Hi all, I made another flashcard set. This time for memorizing Quantifiers. Flashcards are what really helped me in undergrad and so I decided to make them to companion my 7sage studies. Thought I'd share to help others who would benefit :) made a folder that I will most likely add more sets to as I go. Much Love and happy studying! https://quizlet.com/user/ehoffmanwallace/folders/lsat-7sage-flashcards
This lesson is excellent. To have our studies applied directly to an LSAT-style question in a lower-pressure environment like this is INCREDIBLE for us as students. My confidence is very solid because of this.
We'd appreciate more low-pressure fake questions just like this throughout our lessons as practice for practical application of our lessons!
Here, we take a step back and get some perspective on why we care about quantifiers.
“Many large pharmaceutical companies are racing to develop the vaccine for a novel coronavirus. This makes sense economically and morally as there are billions of dollars to be made and millions of lives to be saved.”
If the statement above is true, then which one of the following is most strongly supported?
(A) Most large pharmaceutical companies are racing to develop a vaccine for a novel coronavirus. (this is wrong don’t confuse most for many!!!!!) it does not imply most! Not true!!!
(B) Some pharmaceutical companies are working on a vaccine for a novel coronavirus. (correct answer choice)
(C) Some pharmaceutical companies are investing all their resources on developing a vaccine for a novel coronavirus. (wrong) It does not mention in the passage “investing all their resources” this is never mentioned and not supported. Just because companies are racing to develop a vaccine doesn’t imply that they are investing all of their resources.
RECAP:
Much of the LSAT is about making supportable inferences. It’s important both to recognize when an inference ought to be made (e.g., “many” implies “some”) and to recognize when an inference is unsupported (e.g., “racing to develop” doesn’t imply “investing all resources”).
How do we know when to bring in general knowledge versus stick to the stimulus? For example, we kind of assumed that racing to develop the vaccine doesn't mean the company is investing all resources right?
@AkshayaAnnampedu sometimes, if an answer choice introduces new words ("investing all resources"), i automatically cross out the answer choice because those words (or even similar words) were NOT used in the original prompt.
@mariafreese not necessarily, what if there are only four individual aliens in the universe, and most of them are abducting humans. Is three of four aliens many?
@JosephAmoAppiah Fallacy of equivocation but let me help you since you also seem to struggle with the concept of "most" and "many".
'Most' is a proportion, not a quantity claim. ‘Many’ is a quantity judgment. 77% of one apple is most of the apple, but it is not many apples. So ‘most’ does not imply ‘many.
I'm just confused why C is not correct. I felt like it was a reasonable assumption that investing all resources into developing a vaccine means you're racing to develop it #help
I think its because its beyond the scope of the stimulus since it doesnt mention anything about how much they're investing in their resources to develop a vaccine
It's an incredibly strong claim to say "ALL" that is not supported by the stimulus. We know they are likely investing "some resources" but there's nothing that tells us how much. We can infer that at least 1 resource was invested in and if that were the case, C would also be true.
I get the feeling the LSAT is going to have answer choices that make unreasonable claims like "All" and if we aren't paying attention, we will glance over it because the beginning of the answer choice looks pretty good.
@goonkstr The two people who have already replied both gave great answers in saying that the question stimulus does not give us enough information to reasonably infer that any company is using 'all' their resources towards making a new vaccine.
I also wanted to point out that your logic is 'backwards' in your question.
"I felt like it was a reasonable assumption that investing all resources into developing a vaccine means you're racing to develop it."
Based on what you've said you're making the claim that 'investing all resources into development' is a Sufficient Condition for the Necessary Condition of 'racing to develop a vaccine.' This is fair.
However, while Sufficient Conditions guarantee Necessary Conditions, Necessary Conditions do not guarantee Sufficient Conditions. All the Necessary Condition does is allow for the range of potential Sufficient Conditions that could satisfy the Necessary Condition.
The question stimulus gives us the Necessary Condition [businesses are racing to develop the vaccine], but it does not give us enough information to know which Sufficient Condition is the 'right' one.
This is why we then have to infer what the Sufficient Condition would be based on context. We have to choose the best answer, even if there are other answers that could work.
In this case, I think that answer choice B is the best answer because to say 'working on a vaccine' encompasses a myriad of possible Sufficient Conditions. Answer choice C is very limited because it dictates that a company must be 'investing all their resources,' which is a specific Sufficient Condition.
A company that is 'investing all their resources' on the vaccine is under the umbrella of those companies that are 'working on' developing a vaccine. However, a company that is 'working on' the vaccine is not explicitly included in the group of companies that are 'investing all their resources.'
Answer choice B allows us to choose the superset, while answer choice C only allows us to pick a specific subset. Therefore, answer choice B is the best answer.
@goonkstr the way i look at it is that the question didnt really bring up anything about resources and Ive found that usually the answer has a straight connection to what is talked about in the passage
@goonkstr I think the biggest thing that helps here is the notice the word "all." You could be spending a majority of resources, even MOST of your resources, but still not be spending ALL of them on it. For example, Pfizer still has many other medications that are essential to people that need to get done, even in the midst of a crisis.
so "Some" is one of the safest options (depending on the context of course) but for the most part it is the broadest range and can help to understand as long as you know the boundaries of the others
AMAZING how you reviewed that LSAT styled question!
#feedback Please include more examples like this in the future! it helps so much to see how this concept can be applied to answering questions on the LSAT.
Most (51%-100%) → A majority over half but can be all
Some (1%-100%) → At least one but can be all
All three of these can be written in a context where it can mean "all" but "all" is strictly always ALL 100% no matter the context.
As for "many" and "few," its a bit more confusing for me to explicitly define it is how I defined it below correct? #help
Many → A significant amount but cannot be more than most (can this still mean all?? since the definition says CAN NOT be more than most which is over half? or does this just depend the context as well?)
Few → Some but not many (this is the last one so this is at least one but not more than half? so 1%-50%?)
This is the first question I've attempted since taking my cold diagnostic. It felt strange—but exciting—to actually break down a question and eliminate answers, rather than just rushing through everything. The curriculum is working!
You could think of "many" as being equivalent to "some." Let me be clear: this is false. We already established that "many" has a higher minimum threshold than "some." But, it's a useful falsehood because I've never seen the LSAT penalize this conflation.
but in this lesson "many" implies "some", can someone please explain..
"Many" implies "some" because "many" (a large amount) is higher than "some" (at least one). Therefore, J.Y taught us to think of "many" and "some" as equivalent to help us avoid the traps of confusing "many" with "most" on the LSAT. This is also showcased in answer choice A in the example above.
I hope this makes sense; I am unsure if this helped answer your question! :)
Wouldn't the arrow between "some" and "few" be bidirectional?
all --> most --> many --> some few
If there are a few candies on the table, then there are some candies on the table. If there are some candies on the table, then there are a few candies on the table.
However, I am not sure why some --> few. It seems like "some" isn't a true subset of "few", but rather an intersecting set. This is because "some" can mean "all", but "few" cannot mean "all." So, wouldn't that mean that there are some situations where "some" can be used that "few" cannot?
some is to few as most is to many. It is unidirectional as there are times when you have some, but not few. However, there are no instances in which you have few, but not some.
Remember, some ranges from 1 to all, few ranges from 1 to less than half of the total. Let's say you are a congress person and you are trying to get votes to pass a piece of legislation. If someone asked you how many votes you were going to get and you answered "Some", you would be correct wether the vote passed or not. If you got 10 votes but needed 50, you would still have "some". If you got 51 you would still have "some" votes.
Consider another case where you are asked the same question by a colleague and you answer "I am going to get few votes". In this case if you got 10 votes and needed 50, you would be correct and have "few". However, if you got 51 votes and your bill passed, your colleague would be confused why you said you were going to receive "few" votes when you clearly had enough.
Of course it wouldn't be an outright lie, but you could not infer a majority from "few" whereas a majority is possibly "some" of something.
That may have been a little long winded, but essentially the idea is that in all cases that you have "few" you have "some", but there are cases in which you have "some" but not "few". Think of the arrows again as sufficient → necessary relationships. Some is sufficient for "few" and "few" is necessary to "some".
what is confusing me is that answer A was the only one that had "large pharmaceutical companies" while the other answers just had "pharmaceutical company". wouldn't the word "large" be important in this context?
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59 comments
Hi all, I made another flashcard set. This time for memorizing Quantifiers. Flashcards are what really helped me in undergrad and so I decided to make them to companion my 7sage studies. Thought I'd share to help others who would benefit :) made a folder that I will most likely add more sets to as I go. Much Love and happy studying! https://quizlet.com/user/ehoffmanwallace/folders/lsat-7sage-flashcards
Great lesson. Thank you
#feedback the example question in the video helped SO much. Please add more
Loved this lesson! Everything is coming togetherrr
#feedback
This lesson is excellent. To have our studies applied directly to an LSAT-style question in a lower-pressure environment like this is INCREDIBLE for us as students. My confidence is very solid because of this.
We'd appreciate more low-pressure fake questions just like this throughout our lessons as practice for practical application of our lessons!
@madeinkeaven Agreed! This helped me so much in comparison to the skill builder questions.
Here, we take a step back and get some perspective on why we care about quantifiers.
“Many large pharmaceutical companies are racing to develop the vaccine for a novel coronavirus. This makes sense economically and morally as there are billions of dollars to be made and millions of lives to be saved.”
If the statement above is true, then which one of the following is most strongly supported?
(A) Most large pharmaceutical companies are racing to develop a vaccine for a novel coronavirus. (this is wrong don’t confuse most for many!!!!!) it does not imply most! Not true!!!
(B) Some pharmaceutical companies are working on a vaccine for a novel coronavirus. (correct answer choice)
(C) Some pharmaceutical companies are investing all their resources on developing a vaccine for a novel coronavirus. (wrong) It does not mention in the passage “investing all their resources” this is never mentioned and not supported. Just because companies are racing to develop a vaccine doesn’t imply that they are investing all of their resources.
RECAP:
Much of the LSAT is about making supportable inferences. It’s important both to recognize when an inference ought to be made (e.g., “many” implies “some”) and to recognize when an inference is unsupported (e.g., “racing to develop” doesn’t imply “investing all resources”).
everything is making so much sense now!!!!
So that means that quantifiers can come in a middle of a sentence not just the beginning, like in answer choice C ?
Would this be better diagrammed in the beginning as
All->Most->Many/Some-> Few ?
Some and most really threw me off when taking PT's. Understanding this language will help me quickly identity wrong answers.
f my fing chungus life
How do we know when to bring in general knowledge versus stick to the stimulus? For example, we kind of assumed that racing to develop the vaccine doesn't mean the company is investing all resources right?
@AkshayaAnnampedu sometimes, if an answer choice introduces new words ("investing all resources"), i automatically cross out the answer choice because those words (or even similar words) were NOT used in the original prompt.
@AnaliciaV 'working on' was a new phrase introduced... Why didn't you cross it out??
I'm getting the hang of this!! Lawyers and mathematicians are so particular with definitions and words oh my god
Does "most" imply "many"?
Yes. If most of something (over half) are something/are doing something, that implies that many of that thing are also something/doing something.
@mariafreese not necessarily, what if there are only four individual aliens in the universe, and most of them are abducting humans. Is three of four aliens many?
@tlepelstat204 all can imply most many some and few
most can imply many some and few
many can imply some and few
some can imply few
@JoshuaCosmas in relation to the total aliens, I think 3 aliens are many.
@JosephAmoAppiah Fallacy of equivocation but let me help you since you also seem to struggle with the concept of "most" and "many".
'Most' is a proportion, not a quantity claim. ‘Many’ is a quantity judgment. 77% of one apple is most of the apple, but it is not many apples. So ‘most’ does not imply ‘many.
Does it make sense now? :)
@JoshuaCosmas not really but im working on reprogramming my mind to understand it. Thanks
I'm just confused why C is not correct. I felt like it was a reasonable assumption that investing all resources into developing a vaccine means you're racing to develop it #help
I think its because its beyond the scope of the stimulus since it doesnt mention anything about how much they're investing in their resources to develop a vaccine
It's an incredibly strong claim to say "ALL" that is not supported by the stimulus. We know they are likely investing "some resources" but there's nothing that tells us how much. We can infer that at least 1 resource was invested in and if that were the case, C would also be true.
I get the feeling the LSAT is going to have answer choices that make unreasonable claims like "All" and if we aren't paying attention, we will glance over it because the beginning of the answer choice looks pretty good.
@goonkstr The two people who have already replied both gave great answers in saying that the question stimulus does not give us enough information to reasonably infer that any company is using 'all' their resources towards making a new vaccine.
I also wanted to point out that your logic is 'backwards' in your question.
Based on what you've said you're making the claim that 'investing all resources into development' is a Sufficient Condition for the Necessary Condition of 'racing to develop a vaccine.' This is fair.
However, while Sufficient Conditions guarantee Necessary Conditions, Necessary Conditions do not guarantee Sufficient Conditions. All the Necessary Condition does is allow for the range of potential Sufficient Conditions that could satisfy the Necessary Condition.
The question stimulus gives us the Necessary Condition [businesses are racing to develop the vaccine], but it does not give us enough information to know which Sufficient Condition is the 'right' one.
This is why we then have to infer what the Sufficient Condition would be based on context. We have to choose the best answer, even if there are other answers that could work.
In this case, I think that answer choice B is the best answer because to say 'working on a vaccine' encompasses a myriad of possible Sufficient Conditions. Answer choice C is very limited because it dictates that a company must be 'investing all their resources,' which is a specific Sufficient Condition.
A company that is 'investing all their resources' on the vaccine is under the umbrella of those companies that are 'working on' developing a vaccine. However, a company that is 'working on' the vaccine is not explicitly included in the group of companies that are 'investing all their resources.'
Answer choice B allows us to choose the superset, while answer choice C only allows us to pick a specific subset. Therefore, answer choice B is the best answer.
Hope this helps :)
@goonkstr the way i look at it is that the question didnt really bring up anything about resources and Ive found that usually the answer has a straight connection to what is talked about in the passage
@goonkstr I think the biggest thing that helps here is the notice the word "all." You could be spending a majority of resources, even MOST of your resources, but still not be spending ALL of them on it. For example, Pfizer still has many other medications that are essential to people that need to get done, even in the midst of a crisis.
so "Some" is one of the safest options (depending on the context of course) but for the most part it is the broadest range and can help to understand as long as you know the boundaries of the others
AMAZING how you reviewed that LSAT styled question!
#feedback Please include more examples like this in the future! it helps so much to see how this concept can be applied to answering questions on the LSAT.
I totally agree!!!
I feel like understanding Quantifiers is going to make most strongly supported questions so much easier to understand now.
✅ "All" always means 100%.
✅ "Most" guarantees a majority but could be all.
⚠️ "Many" is ambiguous—significant, but not necessarily most.
✅ "Some" guarantees at least one but could be all.
❌ "Few" always means less than half.
all → most → many → some → few
All (100%) → Every single element in the group.
Most (51%-100%) → A majority over half but can be all
Some (1%-100%) → At least one but can be all
All three of these can be written in a context where it can mean "all" but "all" is strictly always ALL 100% no matter the context.
As for "many" and "few," its a bit more confusing for me to explicitly define it is how I defined it below correct? #help
Many → A significant amount but cannot be more than most (can this still mean all?? since the definition says CAN NOT be more than most which is over half? or does this just depend the context as well?)
Few → Some but not many (this is the last one so this is at least one but not more than half? so 1%-50%?)
This is the first question I've attempted since taking my cold diagnostic. It felt strange—but exciting—to actually break down a question and eliminate answers, rather than just rushing through everything. The curriculum is working!
I don't think some implies few as indicated in the diagram. Earlier its stated that few implies not most.
Since the higher bound on some could be more than 50%, it seems possible for the statement
For example, if 51% of cats have stripes then the statement
"some cats have stripes" in true while the statement "few cats have stripes" is false.
in lesson 11 this was stated:
"Many" = "Some"
You could think of "many" as being equivalent to "some." Let me be clear: this is false. We already established that "many" has a higher minimum threshold than "some." But, it's a useful falsehood because I've never seen the LSAT penalize this conflation.
but in this lesson "many" implies "some", can someone please explain..
"Many" implies "some" because "many" (a large amount) is higher than "some" (at least one). Therefore, J.Y taught us to think of "many" and "some" as equivalent to help us avoid the traps of confusing "many" with "most" on the LSAT. This is also showcased in answer choice A in the example above.
I hope this makes sense; I am unsure if this helped answer your question! :)
#help #feedback
Wouldn't the arrow between "some" and "few" be bidirectional?
all --> most --> many --> some few
If there are a few candies on the table, then there are some candies on the table. If there are some candies on the table, then there are a few candies on the table.
However, I am not sure why some --> few. It seems like "some" isn't a true subset of "few", but rather an intersecting set. This is because "some" can mean "all", but "few" cannot mean "all." So, wouldn't that mean that there are some situations where "some" can be used that "few" cannot?
some is to few as most is to many. It is unidirectional as there are times when you have some, but not few. However, there are no instances in which you have few, but not some.
Remember, some ranges from 1 to all, few ranges from 1 to less than half of the total. Let's say you are a congress person and you are trying to get votes to pass a piece of legislation. If someone asked you how many votes you were going to get and you answered "Some", you would be correct wether the vote passed or not. If you got 10 votes but needed 50, you would still have "some". If you got 51 you would still have "some" votes.
Consider another case where you are asked the same question by a colleague and you answer "I am going to get few votes". In this case if you got 10 votes and needed 50, you would be correct and have "few". However, if you got 51 votes and your bill passed, your colleague would be confused why you said you were going to receive "few" votes when you clearly had enough.
Of course it wouldn't be an outright lie, but you could not infer a majority from "few" whereas a majority is possibly "some" of something.
That may have been a little long winded, but essentially the idea is that in all cases that you have "few" you have "some", but there are cases in which you have "some" but not "few". Think of the arrows again as sufficient → necessary relationships. Some is sufficient for "few" and "few" is necessary to "some".
what is confusing me is that answer A was the only one that had "large pharmaceutical companies" while the other answers just had "pharmaceutical company". wouldn't the word "large" be important in this context?
Not if we are using "some", as all large pharmaceutical companies are included in the term "pharmaceutical companies" in general.