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Let me preface this by saying I know I should be using official questions, but I bought this book in a rush for a trip where I wouldn't have great internet (powerscore books haven't arrived yet). My thoughts on the question at the bottom so as to not influence anyone before reading.

Despite five consecutive years in which global consumption of grain has been greater than global production, it is unlikely that the world is facing a near-term crisis in the food supply. The average shortfalls have been mainly due to reduced output from farms in China, which is moving from a policy of central control over agricultural production to a more market-driven model. Therefore, if demand for grain continues to fall short of supply, Chinese production of grain should increase dramatically. Which one of the following principles most helps to justify this reasoning?

A. Global markets respond more slowly than regional markets, so local rates of production usually change more rapidly than the global average.

B. When agricultural production is centrally controlled, it is unable to respond to changing demand by adjusting rates of supply.

C. Average shortfalls are most readily remedied by local increases in production.

D. When agricultural production is market-driven, it is likely to respond to rising demand by increasing production.

E. Centrally controlled agricultural production has been shown to be more inefficient than market-driven models.

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Answer/Explanation below.

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Explanation:

Correct Answer: D

When agricultural production is market-driven, it is likely to respond to rising demand by increasing production.

The speaker concludes that Chinese production will rise if demand requires it based on the premise that Chinese production is now market-driven. Clearly the author connects market-driven methods with matching supply and demand. Choice A isn't right because it isn't actually about the difference between global and regional markets but about China's transformation to a market economy. Choice B doesn't justify the conclusion but explains how things worked under China's older system. Choice C is wrong because the speaker isn't talking about local production. Choice D looks like the right answer. The speaker bases his conclusion on the principle that a market economy will respond to increased demand with increased production. Choice E isn't right. The speaker doesn't mention inefficiency or even compare a market-driven system to a centrally regulated one; he's only interested in the effects of China's transition between the two. Choice D is the best answer.

I think they swapped the words supply and demand in the conclusion and that it should read "Therefore, if supply for grain continues to fall short of demand, Chinese production of grain should increase dramatically." I know questions don't have to reflect reality, but this isn't even internally consistent. Continues should refer to the situation presented in the first sentence, but the first sentence clearly says that consumption (demand) is greater than production (supply). And the first line of the explanation also clearly says "The speaker concludes that Chinese production will rise if demand requires it", and demand would only require it if demand were greater than supply.

Thoughts?

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I had a first LSAT absence 4 years ago, which appears on the LSAC record. Back then, I decided to pursue a different career path, thinking I won't ever take LSAT and go to law school. But as I'm studying and preparing for law school again now, I was wondering if I do not show up for the registered October test, will total of two absences appearing on the record hurt my chance of admission when I actually apply?

I saw several discussions online saying it won't matter much, but those comments were written 3~4 years ago, so I wanted to know if such is still the case. Thank you!

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Please note that the information below will change to reflect the information we get! Contribute if you can via the official December 2016 LSAT discussion (linked at the bottom of this thread) without going into too much detail. If you think something is wrong or should be added, please post in the thread and let me know.

Real Sections:

LG:

-Corporations Trading with Eachother / Building Trading

-Paintings on a Wall / Watercolors & Oils

-Mystery Clues / Chapters in a Book

-Students on a Research Team / Green/Red Teams

RC:

-Great Migration of African Americans from North to South

-Rawls Theory of Justice Differs from Utilitarianism

-Insider Trading

-Brain Scans

LR:

-Poison Ivy & Evolution

-Caterpillars

-Wolves Eating Moose

-Bugs Eating Things That Make Them Taste Bad

-Volunteers Showing up for an Event

-Television Station with Popular / Highly Watched Program

-Alexander the Great's Tomb

-T-Rex

-French Biology

-Winter/Summer Trout

-Water Fee on Roads Rather than Dams / Tax Dollars

-Cat Food

-Iguanas on an Island

-Birds and Their Nests

-18th-Century Church Organ

-Politician

-Leopard Magpie

-Puzzles

-Teenage Morning Driving Accidents / School Start Times

-Those Who Desire to be Kind

-Devaluing Companies

Experimental Sections:

LG:

-Pianist/Violinists Playing Duets

-Doctors Scheduling Days to Work

-Coal Mining Company

RC:

-How Humans Changed as Cooking Progresses

-Fukuyama

LR:

-Smokers, Low Body Weight, Health

-Blaming a Company for Pollution until there was Algae

-Doctors and Handwriting

UNCONFIRMED:

If you can confirm that these are real / experimental, please do so by PMing me or posting in the main thread.

LR:

-Touching Something Blue and Red

-What Year a Book was Written based on it Asking Where He Was

RC:

LG:

This thread is closed for discussion. Official post December LSAT discussion here:

https://classic.7sage.com/discussion/#/discussion/9665/official-december-lsat-discussion-thread

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Monday, Aug 25

anzbel

🙃 Confused

Tips on improving timing?

Hi everyone!

I'm writing the October test and hoping for a 170+. I feel like I'm close but really need to improve my timed accuracy. For example, my two most recent PTs were 168 timed and 173 BR & 166 timed and 177 BR. If you've been in a similar position I'd love to hear how you improved!!

Thanks in advance :)

2

I want to quickly discuss a common type of causation argument that LSAC uses.

Here is an example:

Those who wear glasses are more likely than those who do not to have knee problems. To ensure good knee health, ditch the glasses.

We take a correlation and make a recommendation, seems pretty innocuous- maybe this is sound advice.

No! This advice is rooted in making an assumption. This assumption is a really bad reasoning error. It is assuming that wearing glasses is what causes knees to have problems. That is why the advice to stop wearing glasses to prevent knee damage is given. Notice how the argument never comes out and says "Glasses cause Knee problems", that would be too easy. The implicit assumption that the argument makes is inferring causation from correlation.

As we know, when A is correlated with B, there are 4 possibilities :

  • A causes B

  • B causes A

  • 3rd common cause

  • No relationship

    • For our advice to ditch the glasses to work, we would need A to cause B, or, in other words, glasses to cause knee problems. If it really is the case that knee problems cause people to wear glasses (B causes A), then just stopping wearing glasses will do nothing, the advice would be terrible. Similarly, if genetics causes both knee problems and glasses and that is why we have our correlation, then taking glasses off will do nothing. In short, the only way our advice works is if glasses really do cause knee problems. We cannot say this is the case just based on the existence of a correlation, there are 3 other possibilities which are equally likely.

    Boiled down to variables the argument goes like this:

    **A is correlated with B

    If you desire B, just do A.

    or

    If you want to prevent B, don't to A**

    Well, for this advice to make sense, we must assume that A causes B and we cannot do that based on a correlation.

    These questions are sometimes tricky because they make intuitive sense. They will really try to make the advice sound good, despite making a correlation causation error. Here is one last example:

    People with a lot of sugar in their diets tend to get disease XYZ more often than those who do not. To lower your risk of XYZ, cut out sugar from your diet.

    Well, we know sugar is bad for health, so this does not seem bad at all. BUT, this argument commits the error of taking a correlation and jumping to the conclusion that sugar is what is causing XYZ. This is done implicitly (hence to title of the post) and is not ok for the reasons discussed above!

    PT 78 S3 Q21 (https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-78-section-3-question-21/) is a good example of this form and disguises the flaw with an argument that seems to make sense.

    Hope this was helpful!

    6

    I am averaging -6 on LR after 7 practice sections (not doing full length tests yet) but consistently miss 1 or 2 of the first 10 questions (i.e., level 1s and 2s) and taking a long time to do so while breezing through the middle 10 questions of the test (then losing more points in the end, partially due to time lost in the beginning and partially because they are hard questions.)

    Obviously, I’m planning to incorporate more drilling/reviewing CC to overcome this, but I was wondering if anyone had tips to warmup before a practice section or anything else to avoid brain fog in the beginning of the section. My goal is eventually getting to a 0 to a -1 wrong, but would probably be okay with a -2 depending on how the rest of the test went. Thanks!

    1

    Hi!

    According to your explanation video, the tutor said the cause here is 'technologically superior' and the effect is 'lower infant mortality' but i still can't understand why.

    What I thought is the reversed version of that. The cause is 'lower infant mortality' and the effect is 'tech superior'.

    And answer choice (A) suggests that the cause can be actually the effect of the other cause, which breaks the causal relationship between 'lower infant mortality' and 'tech superior.' So basically (A) is saying the cause is 'broader access' and the effect is 'tech superior.'

    Is my thought process ok to use?

    0

    https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-62-section-1-passage-2-questions/

    7Sagers, I'm doing some BR and I'm really conflicted on this question. I have no idea what the answer is to this question yet (I wanted to get feedback from you guys first) so I have no idea if I've even narrowed it down to the right final two answer choices but here's where I'm at.

    This is the passage about the permissibility of custom-made medical illustrations in the courtroom. The question says

    Removed. Please see forum rules.

    Here's where I'm at with the question:

    a) I think this may be an implicit argument? But the passage in the third paragraph actually seems to be refuting criticism not directly making a stance yet

    b) ~~~ B looks really good

    c) Does she do this? I don’t see where it says that they aren’t permissible in the court room – just that they are more confusing than general illustrations

    d) No, she doesn’t do that in this paragraph.

    e) ~

    I’m really stuck and torn between answer choices B and E and I’m not sure I can figure out what the differences are on my own. Both look really good. The objection in the second paragraph to custom-made medical illustrations is that they misrepresent facts to comply with a partisan interest. The third paragraph says that the complaint is that they distort the issues through a variety of means. Does this count as a variant then? It feels like it does

    Answer choice E seems tricky because it’s not lengthy but the paragraph does say that it’s an issue of complexity and simplicity and that this is in effect the differences between the two. Both answer choices seem really good.

    0

    This is a method of reasoning question. I got the answer correct - B - because stimulus goes and defines unnatural and uses that to destroy the absurd claim it sets out to. However, why is AC D wrong? Is it b/c it is partially right and not fully correct. The claim does say doing something unnatural is impossible - hence to a certain degree that would be a contradiction...

    Thoughts?

    Admin note: edited title; please use the format of "PT#.S#.Q# - [first set of words]"

    Admin note: https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-48-section-3-passage-4-passage/

    https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-48-section-3-passage-4-questions/

    0

    just realized like three days ago that I signed up for the LSAT in the eastern time zone and I live in central!!! I have been trying to wake up at 6:30am (central) this week so it won't be as bad when I have to wake up at 7:30 (eastern) but that was definitely something I should have considered when signing up!!! oops. any tips from anyone?? thanks in advance

    0

    Hello all-

    Can someone tell me what PT the following LG is?

    A group of seven friends – Harriet, Ingrid, Jasper,

    Katie, Linh, Mercedes, and Nate—are deciding which

    of them will compete in next week’s Chili Cook-Off.

    The friends make their decisions consistent with the...

    HELP ADMIN

    Thank you SO much!!

    I really need to solve this game and having a difficult time so would like the explanation.

    0

    I'm confused with definition and/or terminology. Is numbered ordering the same as basic linear ordering (with a number line), or is there a difference? [3D numbered ordering and Advanced Linear ordering]

    Also is there any relationship between numbered ordering and relative ordering.

    Please help. Thank you.

    0

    Hi All,

    I've made an observation regarding Main Point questions on some of the most recent RC passages (70s primarily). I was reading a post on the Manhattan Prep LSAT forum, where another poster verified my suspicion. I want to share my observation with you below in the hope that it will help someone approach Main Point questions in the future.

    Historically, the LSAT writers have favored answer choices that encompass the main point of the passage and whatever subsidiary point was made in the passage. The correct answer choices have been broad, inclusive statements and certain incorrect answer choices were incorrect because they were “too narrow” or did not encompass one of the subsidiary points while another answer choice did. In recent tests, however, the LSAT writers have started to exploit our conditioning to this type of strategy. They will add a broad answer choice with unwarranted strong language (subtle strong language, like “most” or “prominent”) or with incorrect time frames (like “recently” or “historically”) that encompasses both the main point and the subsidiary point. They are trying to utilize the fact that we have been conditioned to look for “more complete” answer choices and hope that we will overlook the subtle characteristics that ultimately make the answer choice incorrect. The correct answer choice ends up being something more direct, narrow, and only concerned with the author’s overall takeaway rather than any “exceptions” or “sub-points” he/she gets into. (See PT73.S1.Q16- answer choice D & PT74.S3.Q9- answer choice E for examples)

    With one month until the September test, I know keeping this in mind will help me be more aware of these types of strategies the LSAT writers have been utilizing. Has anyone else noticed this as well?

    5

    I am trying to apply to Cardozo law for next year, and it is not updated or something is not working right.

    It is only giving me the option of applying for 2021 and it says applications are coming soon, instead of for 2020.

    Anyone else having this problem?

    0

    Sorry if there is another post on here that talks about this.

    I just finished the CC, I'm sitting for July (less than 4 weeks away) and am wondering what PT to start with since I have limited time to PT.

    I have done a decent job foolproofing, spent a ton of time on LR, and ended with RC so that is fresh on my mind and was doing surprisingly well.

    I have a one week vacation from work I plan to take which I'll get about 60 (5 PTs) hours of total study time that week for PT'ing, but weeks with work I'm limited to max out at 25 hours (2 PTs) per week. Giving me a grand total of about 110 hours (not including the rest of this week).

    PT's take about 12 hours in total, that's just shy of 10 PTs. Do I start with the most recent 10 then?

    Ty in advance.

    1

    Hey everyone I tried searching through the forums to see if there were any hits and I didn't see anything but I am a little confused on general principles. I am doing pretty well on the method of reasoning portion of the curriculum knock on wood but one area that I've noticed myself wasting too much time on are on answer choices that mention something to do with the argument using a general principle. I've been getting in the habit of quickly attempting to come up with an example of whatever the answer choice is and then comparing that to the argument featured in the stimulus that I have summed up in my own words but I keep second guessing myself on the answer choices with something to do with a general principle.

    In the second lesson of the method of reasoning curriculum JY uses the "all jedi use the force" or "all apples are fruit" as examples for a general principle. That makes sense to me but then I'll see some stimulus's where either a premise or conclusion will say something that I think could be interpreted as a general principle and then that gray area is the source of my question. Most recent example was form LSAT 19 Section 4 Question 18 June 1996. I got it right during blind review but it seems like this is one simple fix I can make to tighten my shot group. Does anyone have any other examples of general principles or any tips on their approach?

    -Stay safe and thank you for your time!

    0

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