See I made the fatal deduction that the owner had consent therefore we exclude him from the equation only to realize in the blind review both are ignoring the the obvious answer... sat there like A is too stupid to be the right answer...
The conclusion says: Therefore, whoever ....... must have worn gloves.
Remember, the correct answer will copy the structure of the stimulus, and it could be negated, meaning in this instance, we are looking for an answer choice that concludes with either must have (or must not), so let's see if this method works. All I did was highlight a couple of indicators in the stimulus, especially must in the conclusion, and all I will do is shallow dive into the answers and eliminate based on my criteria. I got this question right with 20 seconds to spare.
A) The campers at Big Lake Camp, all of whom became ill this afternoon, have eaten food only from the camp cafeteria. Therefore, the cause of the illness must not have been something they ate.
Love this, it's not giving me a comparative claim or a possibility like "might have" in the next AC, and the conclusion is very similar to the stimulus, remmember the structure is still technically the same on Parallel Question even if the same term used is negated, meaning if the stimulus in this case says MUST ... or MUST NOT.. those are basically the same regardless of the negation, however if what follows must is a comparative or a prediction and not an action or an event then it will most likely be false.
B) The second prototype did not perform as well in inclement weather as did the first prototype. Hence, the production of the second prototype might have deviated from the design followed for the first.
Might have, not what I'm looking for, and it is not the same as must/must not. I could accept negation as long as it's the same meaning, followed by one option or choice, and not a comparative.
C) Each of the swimmers at this meet more often loses than wins. Therefore, it is unlikely that any of them will win.
Unlikely that.. Skip!
D) All of Marjorie's cavities are on the left side of her mouth. Hence, she must chew more on the left side than on the right.
At first glance, this may seem like it is the winner, but the conclusion is a comparative statement, when the stimulus never compared between two different things. This is an attractive trap, but incorrect nonetheless.
E) All of these tomato plants are twice as big as they were last year. So if we grow peas, they will probably be twice as big as last year's peas.
This introduced a conditional in the conclusion as well as made a prediction. None were ever made in the stimulus; therefore, this is a quick skip.
Here, "/tannish" is implied by someone wearing gloves. For the answer:
food-eaten -> cafeteria
------
cause-of-sickness -> /cafeteria
Again, the "/cafeteria" follows from the claim that it's not from food. Hopefully, this diagramming further highlights how absurd the reasoning employed is.
This is a garbage question (by which I mean it lacks construct validity). It is presented as if the stimulus were an example of the “evidence reversal” flaw, where evidence pointing to a conclusion is used to support the rejection of that conclusion. Answer choice (A) is certainly an example of that flaw. The stimulus is not.
Why is the stimulus not evidence reversal? The owner may very well have stolen the diamonds, but the presence of his fingerprints has no evidentiary value. It is simply the fact that he had access. This fact is not used in the argument at all. If the presence of his fingerprints could support a conclusion that he participated, the absence of his fingerprints would reduce the likelihood that he participated in the theft. But, in fact, the absence of his fingerprints strongly points to his involvement. So the stimulus is NOT “evidence reversal”, it belongs to the larger category, presenting an unwarranted causal claim despite reasonable alternative hypotheses.
Choice A is ‘evidence reversal’ (the subset) where the stimulus is NOT evidence reversal. Choice A does NOT present an unwarranted causal claim, where the stimulus DOES present an unwarranted causal claim (Choice A merely rejects the likely claim). So there are no satisfying answers. I think, structurally, choice D is at least as good as choice A. Unlike the stimulus, it doesn’t take a baseline absence of evidence and posit a cause of that phenomenon (something happened and we have the absence of evidence), but it does take a phenomenon (cavities on one side) and makes an unwarranted claim about the cause, despite plenty of equally or more plausible alternative hypotheses (brushes less on the left, doesn’t floss on the left, only had one or two cavities and they happened to be on the left by chance, had an enamel injury or prior infection in an area of her mouth that makes that area more likely to develop cavities, etc etc).
There have been imperfect practice questions tests before, but still with a ‘best answer’ that follows despite not being perfect. Here, however, it really seems as if the test writers have simply fallen for a common logical fallacy (that physical evidence with no probative value, as it does not increase the likelihood ratio, can somehow support a claim it cannot). It’s very disappointing.
I got this right in 19s by eliminating all the wrong ACs using shallow dip, finding that they all contained comparative statements. The stim does not contain a comparison.
A - not comparative. Could be right.
B - "perform as well as." Wrong.
C - "more often loses than wins." Wrong.
D - "more on left than right." Wrong.
E - "twice as big as they were." Wrong.
Reread A - contains the only statement, and an obvious alt hypothesis. Gotta be it.
a harder one because for me i knew the stimulus was playing on a negation of a necessary assumption sorta thing. i immediately diagram in my head and found that
a->b
c-> / b
would be the way i would structure this question.
my first question of the day as well so maybe just trying to get the juices flowing again as well.
didnt really do active reading the first time reading the stimulus (lazy)- you see that "must" in the conclusion.
B seems alright in a shallow dip as did A. everything else kinda sucks. took alot of time diagramming a and b in super specific and abstract language, good for mastery but sucks for timing. got to the end of diagramming B and realized that "might" seriously ruins that answer and leaves A as the winner.
Got it right in blind review and one of my first instincts in defining it's flaw was to say "the argument fails to consider that Mr. Tannisch could have stolen the diamonds." which helped me select the correct question. I don't think I'll be employing this strategy moving forward but I was happy to be thinking in terms of lawgic.
@CamilleChmura I try to make the argument less explicit -- replace the words with variables like A and B or use other words to explain the stimulus' form. If you can correctly identify the form of logical reasoning, then it'll be easier to identify the correct answer because only one answer will mirror the form. In this question, the conclusion of the stimulus basically said "the person who stole the diamonds had to be anyone other than Mr. Tannisch," or in other words the stimulus' conclusion ignored the evidence in the premise. The correct answer was the only one that ignored the evidence of the premise in making its conclusion.
the LSAT writers are really awful. I can't be the only person who noticed this was question number 11. Coming across this difficult and confusing of a question would have been so demoralizing and distracting early on. If the parallel question is lower in number, is that an indicator that we ought to expect to be able to abstract the flaw without mapping it out? #help
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58 comments
See I made the fatal deduction that the owner had consent therefore we exclude him from the equation only to realize in the blind review both are ignoring the the obvious answer... sat there like A is too stupid to be the right answer...
The conclusion says: Therefore, whoever ....... must have worn gloves.
Remember, the correct answer will copy the structure of the stimulus, and it could be negated, meaning in this instance, we are looking for an answer choice that concludes with either must have (or must not), so let's see if this method works. All I did was highlight a couple of indicators in the stimulus, especially must in the conclusion, and all I will do is shallow dive into the answers and eliminate based on my criteria. I got this question right with 20 seconds to spare.
Love this, it's not giving me a comparative claim or a possibility like "might have" in the next AC, and the conclusion is very similar to the stimulus, remmember the structure is still technically the same on Parallel Question even if the same term used is negated, meaning if the stimulus in this case says MUST ... or MUST NOT.. those are basically the same regardless of the negation, however if what follows must is a comparative or a prediction and not an action or an event then it will most likely be false.
Might have, not what I'm looking for, and it is not the same as must/must not. I could accept negation as long as it's the same meaning, followed by one option or choice, and not a comparative.
Unlikely that.. Skip!
At first glance, this may seem like it is the winner, but the conclusion is a comparative statement, when the stimulus never compared between two different things. This is an attractive trap, but incorrect nonetheless.
This introduced a conditional in the conclusion as well as made a prediction. None were ever made in the stimulus; therefore, this is a quick skip.
what would the conditional logic diagram look like for this one and the answer choice? W
When do we know to identify the flaw type versus diagram and compare structure?
@MarisolSanchez For the stimulus:
finger-print -> tannisch
------
thief -> /tannisch
Here, "/tannish" is implied by someone wearing gloves. For the answer:
food-eaten -> cafeteria
------
cause-of-sickness -> /cafeteria
Again, the "/cafeteria" follows from the claim that it's not from food. Hopefully, this diagramming further highlights how absurd the reasoning employed is.
ngl this one was a little tough lol but W
I was between A and D but chose A because of the word "only"
This is a garbage question (by which I mean it lacks construct validity). It is presented as if the stimulus were an example of the “evidence reversal” flaw, where evidence pointing to a conclusion is used to support the rejection of that conclusion. Answer choice (A) is certainly an example of that flaw. The stimulus is not.
Why is the stimulus not evidence reversal? The owner may very well have stolen the diamonds, but the presence of his fingerprints has no evidentiary value. It is simply the fact that he had access. This fact is not used in the argument at all. If the presence of his fingerprints could support a conclusion that he participated, the absence of his fingerprints would reduce the likelihood that he participated in the theft. But, in fact, the absence of his fingerprints strongly points to his involvement. So the stimulus is NOT “evidence reversal”, it belongs to the larger category, presenting an unwarranted causal claim despite reasonable alternative hypotheses.
Choice A is ‘evidence reversal’ (the subset) where the stimulus is NOT evidence reversal. Choice A does NOT present an unwarranted causal claim, where the stimulus DOES present an unwarranted causal claim (Choice A merely rejects the likely claim). So there are no satisfying answers. I think, structurally, choice D is at least as good as choice A. Unlike the stimulus, it doesn’t take a baseline absence of evidence and posit a cause of that phenomenon (something happened and we have the absence of evidence), but it does take a phenomenon (cavities on one side) and makes an unwarranted claim about the cause, despite plenty of equally or more plausible alternative hypotheses (brushes less on the left, doesn’t floss on the left, only had one or two cavities and they happened to be on the left by chance, had an enamel injury or prior infection in an area of her mouth that makes that area more likely to develop cavities, etc etc).
There have been imperfect practice questions tests before, but still with a ‘best answer’ that follows despite not being perfect. Here, however, it really seems as if the test writers have simply fallen for a common logical fallacy (that physical evidence with no probative value, as it does not increase the likelihood ratio, can somehow support a claim it cannot). It’s very disappointing.
I got this right in 19s by eliminating all the wrong ACs using shallow dip, finding that they all contained comparative statements. The stim does not contain a comparison.
A - not comparative. Could be right.
B - "perform as well as." Wrong.
C - "more often loses than wins." Wrong.
D - "more on left than right." Wrong.
E - "twice as big as they were." Wrong.
Reread A - contains the only statement, and an obvious alt hypothesis. Gotta be it.
a harder one because for me i knew the stimulus was playing on a negation of a necessary assumption sorta thing. i immediately diagram in my head and found that
a->b
c-> / b
would be the way i would structure this question.
my first question of the day as well so maybe just trying to get the juices flowing again as well.
didnt really do active reading the first time reading the stimulus (lazy)- you see that "must" in the conclusion.
B seems alright in a shallow dip as did A. everything else kinda sucks. took alot of time diagramming a and b in super specific and abstract language, good for mastery but sucks for timing. got to the end of diagramming B and realized that "might" seriously ruins that answer and leaves A as the winner.
Got it right in blind review and one of my first instincts in defining it's flaw was to say "the argument fails to consider that Mr. Tannisch could have stolen the diamonds." which helped me select the correct question. I don't think I'll be employing this strategy moving forward but I was happy to be thinking in terms of lawgic.
I often attack these by looking at key phrases such as "Must", "Some", etc. and do POE to narrow it down.. is that a good strategy or is it flawed?
@NathanStoker i do the same...
I'm ngl I didn't understand the stimulus but I got it right out of sheer luck.
WHAT
damn this one broke my streak
Got this right and only 3 secs over. Maybe there's hope🤞
I've done this question before too!!! HELP
Can someone please share their strategy for these questions? I can't find anything that works for the life of me. #help
@CamilleChmura I try to make the argument less explicit -- replace the words with variables like A and B or use other words to explain the stimulus' form. If you can correctly identify the form of logical reasoning, then it'll be easier to identify the correct answer because only one answer will mirror the form. In this question, the conclusion of the stimulus basically said "the person who stole the diamonds had to be anyone other than Mr. Tannisch," or in other words the stimulus' conclusion ignored the evidence in the premise. The correct answer was the only one that ignored the evidence of the premise in making its conclusion.
@bizzy thank you so much!
Missed the "not" in answer choice A) and was thrown for a loop
we are soooo backkkk
Yes, let's keep this up!
if an AC has "not", and stimulus doesnt, does it matter?
Guys i thinkkkkkk im getting it ARE WE BACK?
ngl iv been crushing these.... but just in 5x the amount of time i need to do it in lol... i get so caught up
Me too, now that I know the strat I can get them right every time. This was the first question that I did under target time.
This question was not it.....
Is it valid to see that only A had the word "MUST" which was in the stimulus? So the must was matching making it most similar?
D also had must. I think both the ‘must’ and ‘therefore’ being in both prompts is more convincing
the LSAT writers are really awful. I can't be the only person who noticed this was question number 11. Coming across this difficult and confusing of a question would have been so demoralizing and distracting early on. If the parallel question is lower in number, is that an indicator that we ought to expect to be able to abstract the flaw without mapping it out? #help