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Thursday, Dec 3, 2015

bluebeans328

PT76 S4 Q9

The question is a "which of the following propositions is best illustrated by the situation described in the passage?"/ a principle one.

I'm not sure as to why (D) is not the correct choice, and why it's (C).

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I am having a pretty hard time explicitly ruling out C on this one. I correctly chose E during the exam, but on a second viewing of this question, C seems attractive. Here is my breakdown:

This is a strengthen question.

Biopsies taken on people who have had throat surgery show that people who snored had a higher probability of having abnormalities in their throat muscles relative to those who didn’t snore. Thus, snoring damages the abnormalities.

What I am looking for: This is a typical causal flaw: what if the throat abnormalities cause snoring? In other words, what if the causation were reversed? What if something else caused snoring and the abnormalities? What if it is a coincidence? We need to deny these cases.

Answer A: Does this do anything? This might actually weaken the argument because you need to assume that people were being truthful. Is someone going to lean towards honesty when talking about snoring? Maybe not.

Answer B: Who cares what the surgery was for? We want to strengthen the idea that the snoring causes the abnormalities.

Answer C: Doesn't this rule out the possibility that age, weight, and health are a potential alternate cause? Wouldn't this strengthen the argument? It obviously doesn't since it isn't the correct answer, but I don't see how it does not.

Answer D: We don’t care about people who haven’t undergone surgery. Our biopsies deal only with people who have undergone surgery. Plus, this is sort of similar to B. We don’t care about either the intent of the surgery (answer B) nor the effect of the surgery (this answer choice).

Answer E: This is exactly what I anticipated, so I chose this and moved on.

Link to the video: http://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-62-section-2-question-16/

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Hi All,

I'm interested in how other people feel about this topic, especially from LG vets.

I'm practicing LG with the assumption that, as I do more of these, I'll eventually begin to recognize patterns (similar keyboards, rules, conditionals, etc.). Is this true? I was talking to my roommate (who killed the October LSAT with 170+), and he told me that after 100 LG games, "I have never seen one that's similar."

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Just making sure "sufficient" follows "the only" below and is "true wisdom"? How you diagram this with contrapositive?

"The only true wisdom is in knowning you know nothing "--Socrates

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17.4.2 #15 The author is primarily concerned with…

So this is what I got from the passage.

Paragraph 1 presents as intro about the law’s completeness or its lack thereof when it comes to had cases.

Paragraph 2 details Hart’s model.

Paragraph 3 is about Dworkin’s view that’s contrary to Hart’s.

Paragraph 4 refutes Dworkin’s views and reiterates why hart’s theory of hard cases is still the most persuasive.

After hearing JY’s explanation, it’s become quite clear why the answer is E; my guess is the point of the whole passage is to convince the reader that Hart’s model is still worthy of respect and refute an argument(dworkin’s) that attacks it; “It would be a mistake, though, to dispute Hart’s

theory of hard cases on this basis alone.”

So, where I went wrong it seems was with the way I understood the question stem. How do you tend to interpret :”The author is primarily concerned with?” For the sake of simplicity, could we rephrase it and understand it as “what is the purpose of the author writing this passage? Why did he/she write it?” “what is his/her objective or goal?” “what is he/she trying to convince us of?”

For this question, I chose D. When I looked at E- I did want to choose it because I got the author’s position; siding with Hart and not Dworkin. I went with D because, the amount of “real estate” -if you will- occupying the passage is bigger for Hart. (silly reason, I know. It reflects my difficulty in distinguishing the way I go about doing main point/idea questions from this kind of question) I also figured “ critiquing” means to evaluate objectively in this context and not necessarily to take a critical stance on a view. By mentioning Dworkin’s views, could we say the author technically does (D) but it’s not what he’s primarily concerned with? That is, he does (D) in order to do (E)? Also, does he in fact do (D) ?

Thanks.

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Hey guys,

I was going through Advanced Logic: Quiz on Mixed Conditionals and got mixed up on #20. Hopefully someone could help me out here.

Except for the days where there is a zombie apocalypse, every day is a good day to study for the LSAT.

JY diagrammed it as

GSLSAT ↔ /ZA

Contrapositive: (/GSLSAT ↔ ZA)

However, I thought that "every day is a good day to study for the LSAT" is a conditional statement (embedded conditional), so you would instead diagram it as

(D→GDS) ↔ /ZA

Contrapositive: /(D→GDS) ↔ ZA = (D←s→/GDS) ↔ ZA

When I translated my diagram back to English it still makes sense to me.

Please let me know what I'm doing wrong. Thanks!

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I don’t get this problem. Please tell me where my logic flawed.

JY's explanation is here FYI, http://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-20-section-1-question-24/ and yet I still don't get this.

So according to the explanation,

X—Y= Z

X= the amount that’s been mined.

Y= the amount consumed

Z= the remainder , that is what was mined but not consumed

I plugged in some random numbers and I couldn’t get the logic to follow satisfactorily.

So if we say the Z is 1990 is 50 and the Z in 1991 is 30, then couldn’t the following scenario be possible?

X in ’90= 70

Y in ’90= 20

Z in ’90= 50

Let’s say

X in ‘91= 200

Y in ’91= 170

Z in ‘91= 30

It doesn’t seem 170 is greater than 200. My set up must be wrong.

What I am missing here? Is there something in the "Furthermore, Country Q has not imported or exported coal since 1970" that I am not picking up on? Thanks in advance.

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Hi all,

I guess I'm looking for some encouragement, but I'll gladly take advice too :)

I've gone through the LG curriculum on Sage, and proofed ~70 games (mostly the ones in the curriculum and problem sets plus some extras from the first 35 PT's). I can do the games I proofed and new "normal" games with very good speed and accuracy. I've now started going through the rest of the games sections in PT's 1-35, by section, and while I do OK on games similar to what I have done before, I freeze badly on games that have an unexpected twist. It's like my mind goes into panic mode and everything just jumbles in my head. I usually end up -4/5 for the section because the freeze up and subsequent brute forcing causes me to run over time. The thing is, once I'm finished, before looking up anything, I go back and redo the whole section, timed, and get -0/-1 with time to spare. It's like a veil lifts from my brain when I look at the game a second time, and the setup and inferences become clear. Anyone else feel like this, and do you think it's curable with practice? Any tips on achieving the "clarity" at first sight?

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http://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-59-section-1-game-3/

I don't understand what is the difference between the biconditional used in the video G(-) /W and when you write the conditional G-> /W? If the biconditional means never together and always apart why can't we use the conditional. The conditional is going from positive to negative, which means you can't have both, and can only have one or the other.

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Alright ladies and fellas, we have 6 days until game day. Just wondering what people think of the study regimen for the last few days.

Crunch hard? Rest hard? Day-On/Day-Off?

I'm thinking of going way hard until Thursday, and a very light day Friday, but I have also been advised not to.

Opinions? Your plans?

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For example:

if N or M is selected, S is out.

Since or is in the sufficient condition, N and M are INDEPENDENTLY sufficient for S. So does that mean we can have just N selected, just M selected or both selected?

Also another example:

If S is out, N or M is selected.

Since or is in the necessary condition, N and M and JOINTLY necessary for S. What does that mean? Does that mean we need N and M BOTH to be selected? We can't have just N or just M selected? I'm so confused about this concept when applying to logic games... Please help, thanks!

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From the stimulus, I got two conditional statements:

1) knowingly brings about misfortune --> should be blamed

2) not knowingly brings about misfortune --> should not be blamed

But because of the "for example" part, am I supposed to add "could not have reasonably have foreseen it" to the sufficient part of the 2nd cond'l statement I wrote above?

Also, Can anyone please explain why (A) is wrong?

Can I interpret "it did not occur to Riley" in (A) as "not knowingly brings about misfortune?"

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Hi all,

I hope someone may be able to clue me in as to what I'm doing wrong with this problem. This is a MBT.

Special kinds of cotton that grow fibers of green or brown have been around since the 1930s but only recently became commercially feasible when a long-fibered variety that can be spun by machine was finally bred. Since the cotton need not be dyed, processing plants avoid the expense of dyeing and the ecological hazards of getting rid of leftover dye and by-products.

So I understood how to diagram the stimulus. "Spun by machine --> commercially viable"

When I looked at answer choice (B): Green and brown cottons that can be spun only by hand are not commercially viable" I diagrammed it as "Spun by hand --> /commercially viable". In order to get to answer choice (B), you would need to negate the sufficient and necessary which gives "/Spun by machine --> /commercially viable" which is an invalid argument form (mistake in negation).

What am I doing wrong? I am having a hard time seeing how answer choice (B) can be diagrammed as "/commercially viable -->spun by hand" Thanks!

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Pretty clueless on this one. I narrowed the answer to B or C during the exam, and I couldn't do any better during BR. Turns out, the answer is E :/ Can someone break down all of the answer choices? Even though I got rid of A and D, I'm not convinced that I got rid of them with good reasoning.

Stranger is same age- MOST feel comfortable approaching that stranger. Long term friendship start MOST someone felt comfortable approaching a stranger. Therefore, long term friends probably the same age.

What I am looking for: No clue. I don't really understand the argument with this one. Can any of the diagrams link up (not that it really matters)? JY does it in the videos, but I don't see how the approaching the stranger ideas are the same thing. Here is the video: http://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-61-section-4-question-24/

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Changed my answer during the exam from D to A, but only because of POE. I still don't really understand how D is a sufficient assumption.

This is a PSA question.

Although we have learned a lot, we are ignorant of a lot of things dealing with organisms. Allowing species that we are indifferent about to die would hurt the viability of other species. Therefore, if we have an interest in preserving any species, we should try to preserve the maximum number of species.

What I am looking for: If allowing a species that we are indifferent about to perish might undermine the viability of other species→we should preserve the max number of species.

Answer A: I fell for this bullshit answer. This just affirms the sufficient condition in the conclusion. It does nothing to address the relationship between the premise and conclusion.

Answer B: I think the passage implies the opposite. If we held action to this high of a standard, then how would prevent the death of a species that we are indifferent about?

Answer C: Human populations? Totally irrelevant.

Answer D: I was pretty iffy with this one, even when I changed it during BR. This states Allow change→Change won't jeopardize anything important to us. I am really having a tough time seeing how this paraphrases what I was looking for, though. How are these ideas relevant to the stimulus? Where is the idea of something being important mentioned in the stimulus?

Answer E: Best consequence for immediate future? Irrelevant idea.

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I need a word of encouragement and/or advice. This is embarrassing to me. I passed reading comprehension in elementary school and I took a course in Humanities at both the high school and college levels whereby I passed both classes with ease. However, for both Humanities classes high school and college, reading comprehension was not tested like test questions on the LSAT. I talked to a librarian who informed me that reading comprehension is can be highly opinionated. Furthermore, for inference questions, the answer is usually something that I would have never thought of - way out there in left field. I've tried GRE reading comprehension study guides and have been able to go through the questions with ease all answers correct. However, on a different day in a different mood, I've tried other non-LSAT practice test from other sources whose name I will not mention by means of embarrassment and was not able to get a single answer right. What's happening and what needs to change besides my attitude toward LSAT reading comprehension. I feel totally embarrassed by this, but I am encouraged to know that in reading the discussions that I am not the only person totally upset, frustrated and having problems or issues with reading comprehension. Please help. In my opinion, the basic concept or idea of RC comes from the basic elementary school theory of RC, how well did you understand the material of what you read, "Reading for understanding". For a person who has been speaking and reading the English language for quite some time, several, many years; elementary, high school and college and has passed elementary school, high school and college; how can this be; difficult with wrong answers...??? !!! Again PLEASE HELP or explain.

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Hi everyone!

I'm new here. I've been studying for the LSAT since August 2015 with the intension of taking October. I enrolled in a TestMasters course in August but I just couldn't get my score above 145 before October's exam. I decided to postpone and registered for December using The LSAT Trainer and Prep Tests 62-71.

Unfortunately, I only improved a few points (my highest score 152 and my average usually 148-149.) With a week away from the test, I am close to accepting that I have to swallow my pride and withdraw from December. Sitting out the cycle sucks but I know in the long haul a stronger score can get me into a top school with scholarship.

If I take this route, I will register for June and most likely enroll in 7sage's Ultimate package giving myself 5-6 months of prep. I am aiming for the early 160s and quite possibly the mid-160s.

Just to give a brief synopsis of my habits for the past four months. For the most part, I conceptually understand a good amount of the material. I understand conditional logic, quantifiers, etc. For LG, making deductions, overlapping rules, etc. However, I do think I have great test anxiety and preform poorly on my PTs by re-reading questions, losing focus and not being able to apply my skills under timed conditions. My strongest section is LG (-6 to -8) followed by LR (-10 to -12) and worst RC (-15 to -17).

If you can help me with some advice, that would be great!

1) Is it best if I withdraw next week and keep my record clean with no re-takes?

2) Is it possible to jump from 148-152 to 160-165 with 7sage in 5-6 months?

Please let me know what you think. Thank you!

Ethan

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I'm confused to when to diagram. some inference Q are obvious with logical indicators. Some are hidden or have causation in the argument and qualifiers (maybe, could etc). When do you diagram? what's the general rule?

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Hello all!

I have but 8 day till the December Lsat's and I am at a terrible position. I am doing poor on all 3 sections. I can only get 3/4 passages on RC section and 3/4 games in LGs. My LR section results are terrible as well. Iv decided to focus only on 3 passages for RCs, and work on improving my LG and LR sections.

I would like some suggestions how to best spend the next 8 days. Should I focus on doing mix of lr and lgs? Should I devote one day to LR and one to LG'S? Or spend the next 8 days doing as much Full tests as possible?

Any suggestions, criticisms, ha ha's welcomed! Thanks

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Wednesday, Nov 25, 2015

msami1010493

LG Help!

Hey Everyone!

So, LG and RC have always been my weakest sections. I'm working on RC now, and don't feel like I should post a thread requesting help since I haven't been able to isolate what it is about the section that drives me crazy -probably timing.

However, I've been drilling LGs on and off for the last 4 months, and I've yet to complete an entire section. The most I've completed were 3 games, with a -1 score between the three.

That said, I know my issue with LG is timing and sometimes the initial set-up. It takes me anywhere from 10-15 minutes to complete a game, regardless of how simple the game is. That said, is there any advice you guys and gals can offer? Now that I have another 6-8 months to study, I'm going to implement the "fool proof" method more than I have before.

Also, regarding LG when should we try to draw out all of the possibilities? Often I'll look at my initial set-up and think "Well...there are probably a ton of possibilities...off to the questions!" I then find out from J.Y's video that there were only 6-8 possibilities. After watching the videos, I beat myself up about not realizing that I could have cut my time in half by just writing out/finding all of the possibilities. Hindsight is 20/20 I guess.

My issue with determining whether I can write out all of the possibilities is timing. I worry that I'll waste time only to find out that there are more possibilities than I assumed, and that my now-random hypotheticals won't apply to any of the questions.

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I had a hard time distinguishing the actual flawed reasoning here. I initially chose A because the logic matched perfectly, but changed my answer to E because E was more obviously flawed. My question is: when in doubt like this, is it best to just match the logic perfectly without worrying too much about identifying the flaw itself and just move on?

Here's JY's explanation: http://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-69-section-1-question-14/

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