I was confused by this question because I thought vitamin D deficiency was an extra premise not related to the conclusion. if milk is making up for calcium deficiency, why do we care about how that deficiency was caused?
I watched an SA question type recorded lesson by Clayton and he mentioned that anytime an SA passage involves a new idea/subject, your answer should also include that idea/subject.
From there, I was able to POE all irrelevant answers that contained either too strong verbiage, or not mention aforesaid subject, and thus choose an answer which reiterated a point within the passage/completed my identified flow.
@MayaVM I think JY used rising BP instead of lowered BP just so we can see that drinking milk has a causal impact on rising blood pressure, not that it causes the blood pressure to rise
I selected the correct answer before watching the video but I don't understand his diagram conclusion. The stimulus says one glass of milk a day can lower their blood pressure.. so why is the causal arrow saying glass of milk---> rising BP??
& aren't we basically just suppose to find the answer that lists all the facts that leads us to the conclusion??? Like finding the missing premise. Maybe I need to rewatch the video idk.
Glad everyone in the comments is improving their SA skills! I, however, thought that the bridge between premises and conclusion needed to be built between calcium helping raise blood pressure. I diagramed the premises correctly, but got the conclusion mixed up. I did older people <-s-> blood pressure goes down w/ milk. I realize now that that's a conditional relationship while the premises were causal.
Does anyone else still struggle even though they feel like they are working very hard and trying their best? Just me?
#feedback 5 minutes in you write that a glass of milk -c-> rising blood pressure. This is the opposite of what the conclusion states. This should say lowers BP, unless I'm completely misunderstanding.
When I went to the answers I was explicitly looking for something that said that there was Vitamin D in milk that older people drink. When I went through the answers I got it down to A and C, ultimately I ruled out A and choose C. I did this because A mentions other substances which automatically in my brain I thought we aren't talking about other substances just Vitamin D so I ruled it out.
this is an awesome lesson, the explanations for B and C provided some great clarification on S.A. vs N.A. For a second I even tricked myself into thinking B was a necc. assumption but it isn't as was explained. In fact, answer choice B itself requires a handful of assumptions to be true which defies the purpose of being a necc. assumption.
I was absolutely expecting the answers to exploit grammar rules, as the opposite of rising is simply not rising, yet the conclusion of the argument states that milk will DECREASE blood pressure. It doesn't change the correct answer, thankfully.
did this question before watching the video and got the right answer bc even tho i know that sa questions are sub-strengthen questions, it just clicked to me that they're sub-strengthen questions.
feels like i just had a major breakthrough in case anyone cares
I mapped out the stimulus to the best of my ability, and found the assumption. My question is, why do we need to assume that there is vitamin d in the milk? Is there a reason why finding the assumption that older people will be able to absorb the calcium in a glass of milk would not be sufficient to find the correct answer?
We need to assume there is vitamin D in the milk because of the causal chain. It doesn't matter how much calcium you're taking in if your body lacks the necessary means to break down and process that calcium.
I think this question was easy for me because I had outside knowledge that made the gap in thinking really clear. People with the MTHFR gene mutation can't methylate vitamin B. So no matter how much unmethylated vitamin B they consume, it won't make a difference because their body won't process it and it will just pass through. They have to take pre-methylated vitamins in order to see the health benefits.
If the underlying cause of the calcium deficiency is this vitamin D deficiency, no matter how much calcium the old people consume there won't be able to absorb those vitamins. They need the vitamin D in order to absorb the calcium, and they need to calcium to then return their blood pressure to a normal level.
This is kind of a random question so late in the curriculum, but I have been wondering how one should map out these questions while taking the LSAT online. I know we are allowed scratch paper, but is it worth taking the extra time to physically map out these questions like J.Y.? It would be so much easier to do it directly on the exam... are there highlighting and underlining options? It is my first time taking it online. #help
I think there are highlighting and underlining options on the exam. I think the ideal situation is to be able to get good enough at causal reasoning so that you can map this stuff in your head, which you essentially get better by doing. But you're also given scratch paper which would allow you to map out these sort of questions.
48 comments
I was confused by this question because I thought vitamin D deficiency was an extra premise not related to the conclusion. if milk is making up for calcium deficiency, why do we care about how that deficiency was caused?
I watched an SA question type recorded lesson by Clayton and he mentioned that anytime an SA passage involves a new idea/subject, your answer should also include that idea/subject.
From there, I was able to POE all irrelevant answers that contained either too strong verbiage, or not mention aforesaid subject, and thus choose an answer which reiterated a point within the passage/completed my identified flow.
Someone please help me why did he change the conclusion to rising blood pressure..? I am so confused it says lowers blood pressure
@MayaVM I think JY used rising BP instead of lowered BP just so we can see that drinking milk has a causal impact on rising blood pressure, not that it causes the blood pressure to rise
I selected the correct answer before watching the video but I don't understand his diagram conclusion. The stimulus says one glass of milk a day can lower their blood pressure.. so why is the causal arrow saying glass of milk---> rising BP??
& aren't we basically just suppose to find the answer that lists all the facts that leads us to the conclusion??? Like finding the missing premise. Maybe I need to rewatch the video idk.
@Shannell_E'llan I was wondering the same why does the conclusion point to rising BP...? was it an error
anyone else think this felt like a necessary assumption question?
@KhushyMandania YES
I feel like he spent too much time for super irrelevant answer choice (B)
Glad everyone in the comments is improving their SA skills! I, however, thought that the bridge between premises and conclusion needed to be built between calcium helping raise blood pressure. I diagramed the premises correctly, but got the conclusion mixed up. I did older people <-s-> blood pressure goes down w/ milk. I realize now that that's a conditional relationship while the premises were causal.
Does anyone else still struggle even though they feel like they are working very hard and trying their best? Just me?
Anticipate "extra" info not necessarily mentioned in the stimulus, in the correct answer for Sufficient Assumption questions
I HATE THIS QUESTION
Milk causes me to gas. Which in turn causes me to smile. Therefore people should drink milk if they want to smile.
Why? Because Milk can cause one to "gas".
Can this be an example of a causal argument with the correct connection applied?
@rickyrivas94 I see the causal chain which is Milk -c-> Gas -c->Smile.
But the conclusion is conditional "if",
Smile -> Milk.
Milk is one thing that causes smile but may or may not be the only thing.
Conclusion like "Therefore, people can drink milk to smile" makes more sense to me.
"Useless Answer" JY LMFAO
@SafyTesfay "Fantastic! Ok, good for you." sent me
#feedback 5 minutes in you write that a glass of milk -c-> rising blood pressure. This is the opposite of what the conclusion states. This should say lowers BP, unless I'm completely misunderstanding.
@DanielNahum Literally the first thing i noticed
im afraid that JY has turned me into an SA God. I am killing these...even though it takes me 3+ minutes LOLLL
@magelladecle14499 pause
Oh my god im finally getting these
It's finally clicking for me which makes me so excited, lets go we got this
When I went to the answers I was explicitly looking for something that said that there was Vitamin D in milk that older people drink. When I went through the answers I got it down to A and C, ultimately I ruled out A and choose C. I did this because A mentions other substances which automatically in my brain I thought we aren't talking about other substances just Vitamin D so I ruled it out.
Im so glad I got the question right I was so sure I got it wrong
this is an awesome lesson, the explanations for B and C provided some great clarification on S.A. vs N.A. For a second I even tricked myself into thinking B was a necc. assumption but it isn't as was explained. In fact, answer choice B itself requires a handful of assumptions to be true which defies the purpose of being a necc. assumption.
Yes! Agreed!
I was absolutely expecting the answers to exploit grammar rules, as the opposite of rising is simply not rising, yet the conclusion of the argument states that milk will DECREASE blood pressure. It doesn't change the correct answer, thankfully.
chat I finally got one
W
I did this question before the video, and I feel like I am finally at a point where I can intuitively pick the answer while reading the stimulus!!
did this question before watching the video and got the right answer bc even tho i know that sa questions are sub-strengthen questions, it just clicked to me that they're sub-strengthen questions.
feels like i just had a major breakthrough in case anyone cares
I mapped out the stimulus to the best of my ability, and found the assumption. My question is, why do we need to assume that there is vitamin d in the milk? Is there a reason why finding the assumption that older people will be able to absorb the calcium in a glass of milk would not be sufficient to find the correct answer?
We need to assume there is vitamin D in the milk because of the causal chain. It doesn't matter how much calcium you're taking in if your body lacks the necessary means to break down and process that calcium.
I think this question was easy for me because I had outside knowledge that made the gap in thinking really clear. People with the MTHFR gene mutation can't methylate vitamin B. So no matter how much unmethylated vitamin B they consume, it won't make a difference because their body won't process it and it will just pass through. They have to take pre-methylated vitamins in order to see the health benefits.
If the underlying cause of the calcium deficiency is this vitamin D deficiency, no matter how much calcium the old people consume there won't be able to absorb those vitamins. They need the vitamin D in order to absorb the calcium, and they need to calcium to then return their blood pressure to a normal level.
This is kind of a random question so late in the curriculum, but I have been wondering how one should map out these questions while taking the LSAT online. I know we are allowed scratch paper, but is it worth taking the extra time to physically map out these questions like J.Y.? It would be so much easier to do it directly on the exam... are there highlighting and underlining options? It is my first time taking it online. #help
I think there are highlighting and underlining options on the exam. I think the ideal situation is to be able to get good enough at causal reasoning so that you can map this stuff in your head, which you essentially get better by doing. But you're also given scratch paper which would allow you to map out these sort of questions.
shouldn't the conclusion say: glass of milk -c→ lower bp
- I'm confused as to why this isn't the case, help!
i thought this as well...
@iitwi2003 you're definitely right. I've been getting 90% of these right and this was the first time I watched a video and thought this is just wrong.