129 – Section 3 – Question 01

LSAT 129 - Section 3 - Question 01

June 2009

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT129 S3 Q01
+LR
Resolve reconcile or explain +RRE
Causal Reasoning +CausR
A
92%
165
B
1%
157
C
2%
159
D
2%
160
E
2%
158
120
132
146
 +Easiest 146.07 +SubsectionMedium

Educators studied the performance of 200 students in a university’s history classes. They found that those students who performed the best had either part-time jobs or full-time jobs, had their history classes early in the morning, and had a very limited social life, whereas those students who performed the worst had no jobs, had their history classes early in the morning, and had a very active social life.

"Surprising" Phenomenon
Students with jobs and minimal social lives outperformed students with no jobs and active social lives.

Objective
The correct answer will be a hypothesis that explains why students with jobs but no social lives performed so much better than those with social lives but no jobs. Presumably the two groups were sacrificing study time to work or party. Our answer should explain why an active social life is more detrimental to studies than employment, or vice versa.

A
The students compensated for any study time lost due to their jobs but they did not compensate for any study time lost due to their social lives.
Students who party sleep in on Saturdays. Students who work Friday nights get up early to study, hence why they outperform their more socially-active peers.
B
The students who had full-time jobs typically worked late-night hours at those jobs.
Working late-night hours wouldn’t improve these students’ grades. Their socially-active peers were probably out late, too.
C
Better students tend to choose classes that are scheduled to meet early in the morning.
According to the stimulus, both groups of students—the very best and the very worst—attend classes in the morning.
D
A larger percentage of those students interested in majoring in history had part-time jobs than had full-time jobs.
This compares between employed students. The correct answer needs to explain the difference between employed and unemployed, socially-active students.
E
Although having a job tends to provide a release from stress, thus increasing academic performance, having a full-time job, like having an active social life, can distract a student from studying.
Much like (D), this compares between employed students. We need to know why these students do better than their unemployed peers.

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LSAT PrepTest 129 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Reading Comprehension

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