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Join the California LSAT Study Group!🌻

(All LSAT learners are welcomed!) 👇

https://discord.gg/sY5St5DGdN

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Edited Wednesday, May 27

Bobby68

😊 Happy

LSAT Discord Group (repost)

I don't want to spam here, so I share this every few months or so. :)

I'll keep it short this time too 😅 Here is the link to the LSAT discord I moderate 💙

Hopefully I continue having people who wish to help other's learning in a positive way.

https://discord.gg/eq7QSHKQnn

  • all LSAT scores welcomed!

  • free of ads and promotions (to avoid scams and keep learning accessible)

  • resources and chats for LR and RC help.

  • Daily LR everyday at 5PM PST / 8PM EST

I'm also doing my best to keep the server friendly but am grateful that folks in the discord have been doing their best to help facilitate this space to be this way.

It's named "California LSAT" as I originally wanted to have people in PST time zone, but everyone here is welcomed to join ✨💙

Thanks y'all!

3
General · 🎉 $50 Community Lottery May Winners 🎉
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Bobby68
Monday, May 18

@LukaDoncicForMVP 🔥💜 LIGHT THE BEAM!!!

1
General · 🎉 $50 Community Lottery May Winners 🎉
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Bobby68
Edited Monday, May 18

We did it chat! 😼🔥

Congrats everyone!!! 🎉 Thanks 7Sage team!

(I also hope my question breakdowns continue to help fellow 7Sage learners ☺️📚)

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General · 🎉 $50 Community Lottery May Winners 🎉
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Bobby68
Edited Monday, May 18

@TheBigFatPanda omg, you're here!!! 😄 Congrats!

1
PrepTests ·
PT102.S4.Q14
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Bobby68
Saturday, May 2

Just wanted to shoutout @haena comment below me for giving tips on approaching words we don't know. It makes my day seeing people uplift each other's learning.🌻 I think that's what makes 7Sage community special.

I wanted to add my own comment for those that want to try and tackle this question with process of elimination that can help them get to D (in addition to trying to understand words they don't know as a tool).

Some things I've learned today in drilling these principle questions...

  • Use MSS and PSA strategies and focus on only on what we know.

We don't know anything about what we are morally obligated to do, only the moral obligation not to do something.

Therefore, A and B are wrong because both start with the positive "morally obligated"...C (somewhat), D, and E says more on what we are looking for.

  • Don't add in any assumptions/make up a story to make the answer fit into the principle we are looking for. Extra things not discussed or hinted at in the stimulus are suspicious...👀

Notice how C uses all the right words we are looking for ("moral commitments" and "future generations"), but adds "moral commitments we have to the present generation"🥲. In the stimulus, we aren't discussing anything about present/current commitments. C is adding an extra assumption that wants me to think discussing the present generation is important for my principle...but the stimulus only gives on the single and "simple" reason about future generations. Maybe C would be right if the author added additional premises talking about the people today to make this more relevant...

Also E can also be ruled out for making extra assumptions/being too extra. Adding a requirement, or something necessary to being morally obligated wasn't explained in the stimulus, and additionally "someone we know". We would have to make this extra assumption that we know everyone of the "future generation" in order for E to be more favorable. Otherwise, we are doing it for a future generation like said in the stimulus, not like a family member.

2
Feature Request · Feature Request: Custom Timer Settings Beyond 200%
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Bobby68
Edited Saturday, May 2

@boomboom You can change the settings, it might be glitchy but it saves your last input. I would mess round with the custom timing, write it down on a paper to remember for next time, because extra time is for official LSAC accommodations settings and what you are looking for is specific for your drilling needs.

I personally set my sections unlimited and rely on my own timer. I get disrupted a lot so it makes sense I don't stress over a countdown when things disrupt my section.

----------

82:15 is the timing for 225%.

87:31 is the timing for 250%

Add/remove minutes as needed.

Hope this helps!

0
PrepTests ·
PT107.S3.Q12
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Bobby68
Edited Tuesday, Apr 28

For every question I miss I want to make sure I take away something from this question...so hopefully someone finds this comment helpful...we gonna miss question today so tomorrow we get it right chat. 🔥💪😼

Quick tip that helps me locate where the flaw is: look out for new terms (sometimes words changed) and strong language.

Music critic: Some people argue that, unlike certain works of Handel, which set to music familiar religious texts, the organ symphonies of Louis Vierne are not religious music. Quite the contrary. Sitting in Notre Dame cathedral in Paris and hearing his organ symphonies demonstrates that Vierne's works are divinely inspired.

I got some idea where the flaw was, but when going into the answers, I was pretty lost of what captured the flaw. I felt that just because it was played in a Cathedral it doesn't automatically make it religious...given that something that religious music is set to follow religious texts somehow (which is what the other side is defining what makes something religious).

B) confuses two different meanings of the term "religious"

  • so I was actually put off by this entire answer choice because I felt it was very strong thing I was assuming: how was the author confused? I felt like the author knew what they were talking about, it stayed on topic on religion even if the example they used was suspicious. I was thinking B would have applied if someone were talking about religion but then the author was talking about religion as a group-think mindset (ex: "food is my religion") than about worshipping a deity or god(s).

  • But apparently "confuses" on the LSAT is often used for equivocation (treating two things as the same). 🥲 Think of the other questions where the answers say the author "confuses necessary with sufficient". They ignore that there is a difference between the two (I ALSO DIDN'T KNOW THERE WAS A DIFFERENCE BEFORE STUDYING FOR THE LSAT! 😀😭), so they treat necessary and sufficient as the same! So they are treating two different meanings of the term "religious" as the same...

  • The author never directly countered the other people's definition nor further justified their own criteria for what is considered religious music (well, your definition is wrong/my definition is better!). It's as if they left the other people's categorization of religious music open to still be accepted while just simply introducing their own definition of religious music by playing it in church makes it divinely inspired, that's why its religious...

    • So with two conflicting ideas of what makes music religious, you basically are treating both meanings on the same level (I think). Meaning that Luis Vierne's music still is open to being judged by the same standards the other people described...

    • so this leaves the author open to "confusion", or two definitions existing for the music to be judged upon. Which one is it? one has to be better than another? In my opinion the other people have it more right.

I guess if I was doing process of elimination here, the conclusion was focusing on rejecting the other people's opinions on Louise Vierne's music. The topic was entirely based on creating a criteria/definition for a thing. The only answer choice that stayed on topic was B and D, but D was focusing on "symphonies" which isn't what we are arguing for nor did I get the vibe that the meaning changed. The other answer choices focused on sampling and part-to-whole types of flaws.

Another example for people to try out is PT131.S2.Q15, notice how there is again two groups here trying to establish their own criteria of something. If anything and I'm running out of time and want to guess anything, focus the subject and what each group is trying to argue for (in this case is their definition/categorization of something) and pick an answer that touches upon that.

1
PrepTests ·
PT17.S4.P3.Q17
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Bobby68
Edited Tuesday, Apr 28

I was between A and B, but was surprised that E was the second most chosen answer. So I am diving deeper into this question because on another day I'll be at crossroads between something like A and E. I know a lot of people here already discussed the answers but wanted to throw in my own comment, maybe someone can find it helpful! 💙

If you are crunched on time, treat these questions as MSS, choose the one that feels safe based on what you read, which was why I chose A over B for example. B had very strong language that made it less supportive ("most accurate" and "most practical size").

The question is really asking for the purpose of the "one writer" example, so which one most strongly supports the use of this example?

A) indicate in a general way the size that a carbon tax must be for it to be effective

Having a low res is helpful as I did write out "ex: UK" (United Kingdom tax rate example) to note the tax percentages one writer made...but also to note its just an example the second sentence of the paragraph was trying to illustrate.

I felt A made more sense because I approached it from an essay mindset where the author of an essay will introduce examples, in this case one example of their tax percentages, to try to give the reader an idea of what these percentages look like. When reading this I was personally wondering what a "high" tax looks like...some people think anything above 50% is high, while others think 10% is crazy high. So having at least one example helps me generalize a range that the author might reference for the rest of the passage.

Given that the author and us as LSAT learners have limited time and space to look at lots of examples of numbers, just having one is sufficient to get some kind of general idea across...

-------

E) show how the size of an effective carbon tax can be calculated

Was the purpose of this example to demonstrate how it was calculated?

So I realized this answer is wrong really for one word 🥲: "how".

"How" indicates what it takes to create an outcome. Like some other people mentioned already, it's hinting at a method.

Example:

Like how do we calculate the circumference of a circle?

2πr

How does one get to the store?

By taking the car, train, or bus to the store.

But when we ask ourselves, how is the writer's United Kingdom tax rate calculated?

I have no idea how to answer that question...they must have some fancy math process going on for sure, but I don't know based on what I read...and I don't know based on the example that only shows the numbers after its gone through some fancy math...😖

So I can't say that the purpose of this "One writer" example was to demonstrate how a tax is calculated...I would have to be adding my own assumptions or really making information up outside what was given to make this fit.

E might be right if it was worded, "show an example of an effective carbon tax"...

1
LSAT · Fourth time taking the LSAT
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Bobby68
Saturday, Apr 25

Just wanted to say that it really sucks to have a limit on the LSAT, I can imagine the pressure just increases as you reach the 4th or 5th attempt. I wish you and everyone in the same boat lots of luck on your upcoming exam. 💙

That said, I've found myself taking more time to review questions I get wrong. Don't feel afraid to take your time to review wrong answers, your next one with the right amount of review can be correct! :) Your time is never wasted with review.

  • "I get questions wrong today, so tomorrow I'll get the right" is what I'm telling myself as I am watching a JY video of a method question I just got wrong 😅

I want to share this Discord group for anyone interested in joining sessions outside their own group chats.

https://discord.gg/7EaQCD7GtZ

There's a daily LR session everyone is welcomed to join everyday at 5PM PST (8PM EST). I'm taking break from hosting this weekend but will be back next week. I'm not a tutor and am still learning myself, but group sessions help a ton for real and highly recommend existing study groups to meet consistently the very least!

3
PrepTests ·
PT9.S3.Q7
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Bobby68
Saturday, Apr 25

I wish there was an explanation for this question since I wish to check if I was right on eliminating/choosing answers for the right reason. 🥀 Either way, I feel writing down a process of the right and wrong answers helps with learning, so hopefully this helps someone. 🌻💙

How to think when seeing these weaken EXCEPT questions...

-------

Notice the question stem is specific in what we are weakening...can come in handy with harder questions.

The question was specific in what we are weakening EXCEPT...reasons for increase in cataract operations:

  • New technology working great!

  • Less expensive.

We were not weakening the idea that there was an increase in operations.

So I had to not that I might look out for answers that should not support these two ideas or maybe just doesn't do anything (requires a story to build up on how it strengthens).

A little thing that also mentally helps me is pretending Im the lawyer having to challenge the other lawyer 4 times...but have to be careful on what I mention...

The right answer is the one I am picking to throw out of my presentation.

--------

A) The overall population of the nation has increased from what it was ten years ago.

  • OBJECTION your honor 🧑‍💼 there's just more people out there. This messes with the likelihood of having the operation done.

  • This answer choice introduces an alternative explanation for the increase in number of operations...its not about the technology or money, its that there's a larger population that increases the likelihood that they will choose the operation to be done...

    • If there was a 30% chance already for the operation to be chosen, going from 10 to 100 people already increases the probability for the 100 people to undergo the operation...

  • ✅ not related to advancement in technology nor related to the operation being less expensive.

B) Any one individual’s chance of developing cataracts is greater than it was ten years ago.

  • OBJECTION your honor 🧑‍💼 there's just more people needing this operation.

  • Messes with the numbers in a similar, yet special way. Maybe the population is the same but now instead of 10 people out of 200 who need the operation, we now have 100 out of the 200 people needing this operation.

  • ✅ not related to advancement in technology nor related to the operation being less expensive.

C) The number of older people has increased during the last ten years.

  • OBJECTION your honor 🧑‍💼 there's just more older people needing this operation.

  • similar to A, it messes with the population of people. The number of people going to get the operation.

  • Remember the stimulus mentions (elderly) older people needing this operation...making this answer relevant.

  • Maybe has nothing to do with the money or advancement of technology, it's that there's just a ton more older people, which increases the likelihood of them wanting to get this operation done. (see how the math works for A or B but replace the mentioned subject with older people).

  • ✅ not related to advancement in technology nor related to the operation being less expensive.

D) Today, health insurance covers cataract surgery for more people than it did ten years ago.

  • OBJECTION your honor 🧑‍💼 the insurance just made the operation available to more people.

  • This one is tricky in that it feels like money is related to this answer, but coverage (being allowed to use a service) and cost to actually use a service is separate ideas...

  • Similar to the answer choices above, it messes with increasing the likelihood that people are getting this operation done for other reasons...

    • Maybe the operation is made accessible/available to more people, the cost may have nothing to do with the choice.

  • ✅ not related to advancement in technology nor related to the operation being less expensive.

E) People who have had unsuccessful cataract surgery are left with more seriously impaired vision than they had before the surgery.

  • This answer choice is wrong for that it requires too many assumptions/questions to make this fit in on how it supports.

  • Since we are looking at people going to get the surgery done, this answer has a chronological issue going on with it. It talks about the outcome/after the operation, which doesn't impact the argument as the argument focuses on how many people are going to get the surgery, not the number that comes out of it and their outcome.

    • Choice to engage in an action vs outcome of an action.

  • Did these people go back to get another surgery? Maybe that's why the number increased... I'm also unsure...I would have to be assuming they did so to be part of an alternative explanation. For weaken and strengthen, its great to look at choices that don't make assumptions/we are making up a story to make it fit...notice how A, B, C, and D, are straight up on something happenin

  • Were these the same people who were part of the population that chose the operation because of its advanced technology and it being less expensive? Because if so, this would definitely support the author's point. It might be a cheap operation but some were left worse off...but it won't challenge the author like A, B, C, and D.

2
Feature Request · Feature Request: Custom Timer Settings Beyond 200%
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Bobby68
Friday, Apr 17

Hi!

If you click on the timing settings for drills, sections, PTs, you scroll down all the way down and you can see custom timing settings.

I'm not sure what 225%+ looks like for the average time per question, but it calculates it for you as you increase the time. 😊

1
PrepTests ·
PT105.S2.Q15
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Bobby68
Friday, Apr 10

@WilRothman I agree with this assumption! I thought the same thing with how the survey could be better with middle and elementary schools included...☺️

But I also just wanted to add that I went back to the stimulus to double check what it said...and even if we hold a survey with elementary and middle school data included, the survey would still be flawed because the first sentence mentioned "schools" in general. So it's ok if we included any schools in the survey, the issue was if the people in the survey attended these schools in the city (no matter what level of school it was).

2
PrepTests ·
PT11.S2.Q17
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Bobby68
Wednesday, Apr 8

chat...I got robbed on this one 😿

C and D were close but I'll show what was the difference...

Ok so 7Sage's classes tutors come clutch when teaching parallel questions. They made it less scary, and they say to look at the broader picture. Narrowing yourself would corner you to try to match the exact words when its really the type of reasoning or argument...

Stuff I kept in mind when doing this, but I have to remember it won't look exactly like this...

  • ✅ we got 2 things/proposals

  • ✅ one is better/more good

  • ✅ why? the other one supports interests of a group AND supported bad interests in the past!

A) Surely Centreville should oppose adoption of the regional planning commission’s new plan since it is not in Centreville’s interest, even though it might be in the interest of some towns in the region.

Town should oppose a proposition because it's not in the interest of one party, but might have been good!

  • 🚫 We only got a mentioned proposal we should oppose/not support...

  • 🚫 We are missing a party who supports a bad interest...we just simply state it's not in the interest of the town.

  • 🚫 We are not supporting it, even though it might have been a good thing?

B) The school board should support the plan for the new high school since this plan was recommended by the well-qualified consultants whom the school board hired at great expense.

School should support proposition because experts says so.

  • ✅ a good proposal is mentioned

  • 🚫 The argument doesn't say we "should" support this plan, but just saying that its better/more good...

    • "should" is like making us do an action....

      • "We should go to the store" vs "this store is better/more good than this other store"

  • 🚫 Doesn't mention if the consultant's interests are bad...they seem to be leaning on supporting a claim because they are experts...

  • 🚫 Also The stimulus never argued based on an authoritative/expert claim. It's more of someone's interests than one's expertise. The consultants in the argument could have also been skilled on what they know. But the argument is using their "interests" that are not the people's interests as the excuse that this proposal is bad.

    • interests: I like/don't like this law because the people are interested in money, not the people.

    • expertise/authority: I like/don't like this law because the people are knowledgable in what they do, and we should/shouldn't listen to them.

C) Of the two budget proposals, the mayor’s is clearly preferable to the city council’s, since the mayor’s budget addresses the needs of the city as a whole, whereas the city council is protecting special interests.

Two proposals, one is preferable, because one addresses the needs of city, the other only protects "special interests"

  • 🚫 Preferable is different than having something be better at doing the job.

    • "People would like that thing more" vs " "That thing is more good/better"

  • 🚫Even if we accept the "preferable" part, it starts off by comparing the interests of the two sides instead of just focusing on city council's side.

    • "this thing is better because this side has a good interest, the other side got this other "special interests" (maybe bad, maybe not).

  • 🚫I also got no indication or hint that these special interests were bad...which is kinda important to let me know that the better proposal is good.

    • in the stimulus it mentioned "detrimental" (bad/harmful) which gave me the hint that...yeah we shouldn't think this side is the better one.

D) Nomura is clearly a better candidate for college president than Miller, since Nomura has the support of the three deans who best understand the president’s job and with whom the president will have to work most closely.

One person is better than another because the better person is the best at doing that job AND the president will have to work closely?

  • ✅ One thing better than another

  • 🚫 Similar to B, we aren't trying to say something is better because it's got better qualities or something good. We are reasoning by saying that something is better because the other side got something bad...bad interests.

E) The planned light-rail system will clearly serve suburban areas well, since its main opponent is the city government, which has always ignored the needs of the suburbs and sought only to protect the interests of the city.

A proposal is good because the other side interests are bad, and always have been.

  • ✅ We got a good proposal that will do a thing (maybe better).

  • ✅ Goes straight to attacking the opponents for protecting the interest they want AND supported bad interests in the past (always ignored the needs/interests of the suburbs).

  • this one just kinda merged the interests of the past to present by saying its always been bad...

  • If you want to go even further to apply Reading Comprehension skills on this question, you can also argue that "ignore" is a negative word that attempts to indicate the interests the city government is representing are bad for the suburbs.

    • similar to "detriment of the city as a whole"

1
General · New feature: streaks
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Bobby68
Monday, Apr 6

@Aditya I agree, new flame colors would be cool 🔥🧡💜💙

3
PrepTests ·
PT17.S3.Q2
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Bobby68
Saturday, Apr 4

I am surprised this was level 3, I found it tricky! 😳 Especially when the answer did not really give a direct mechanism of how it worked...but it was the only one that really addressed the paradox.

I wanted to give my thoughts on this one since it was not easy getting to the right answer in my opinion.

I'm trying something new in that I write or keep in my head what we are comparing (as 7Sage tutors guide learners in this way).

What are we comparing/what's the paradox:

Several traps = number of beetles greatly reduced

vs

One trap = numbers increased

Things to keep in mind for RRE:

  • make the least amount of assumptions in picking an answer choice.

  • made sure it addresses the paradox (some answers sound nice and relevant but didn't relate to the number of beetles by using one vs many traps)

A) The scent of a single trap’s lure usually cannot be detected throughout a backyard garden by rose beetles.

  • I need to make an assumption here about how this increased the number of beetles.

  • We know a single trap actually leads to more beetles coming in the garden, but if the scent isn't powerful to lure the beetles, how does the numbers increase?

    • I would have to make up a story on how this works, like because the scent is not detected, the beetles actually notice this and call their buddies to come in the garden. Or maybe the color of the bag attracts the beetles but not the scent to kill them. When you start to use your imagination too much, it's a red flag for RRE questions. 🥲

B) Several traps are better able to catch a large number of rose beetles than is one trap alone, since any rose beetles that evade one trap are likely to encounter another trap if there are several traps in the garden.

  • I liked B but it made me uneasy how it only resolved half of the paradox.

  • We need an answer that accounts for one group causing something to decrease, while the other thing causing the numbers to increase.

    • In other words, the paradox is several traps= decrease, and one trap = increase

      • B is more like, one trap = decrease, several traps = decreases more.

C) When there are several traps in a garden, they each capture fewer rose beetles than any single trap would if it were the only trap in the garden.

  • This almost felt like it contradicts what I just read. I want several traps to decrease the population. And giving me a scenario where several traps don't do this nor explains how the only trap causes an increase in beetles doesn't help.

  • Maybe this one was attractive for trying to highlight a situation that is out of the normal and explains for a difference...but there had to be many assumptions to try to make this work directly with the stimulus.

D) The presence of any traps in a backyard garden will attract more rose beetles than one trap can catch, but several traps will not attract significantly more rose beetles to a garden than one trap will.

  • So any trap, no matter the kind, will always cause to attract more beetles (maybe because of their scent or whatever special trick these traps use), but having several traps will not attract so many beetles.

    • So if each bag catches 50 beetles...

    • one bag attracts 60 beetles, and catches 50, 10 are let go. Meaning an increase in beetles. 📈✅

    • several bags (at least 2) attracts 60 beetles (no more than the one trap), and catches all 60 (since 2 bags, has a capacity of 100 beetles). Because there's a lot of the bags, there could potentially be still room to catch even more beetles if it could. Either way, the number of beetles decreased. 📉✅

  • It was not obvious for me, as I felt that this answer did address both sides of the paradox, yet I was hesitant to pick it because I was still left asking myself why does it do this?

  • I think it's the very "presence" of traps impacts the number of beetles that come. If it's a normal causal behavior that occurs in all traps, then I'm guessing this is what kept this answer to still be right.

    • Similar to the frequency/number of bags (like answer choice B) and the bag capacity (answer choice E), the presence of the bags impacts the beetle behavior.

E) When there is only one trap in the garden, the plastic bag quickly becomes filled to capacity, allowing some rose beetles to escape.

  • I'm not so sure about the explanation for E actually, but I know I have to add more assumptions for this one to work.

  • When the one bag fills to capacity, it's indicated that it would become so inefficient that more beetles (like the ones escaping) add to the increase of number of beetles...

    • I'm kinda left wondering if this behavior also happens with several bags too?

  • A little thing I also thought of, is that the bugs escaped when the bag reached full capacity. I feel I can argue that when it wasn't at capacity, the one bag could have helped decrease the number of beetles at the time it still was able to take in some. I would also want to assume that if the several bags also became at full capacity, some would also escape, no longer causing a decrease, and also cause an increase in population (if that's what the escaped beetles meant)...

1
PrepTests ·
PT10.S4.Q23
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Bobby68
Edited Saturday, Apr 4

ngl chat...this question had me cooked...I was just thinking about it for a long time...but here is a breakdown in case anyone needs some help. 💙

The two things we are comparing:

Other famines = small labor force/higher demand of workers --> higher wages

vs

Potato Famine = small labor force --> no significant raise in wages

Some things to think about for RRE:

  • what makes the Potato Famine special in regards to breaking the law of supply and demand?

    • maybe this famine didn't follow the conditions that triggered the law of supply and demand.

  • maybe the other famines got something special...

  • Keep note: the more assumptions you try to make for an answer choice, the more suspicious you should be on how it explains anything...(refer to answer D).

A) Improved medical care reduced the mortality rate among able-bodied adults in the decade following the famine to below prefamine levels.

  • I was so attracted to this one! 😭

  • But here is how I ruled it out...eventually 🥲

  • I literally realized I glazed over the last words "following decade", where we can talk about things happening in the 1850s, "in the decade following" (just like D)

  • So if the number of people dying is back to the regular rate before the famine, it impacts the number of people living, meaning that there's more people competing for jobs...that its almost as if nothing really changed to impact the workers.

    • no reduction in workers and therefore not making the workers more valuable for wages to go up.

B) Eviction policies of the landowners in Ireland were designed to force emigration of the elderly and infirm, who could not work, and to retain a high percentage of able-bodied workers.

  • This answer is tricky in that it seems to try and distract by using the "elderly and inform, who cannot work", where it doesn't seem relevant to how it relates to the working population and keeping wages high

  • So this answer is similar to A in the reason that keeping a high percentage of able-bodied workers.

    • In the LSAT, we can't know an absolute number (like 10, 25.5, 37, etc.) from a percentage without knowing what 100% looks like (is it 100,000 people?), but because we are looking for something that LEAST or doesn't contribute to the explanation, so its ok to take advantage of vague language that high percentage of workers, is a high enough number that could impact the value of workers and their wages.

  • The more workers or what employers perceive to be a lot of workers, the less likely they will be seen as a few, and therefore, the workers aren't valuable to have their wages raised.

C) Advances in technology increased the efficiency of industry and agriculture, and so allowed maintenance of economic output with less demand for labor.

  • "Low wages" (as seen in answer choice E) and "less demand for labor" are two things that go against what we typically see in other famines (riding wages and high demand for workers).

  • Like answer choice E, an outside factor that disrupts the causal mechanism for the law of supply and demand that forces the country to have a low demand for labor

    • we need a high demand, or see workers are more valuable to have their wages rise.

    • In real life, robotics and mechanisms actually take away jobs from people because the mechanisms can do the jobs for efficiently and faster without worrying about the problems that come with having workers do the job. Workers are seen as less valuable since employers can just say that a robot/mechanism can do the job.

D) The birth rate increased during the decade following the famine, and this compensated for much of the loss of population that was due to the famine.

  • It was so hard to see D at first but it simply does the LEAST to impact the causal reasoning that for the law of supply and demand.

  • The things that can impact the supply and demand and the wages are the number of workers, not the number of children.

    • So even if the children made up for the loss of the population, its really workers with other workers that we needed care about

  • having more children means, they are not of age to work yet, so this doesn't impact...as of yet...how many workers Ireland has.

  • The more assumptions we have to make on how something directly impacts something else, the less power it has on explaining.

    • But what if 8-10 year olds were considered old enough to work at this time? (Unfortunately, child labor was normal at certain points of history in Europe 😕🥀). It's true that the maximum age a person would be is maybe 10 years old within a decade that one is born in (if someone was born in the year 2000, they would be 10 years old in 2010). I'm not sure what the child labor laws were like at this time, but we would have to make this assumption that children were also considered part of the labor force/workers.

    • By how much did the rate increase? We also don't know by how much the birth rate increased or when the people had children. Unlike answer choice B that included "high percentage", the rate could increase just by a tiny bit and that's still considered an increase. Even if 8-10 year olds were considered old enough to work...it might not be really enough to impact the demand of workers and wages. We have to assume the rate increased a substantial amount plus the assumption mentioned previously about child workers.

    • What if there were a lot of children that were working age that could actually impact the demand and wages? We actually don't know when the rate increased within the following decade. It could be a possibility that the rate increase happened in the last 3 years of the decade (1857, which is still technically within the "following decade") in which case the children would be 3 years old, definitely not working age. So if we assumed that 8 years old was the minimum age a child was able to work at this time and the birth rate was really high, having a lot of 3 year old children still wouldn't contribute to the number of working individuals.

E) England, which had political control of Ireland, legislated artificially low wages to provide English-owned industry and agriculture in Ireland with cheap labor.

  • So if an outside factor like, English colonizers, intervened/forcefully impacted the casual relationship in the nature of the law of supply and demand, and keep wages low, then this explains why the Potato Famine was different than other famines (which other famines have high wages).

1
PrepTests ·
PT122.S1.Q8
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Bobby68
Edited Thursday, Apr 2

Hopefully this helps someone...I'm not sure, I see there is an explanation for it and also tutors breaking it down...but wanted to add my quick insight here...😊🌻

Before we look at the answers, let's see what we are comparing: 💙

Call #1 for the land animals

vs

Call #2 for the air animals

Somethings to maybe think about when looking at these two groups:

  • Maybe there's something special about the land or air animals that we need two different calls for? Like the behaviors of attack are different...This was my prephrase...

  • I wasn't able to prephrase this answer but another thought someone can have is that these calls are necessary for something relating to the monkey's behavior...

------------

A) By varying the pitch of its alarm call, a vervet monkey can indicate the number of predators approaching.

  • We would have to assume that the land vs air predators vary in numbers...but for some reason I don't know that.

    • I actually assumed/imagined it was just one predator for land vs air when they were attacking...

  • But also it adds more information about the types of pitches, so not only does it indicate the type of predator, but also the number...but I'm still left wondering about why the pitch is different for the type of predator.

B) Different land-based predators are responsible for different numbers of vervet monkey deaths.

  • We only talk about land predators here but I'm not sure how drastically different these numbers are...

  • If I picked this answer, I probably was assuming the land predators are more dangerous, so maybe the monkeys want to prioritize these predators with a special call...but I would think its best to try to not die from anyone.

C) No predators that pose a danger to vervet monkeys can attack both from land and from the air.

  • for some reason I also assumed the predators were only doing one of these tactics, but also the stimulus were calling for what happens when a predator does come from the air or the land.

  • This answer means that there isn't a predator that at one day flies down to attack, then another day they chose to run up to you from the ground...

  • So this one was interesting! but let's just say that there are no animals that does both...I'm still left with the animals that only does one of these things, and am still trying to answer for when an animal does attack from the air or from the ground...why are the calls different.

  • Like I need a trigger for some special characteristic about the predators or the monkeys when they do encounter each other.

D) Vervet monkeys avoid land-based predators by climbing trees but avoid predation from the air by diving into foliage.

  • So this answer kinda spoke to the prephrase above, that there's something special going on between the two types of predators, but in a more indirect way...

  • Basically the because the calls are different, it allows for the monkeys to know what type of strategy to use to avoid these predators.

  • If there was only one type of call, the monkeys would just do whatever they think is best without knowing what's coming...If they accidentally hid in the bushes instead of a tree when a land animal was coming to attack, that would put the monkey in danger!

  • foliage = plant leaves. I think of a bush.

    • But don't trees have foliage too? Trees also have foliage but treat the two different acts in combination with the subject as being special, that there's something special about doing these two different things (climbing trees vs diving into foliage). Maybe the acts (climbing vs diving) are really the special tactic in avoiding these predators.

E) Certain land-based predators feed only on vervet monkeys, whereas every predator that attacks vervet monkeys from the air feeds on many different animals.

  • so basically this is saying that "some" land-based predators

    • certain land predators = monkeys

    • every air predator = monkeys + other animals

  • But both types of predators still hunt the monkeys, which basically still keeps me at the beginning in asking why these two types of predators are special when attacking the monkeys.

    • I need something special about these two types of predators when they do attack the monkeys.

  • "Certain" or "some" are weak in that it only applies to some, but we don't know it its the same predators that attack these monkeys.

1
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PT9.S3.Q16
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Bobby68
Edited Thursday, Apr 2

Hopefully this helps someone since there's no explanation 😭💫

Using the 7Sage tactic where we grab the two things we want to compare:

Romans have ability to use water power energy.

vs

regions dominated by large cities didn't use this water power.

Its hard to prephrase a specific reason but we can be broad:

  • I was thinking there must be something special about cities that prevent Romans from wanting to use power...maybe there was another energy source that was better for cities?

  • Maybe it was actually a disadvantage for cities to use water power...

A) The ancient Romans were adept at constructing and maintaining aqueducts that could carry quantities of water sufficient to supply large cities over considerable distances.

  • This gives me extra information as to the skills Romans have and the ability to carry the water to cities, yet it is still true that cities didn't use water power.

  • So basically if they had the ability to build aqueducts, why didn't they want water power as the stimulus stated?

    • Similar to real life where we have the ability to build lots of green energy devices, yet why don't we see them everywhere?

  • Also we are talking about water power, I'm a bit unsure if this water from the aqueducts will be used for sewage, bath, drinking water, agriculture...

B) In the areas in which water power was not used, water flow in rivers and streams was substantial throughout the year but nevertheless exhibited some seasonal variation.

  • So in areas where water was used, there was lots of water available, but I'm wondering how is this a bad thing? Maybe if they mentioned that it floods cities...but it seems if there is plenty of water, why don't they use it?

  • I feel that B needs a lot of assumptions about how this information leads to water being bad for cities.

  • I would also pay attention to how the LSAT uses the word "variation", as it is a word seen in strengthen, weaken, paradox. We don't know how much it varies nor how it varies. When something varies, does it go up, or down? does it vary by a little or a lot?

C) Water power was relatively vulnerable to sabotage, but any damage could be quickly and inexpensively repaired.

  • So it gave me a problem in the first half which is great! But then it resolved itself...

  • I wanted the problem to stay a problem to guarantee that cities used that excuse to not use water power, but having something quickly fixed and with little money wasted to do so made it actually seem like its was a good thing. That worrying about sabotage was not that bad...but I need something strong to say it was why cities didn't want it...

  • Second of all, it would have been nice to have the problem apply to cities...since I was looking for something special about cities that made it different than other areas that did use the water power...

D) In the areas in which water power was not used, water flow in rivers and streams was substantial throughout the year but nevertheless exhibited some seasonal variation.

  • I was attracted to this one, and selected it until I read E. But this one I said, ok so places that don't use water power, like the cities, just relied on traditional sources, so there's no point of using water power...

    • But I was still wondering why water power was bad thing.

      • I wasn't sure if these "traditional sources" were better than water (they could be worse and maybe dangerous like coal), but also, wouldn't it be cool to use any source of energy available? why can't we use both water and the traditional?

      • Why does using traditional sources make water power bad for cities?

  • I felt this answer was a bit weaker, as it still left gaps of how traditional sources were good/better, and water power was bad for cities.

E) In heavily populated areas the introduction of water power would have been certain to cause social unrest by depriving large numbers of people of their livelihood.

  • This answer highlights something special about cities and why water power was not used when it's a good thing. In this case, for cities, it would cause people to be angry (bad thing) that the water power is negatively impacting their lives.

  • Unlike answer choice D, E straight up mentions that water power would cause a bad thing to happen...I didn't have to guess and fill in the gaps like D to say water power was bad for cities...

    • I imagined it might remove people from where they live to build the water power structures. Similar to how cities like Los Angeles experienced gentrification from highways/freeways being built through places that used to be neighborhoods. It caused a lot of people to leave their homes.

  • I feel this one is tricky because it did not mention cities, but we had to infer that for cities, there are large number of people living in it (not commuting/traveling to the city...which was hard for a time where no cars are available). So the "heavily populated areas" are referring to cities.

1
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PTA.S4.Q12
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Bobby68
Edited Friday, Apr 3

Breakdown for this question in case anyone needs some help! 🌻💙

40% increase in Box office receipts (I don't know what this is...but I assumed like movie tickets? or receipts you get when a ticket is sold?)

vs

2x movie theaters going bankrupt

Why is this?

  • I want to look for something that explained how receipts don't correlate with keeping a movie theater open.

  • maybe there's something we don't know based on the information given that I need so I can say, ah yeah, this makes sense...

A) Films cost, on average, twice as much to produce today as they did ten years ago.

  • Too many assumptions needed to see how movie theaters are affected.

  • so does the cost of making a movie fall on to the theater or the people making the movie?

  • Ok, even if it costed more, is that good or bad? Food also costs more, but we unfortunately still have to buy it in order to live.

  • If anything, in real life, the movie theaters are separate from the people making the movies like Warner's Brothers or Paramount, and I would think that maybe the one's creating the movies would go bankrupt...

B) Ticket prices at some theaters fell last year.

  • This only happened at "some" theaters, which is weak language and I don't know if these were the ones that went out of business or the ones that stayed...

  • Even if ticket prices fell, this is a good thing for business and would actually deepen the mystery as to why twice as many theaters went out of business...

C) Those of last year’s films that were successful were very profitable films that were shown by exclusive engagement at only a selection of the largest theaters.

  • What determines a successful movie? Usually those that do super great at the box office, sells lots of tickets, which maybe causes them to print out those receipts.

  • And so if these movies that did great but also had 40% more receipts were only shown at a few select theaters...the theaters that do not show these films are left out and people don't go to them because they didn't show the top trending movies of the year.

    • less customers you attract --> more likely to become bankrupt.

  • In real life its expensive to pay for the right to show a famous movie, so theaters are taking risks on picking and choosing out of the many movies, which ones they can pay for and want to show.

D) The amount of money spent on film advertising increased greatly last year over the year before, and the majority of this expense was absorbed by the producers and the distributors of films, not by the theater owners.

  • I was ok with the first part, and was wanting to hear something that maybe it costs a lot of money for theaters to show these advertisements or something, but instead it says the producers/distributers "absorbed the expense", so not a problem for theaters but for producers/distributers.

E) In general, an increase in a theater’s box office receipts for any year is accompanied by an increase in that theater’s profits from snack-food and soft-drink sales for that year.

  • This is one of the answer choices I felt deepened the mystery the most because if you make money from the receipts AND the snacks and drinks, then how did half of the theaters went out of business?

  • this is a good thing instead of a bad thing for theaters to cause another bad thing (lots of theaters going bankrupt).

2
PrepTests ·
PT135.S4.Q10
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Bobby68
Edited Wednesday, Apr 1

Seeing in the comments how C is a bit confusing, I hope this helps... 😊💙

The two groups we are seeing are basically eating as much of other foods that are high in fat...but I want to see the group that reduced their meat to be the one higher! Im trying to solve for why they are the higher group.

"People who reduce their consumption of red meat tend to consume as much of other foods that are high in fat as do those who have not reduced their consumption of red meat."

Basically...💫

Group that reduced meat: other fatty foods (example: 50 grams)

Group that did not reduce their red meat: other fatty foods (50 grams) + meat (1/2 pound of meat)

I want to assume the group that did not reduce the meat still eating more fat 🍖🥲...doesn't help me as much as D.

1
PrepTests ·
PT135.S4.Q10
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Bobby68
Wednesday, Apr 1

@Max You brought up a good point! ☺️ I feel that the other answer choices are just much worse or doesn't really explain that it allowed answer D to have this assumption about consuming the same amount of food.

I thought of "replacing" being similar with the word "substituting", where like if I stopped eating red meat, I'm going to replace that amount I used to eat of red meat, with cheese or baked goods...so say I ate a half a pound of steak, I replace it with a half of pound of cheese! I still did assume I'm replacing the same amount of food to make sure the fat intake was actually higher, but I feel this is the only reasonable explanation out of the answer choices as to how cheese and baked goods resulted in a higher fat intake with the action of the people eating...

2
PrepTests ·
PT129.S1.Q8
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Bobby68
Edited Wednesday, Apr 1

Hopefully this helps someone! ☺️✨

Discrepancy:

minimum wage causes...

companies typically cut/reduce number of workers/jobs

vs

fast food industry did not cut/reduce number of workers/jobs

Why is that?

  • look for an answer that talks about why fast food is so special.

  • or maybe why the other companies that are not fast food cut their jobs.

  • keep the topic about the minimum wage, and how the effect is different for fast food and other companies...

---------------------

A) After the recent increase in the minimum wage, decreased job turnover in the fast-food industry allowed employers of fast-food workers to save enough on recruiting costs to cover the cost of the wage increase.

  • highlights a special thing about fast food companies (compared to other companies) and how the minimum wage didn't result in cutting jobs.

  • the minimum wage change actually did a good thing for the companies that made them save money. Every time an employee leaves, the company has to pay someone to hire new applicants, go through training (which costs money), and such...but if you raise their wages, the workers will be happy and stay! Which makes the fast-food industry not have to worry about extra problems when having to fire and/or hire new people.

  • Even if you don't know what "job turnover" (workers themselves wanting to leave the company) means, focus on the positive words like "save enough" or "cover the cost", as those are things that sound good for companies...and I would actually want to keep my workers if it causes a good thing!

B) If, in any industry, an increase in the minimum wage leads to the elimination of many jobs that pay the minimum wage, then higher-paying supervisory positions will also be eliminated in that industry.

  • I feel like B is adding extra information that explains what happens when you minimum wage cuts jobs...that the higher position jobs will also be gone. But I want to look for why fast food didn't cut back jobs, not when (if applicable) they did cut jobs.

  • This also applies to any industry...I want to find something special about fast-food or non-fast food industries.

C) With respect to its response to increases in the minimum wage, the fast-food industry does not differ significantly from other industries that employ many workers at the minimum wage.

  • I want to find something special about fast-food. This was actually my rephrase: "I need something special about fast-food!" something I can say makes them unique, special, and stand out that that's why they didn't cut jobs.

  • C does the opposite and is actually making them less special, which deepens the mystery as to why they didn't cut jobs.

  • If they are doing the similar/same thing as other industries...then why are they different? We already are treating them the same and want to know about something special but if I am being given more information about them being similar to others, then that doesn't help me. 😕

D) A few employees in the fast-food industry were already earning more than the new, higher minimum wage before the new minimum wage was established.

  • I was attracted to this answer! But unfortunately it said "a few", so a very small group out of all the fast-food workers. I want to look for something more powerful that affects most, if not, all of the fast-food industry.

  • I thought because they already have something higher than the minimum-wage, it won't lead to the company wanting to fire their workers. But because its only a few out of the workforce, I'm left wondering about the other workers who are paid less and then the minimum wage causes their wages to increase...will the company decide to cut their jobs like the other industries?

E) Sales of fast food to workers who are paid the minimum wage did not increase following the recent change in the minimum wage.

  • We are talking about the impact of sales before and after the change: did not increase...

  • But how would this cause companies to keep all their workers?

  • I feel that worse sales would actually be bad for the company...which is the opposite of what answer choice A is like, where A is a good thing that would cause the companies to not want to cut jobs, while answer choice E makes companies more likely to want to fire people if their sales are not increasing...

  • So I feel E is wrong because it does highlight something going on with the fast-food industry, but because its a cause that most reasonably can be considered bad, it would actually would more likely support a reason why the fast-food industry did/would cut jobs.

1
General · New "Adaptive Mode" for drilling...Help! 😭📚
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Bobby68
Wednesday, Apr 1

Oh ok, thank you so much 😊 @Kevin_Lin

1
PrepTests ·
PT134.S2.Q11
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Bobby68
Edited Wednesday, Apr 1

Doing the method they showed me in class for seeing what we are supposed to resolve: ✨🤙

Large, urban hospitals = lower recovery rate

vs

Smaller, rural hospitals = higher recovery rate

---------

A) Because there are fewer patients to feed, nutritionists at small hospitals are better able to tailor meals to the dietary needs of each patient.

  • This does something, there's a difference stated that can explain the differences. Even if I don't know how...

  • People have food allergies, or have food restrictions (many people in real life cannot eat meats or vegetables because of chronic illnesses that impact the digestive system).

    • If you give someone who's allergic to peanuts a peanut butter sandwich...they will get worse! or won't eat it and get weaker...

    • There are some illnesses in real life where eating heavy fiber or red meats can actually be dangerous or fatal.

B) The less friendly, more impersonal atmosphere of large hospitals can be a source of stress for patients at those hospitals.

  • This does something, there's a difference stated that can explain the differences. Even if I don't know how...

  • Stress causes sickness and triggers a lot of mental and physical problems...if people are being less friendly, it could actually be bad for the patients trying their best to get well soon...

  • Reminds me how some people say living in a friendly, quiet rural town is more relaxing than being in a city where people are stressed about the pressure and the problems that comes with living in cities...but just imagine this being with hospitals.

C) Although large hospitals tend to draw doctors trained at the more prestigious schools, no correlation has been found between the prestige of a doctor's school and patients' recovery rate.

  • Doesn't do anything...even if I don't understand...

  • I was actually ok with the first part, thinking maybe doctors from prestigious hospitals actually are mean, where it causes problems for patients like in answer choice B or maybe these doctors are the best, they are put more pressure, make more mistakes, or have less time to actually give quality care to the patients...

  • The problem with C was that it actually didn't say something like I mentioned above...it instead introduced a subject for a cause, but there's no correlation/effect...and we can't really conclude anything a difference from something that does nothing (has no correlation/effect).

    • it felt like I was introduced a phenomenon, but then said, the reason actually doesn't matter because it doesn't impact the thing you are trying to solve...

    • I need a reason for the difference in patient recovery rates, but this one doesn't give me one...

  • I would be careful with ruling out an answer just because it didn't mention the smaller hospitals...

D) Because space is relatively scarce in large hospitals, doctors are encouraged to minimize the length of time that patients are held for observation following a medical procedure.

  • This does something, there's a difference stated that can explain the differences. Even if I don't know how...

  • People who gone through a medical procedures need a lot of attention after. Lots of rest, careful attention, maybe there are certain things that they cannot do afterwards.

  • If doctors don't have the time to check on the patient afterwards, there is a greater chance that something can go wrong and put the patient under longer care.

  • If doctors don't give patients a lot of time, patients maybe have to schedule another appointment to go over their problems and such, but that's more time they have to wait and they are still sick!

E) Doctors at large hospitals tend to have a greater number of patients and consequently less time to explain to staff and to patients how medications are to be administered

  • This does something, there's a difference stated that can explain the differences. Even if I don't know how...

  • similar to D...

  • If a patient doesn't get all the attention they need to maybe ask all the questions or be able to properly take their medicine, they will be taking longer to figure out how to get well...

    • and the staff helping them would also be less of help.

  • If the patient accidentally takes their medicine in the wrong way, it could also prolong their illness...

2
PrepTests ·
PT9.S3.Q12
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Bobby68
Edited Saturday, Apr 4

I was a bit lost as to the discrepancy that we are trying to explain...but then after a bit I remembered from some 7Sage classes that we grab the two things and kinda just put them against each other to see it more visually: ☺️💙

Insect record: warm climate immediately

insect data we found first...

vs

Pollen Record: warm climate long after

pollen data we found second...

<-Glacier melted----|--------------------|----->

______________^insect_______^pollen____

Discrepancy: why was there a gap between the time these two pieces of evidence were found?

Note: keep in mind when we say "beetles" or "warm-weather plants", we are assuming we are talking about all of them...if you see quantifiers like "some beetles", "many plants", "few beetles", these are a pretty weak...

A) Cold-weather beetle fossils can be mistaken for those of beetles that live in warm climates.

  • If you mistaken cold-climate beetles with warm-climate beetles, and the cold beetles love the cold, they could have lived during the time when the glacier existed! And when they died, is actually when it started to become warmer, leaving a huge time gap before the plants that created the pollen data lived.

  • takeaways: mistakes in data can explain inconsistencies.

B) Warm-weather plants cannot establish themselves as quickly as can beetles in a new environment.

  • This explains the time gap. If (all) warm weather plants took longer than beetles to exist in an area, then it explains the time between finding the beetles and the pollen that we later found.

C) Beetles can survive in a relatively barren postglacial area by scavenging.

  • This one is a bit wordy and it helps to imagine in your head what this means.

  • This means beetles can exist in an area after the glacier melted where there is nothing to really eat...they scavenge for food (or eat the leftovers).

  • Barren = poor vegetation/not a lot, if any plants...

    • so having little/no plants explains why the beetles were there first, and the plants were there a long time after the beetles.

D) Since plants spread unevenly in a new climate, researchers can mistake gaps in the pollen record as evidence of no new overall growth.

  • The key to this one is the second part of the sentence...that it can be recorded as evidence of no new overall growth.

    • basically the researchers just made a mistake and wrote down that plants didn't really live right after the glacier melted...

    • the mistake wasn't done for the beetles though, so they were shown to live first.

  • explains why there was a big gap between the beetles living after the glacier melted and when the researchers thought the plants lived...

E) Beetles are among the oldest insect species and are much older than many warm-weather plants.

  • This one is tricky because E does talk about time in a way using words like "oldest" and we think maybe its because the beetles came first, that's why there was a gap between the beetles and the plants.

  • Why does E not explain the discrepancy? I think it's because it requires too many assumptions for it to explain anything.

    • Are the "many" (at least 2) warm-weather plants the same ones we are taking about here?

    • Do these "many" plants the same ones that create pollen that we found?

    • Let's say if this statement is true and we accept that the plants are the same ones we are referring to in the stimulus...what if we are past this time of development/evolution and these plants and beetles both already exist? Then saying how one is older doesn't really do anything anymore 😕...

1

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