Self-study
Most people who ride bicycles for pleasure do not ride until the warm weather of spring and summer arrives. ███ ██ ██ ████████ ████ █████████ ██ █████████ ████████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ████████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ███ ████ ████████ ███ █████ ██ ████ ███ █ ████████ ████ ███████ ████ ███████ ███████ █████ █████ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ████ ████ █████████ ██ ████ ██ ██ █████████ ███ ████ ██ ██████ ████ ██ ██████ █████ ██████
Argument Structure
This argument is a bit light on obvious indicator words – the only one we have is "yet" marking the transition from the
In the absence of indicator words, the approach is to look at each claim and ask "do any other claims support this one?" Here's the answer key, so to speak:
Context: Most pleasure cyclists don't ride until spring/summer.
Support: Most bicycles are purchased in the spring.
Support: When shoppers are ready to buy, they've already made up their minds.
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Conclusion: It's probably more effective to advertise bicycles earlier than that.
The two claims marked as support work together to explain why earlier advertising is a good strategy. By contrast, for example, if we ask "Why should I believe most bicycles are purchased in the spring?", neither of the other claims explains why that's true.
Wrong answers in main conclusion questions tend to phrase the conclusion inaccurately, accurately state premises, or inaccurately state a premise.
2.
The main point of the ████████ ██ ████
a
bicycle advertisements are ████████ ████ █████████ ██ ████ ██████ ██████ ███ ███████ ██ ████ ██████ ███████
This is the conclusion! Notice how they've changed the wording slightly in a way that doesn't affect the underlying concepts ("earlier in the year" has changed to "before the arrival of warm spring weather"). That's a common theme on the LSAT – right answers will often use non-verbatim wording so they seem less right, and wrong answers will often use snippets of verbatim wording so they seem less wrong.
b
most bicycle purchasers ██████ ██ ███ █████ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ██████ █████████ ██ ████ ███ █ ███████
This is a premise.
c
more bicycles are █████████ ██ ███ ██████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ██ ████
This is an inference that can be drawn from
d
in general, once █ ███████ █████████ ███ ███████ █████ ███████ ██ ██ ███ ███████ ██ █████████ ██ ██ █████████ ██ █████ █████ █ ██████ ██ ████ ████████
This combines two of the premises.
e
spring and summer ███ ███ ████ ██ ████ ██ █████ ███████ ██████ ██ █ ███████ ████████ ██ ████ ███████
This restates the