LSAT 150 – Section 3 – Question 20

LSAT 150 - Section 3 - Question 20

June 2018

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT150 S3 Q20
+LR
Point at issue: disagree +Disagr
Link Assumption +LinkA
Value Judgment +ValJudg
A
3%
153
B
90%
163
C
1%
151
D
3%
153
E
2%
153
138
145
152
 +Medium 148.057 +SubsectionMedium

History student: It is unfair for the History Department to prohibit students from citing certain online encyclopedias in their research papers merely because these sources are not peer reviewed. In their research, students should be allowed to read whatever they wish; otherwise, it is censorship.

History professor: Students are allowed to read whatever they like. The rule stipulates only that certain online encyclopedias are not to be cited as references since, given that they are not peer reviewed, they cannot reasonably be treated as reliable support for any claim.

Speaker 1 Summary
The student says it’s unfair for the History Department to ban students from citing online encyclopedias. Why is it unfair? Because students should be allowed to read anything they want. This is further supported by a claim that to limit this freedom would be censorship. (The unspoken assumption is that prohibiting citing encyclopedias counts as not allowing the students to read them.)

Speaker 2 Summary
The professor argues that students are, in fact, allowed to read whatever they want. In support, the professor says that the rule only bans citing the encyclopedias. (This indicates that the professor believes a ban on citing something is different from a ban on reading it.)

Objective
We’re looking for a point of disagreement. The student and professor disagree about whether banning students from citing a source counts as banning them from reading that source.

A
research papers written for a history class require some citations to be from sources that have been peer reviewed
Neither speaker makes this claim. The discussion is only about a rule that bans students from citing certain non-peer-reviewed sources. Neither the student nor the professor talks about the role of peer reviewed sources, or what sources are required.
B
prohibiting a certain sort of online source material from being cited as a research reference amounts to prohibiting students from reading that source material
The student agrees with this but the professor disagrees. This is the point of disagreement. The student claims that a citation ban conflicts with the freedom to read any sources one desires, thus equating the two. The professor differentiates between citation and reading.
C
censorship of the reading of research publications that are peer reviewed can ever be justified
Neither speaker makes this claim. Only the student mentions censorship at all, and even then, only to say that limitations on what sources students can read would be censorship. No one talks about what might justify censorship.
D
sources that are not peer reviewed often have solid support for the claims that they make
The professor might disagree with this (although “reliable support” and “solid support” aren’t necessarily the same thing) but the student never talks about the quality of non-peer-reviewed sources or their ability to support claims.
E
students should be allowed to read whatever they wish to in preparing to write a research paper for a history class
The student makes this claim, but the professor doesn’t disagree. The professor’s argument doesn’t touch on whether students should have this freedom or not, just that the citation ban doesn’t conflict with this principle.

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LSAT PrepTest 150 Explanations

Section 1 - Reading Comprehension

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Reading Comprehension

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