https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-45-section-4-question-18/

I'm pulling my hair out as I am trying to figure out why the correct answer for PT 45 S4 Q18 is A... The question reads,

18. Decentralization enables divisions of a large institution to function autonomously. This always permits more realistic planning and strongly encourages innovation, since the people responsible for decision making are directly involved in implementing the policies they design. Decentralization also permits the central administration to focus on institution-wide issues without being overwhelmed by the details of daily operations.

Answer:

A) In large institutions whose divisions do not function autonomously, planning is not maximally realistic.

Ok, first of all, is the first sentence referring to a conditional relationship or a causal relationship? I assumed it was the former and

created a conditional chain that looks like this: D --> A. If this is the case, the next sentence can be connected with the previous condition by saying divisions working autonomously always permits more realistic planning like this: D -> A -> MRP (the word "always" is a necessary condition indicator word and I assumed this is how I should interpret this sentence).

To me answer choice A sounds like a mistaken negation where we are saying ~A -> ~MRP... and I was really confused by this. How can we assume that a large institution's planning is not maximally realistic just be cause their divisions do not function autonomously? Or am I interpreting this AC incorrectly and it is really saying ~MRP -> ~A ...

I am always confused as to how to correctly identify a conditional or causal relationship... For example, when they start talking about how decentralization "permits" the central administration to focus on ... how would you define this relationship as? Could anyone please shed some light on how you would go about solving this question? Many thanks in advance!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas weekend!

Quick question to those of you who had a chance to submit a general letter of recommendation to LSAC. I'm about to send an instruction to my recommenders on how to submit their letters etc and was wondering who they will need to address in the letter head. For example, should the address of the person / committee receiving this general letter should be that of LSAC as opposed to specific school?

Also, do you have any thoughts on not putting the date when the letter was written by the recommender? Given that these letters can stay on my record for the next 5 years and since I may be applying again after this admission cycle, I was wondering maybe I should ask the recommenders to omit the date in their letters... Really appreciate any thoughts you guys have on these questions and hope everyone has a great rest of the week :)

Hi All,

I remember being able to print off prep tests on 7sage the last time I logged in (about 2 months ago) under Course - Syllabus but I can't seem to find them anymore. Are they taken off from the website now? If not, where can I go to find them? Thanks for your help in advance!!

Hi All,

This might be a stupid question to ask but is there a common section where the LSAC places their experimental section in the test? For example, is the experimental section more likely to show up in the first 3 sections as opposed to the last 2? Are there some ways to tell if a section is experimental or not? I was just curious to see if they are always random or if there are some patterns as to where they get placed etc... Thanks!

Hi All,

So the stimulus in #20 reads,

"If one does not criticize a form of behavior in oneself or vow to stop it, then one should not criticize that form of behavior in another."

Would this sentence translate to

1. ~Criticize one's own behaviour AND ~Vow to stop it --> ~ Criticize other's behavior or

2. ~Criticize one's own behaviour OR ~ Vow to stop it --> ~ Criticize other's behavor?

I initially thought that the latter was the case but not sure about it anymore... Any feedback will be greatly appreciated!

https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-77-section-2-question-20/

Hi All,

So I'm still struggling to identify exactly when certain arguments could be strengthened or weakened by the total number of samples (or any sort of number play for that matter) and when they cannot be. I remember seeing a few questions in the past where certain group was seeing a particular pattern or a phenomenon while the other group didn't and the discrepancy was due to some problems related to the size of the sample in one group (either their total number of participants were not counted properly, thereby inflating the trend) etc.

PT 77 Section 2 #19: A recent study examined the daytime and nighttime activity patterns of two populations of tree-dwelling lemurs - the first living in a rain forest, where tree canopy cover is consistent year0round, and the second living in a deciduous forest, where many trees lose their leaves during the winter months. Both groups of lemurs were found to be more nocturnal during winter months than they were the rest of the year. However, the winter increase in nocturnal activity was significantly more pronounced for the population living in the deciduous forest than it was for the population living in the forest.

For the question above, none of the answer choices really stood out for me initially and when I looked through them again, I noticed how the AC (D) was talking about the bird population in these forests are different, in fact, the lemur population in the rain forest is twice the size of the population in the deciduous forest... I thought that if that's the case, couldn't it be possible that the nocturnal activity looks more pronounced in the deciduous forest even though the two forests had the same number of birds that are both just as active at night? The correct answer turned out to be (B) which talked about the high-flying bird predators who hunt their prey during daylight...

So my question is, how are we supposed to know when these numbers actually come in play and exactly what the question means in this case - whether there are more % of these birds in each forest (in which case the population size matters) or it could be that the entire bird population is following a certain trend?

https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-77-section-2-question-19/

Hi All,

I've been pretty good with setting up and reading conditional chains for in-and-out games but for some reason I'm really confused with the conditional chain for PT 34 S4 G4 (if you recall, it's about splitting six doctors to either the Souderton or Randsborough clinic).

Here is the simplified version of the conditional chain for this game:

~N --> ~O --> J --> ~K --> P

When I look at this, the minimum number of doctors that needs to be in the in group (Souderton) is two since we have two separate OR pairs (~O --> J and ~K --> P) as was asked in question 21 (and the correct answer was "two").

So this is where I get really confused. If this is the logic we are using to interpret a minimum number of doctors, why can't the correct answer for question 19 (which asks for a complete and accurate list of doctors at Souderton) be E (N and P)? Why can't the ~N --> J pair be treated the same as ~O --> J? If we only have N and P, aren't we still good since we have at least one of N and J and one of K and P?

I guess I am really confused as to how to correctly account for the OR pairs when there so many overlap between them in a particular chain like you see above? Thanks for your help in advance!

https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-34-section-4-game-4/

Hi All,

So I had to take 2 semesters off at the beginning of my 3rd year in university because I had suffered from severe eating disorder... Although I had recovered from it fully since then (and this gap year happened about 7 years ago) I am planning not to write an extra addendum unless schools specifically ask me to explain about any gap years in my education history (So far I have noticed that Cornell, Duke and NYU ask this).

Would it be ok if I just say that I developed a medical ailment and decided to treat it during the 3rd year instead of talking about the details of the illness? I just don't wanna open a can of worms if I do not have to. I've been looking for some sample addenda explaining about gap year but haven't been successful as of yet... Any feedback on this would be much appreciated!

Hi All,

Just to provide some background information, I have been studying for about 5 months now, both on my own (using Powerscore trilogy and 7sage) and have recently completed a 3 months in-person LSAT course in the city I'm in. When I first started studying I got about 9 questions wrong for an LR section (untimed) and slowly improved to getting 5-7 questions wrong under timed conditions. I thought I was finally on the right track and was looking forward to seeing more improvements until when I recently started getting more questions wrong than I initially started (12-14 questions wrong both under timed and untimed conditions)... I realized that usually when I go back to the questions I got wrong, the correct AC was one of the last two AC's that I was contemplating between before I chose the wrong one if that's any good sign.

I am watching the videos on 7sage again as well as reviewing questions I got wrong but feel quite defeated at this point. I have postponed my September exam to December (thank God!) and am really hoping to get a great score (170+) in Dec. I've been really careful not to burn too many questions but at this point I'm thinking maybe I should go back to early exams (PT 7 to 18) and take as much questions as possible to solidify my understanding of all the core principles. My question is, should I go through the LR sections as an entire section or drill them by question types? Also, is there anything else you guys recommend me do for the month of September? Really appreciate your help in advance!

December was my first LSAT attempt and although I did not meet my target score I'm pretty pumped about the fact that I have scored 0 wrong in the RC which has always been my worst section ever (scoring nearly 10-14 wrongs). I totally bombed my LG section which was to be expected given that I literally guessed last two of the four game sets but I'm still happy that I can improve on RC with practice!!!

I'm not done with my LSAT journey yet but would like to thank 7 Sage members for all their encouragement and support :) Love you guys and happy 2017!!