Correct Answer:

A is stated. “In the struggle to expand their empires, the English and French monarchies required vast amounts of capital. At the outset of the seventeenth century, however, neither regime could credibly commit itself to repay debts or to honor property rights.” Because of monarchs’ unchecked, poor behavior from the absence of limitations, lenders charged high interest rates on them.

What makes the wrong answers wrong?

B is not stated

C is not stated. Tempting because “Not surprisingly, creditors took such behavior into account and demanded higher interest rates from monarchs than from the monarchs' wealthy subjects.” However, this sentence doesn’t mean it was easy for wealthy subjects, just that it was harder for monarchs.

D is not stated. I thought that this could be inferred from the passage so I chose it, but it cannot as it could be true or false. Could be false because perhaps they would have been able to borrow more if they were trustworthy from restricted power.

E is not stated. We don’t know if it was these monarchs, and we also don’t know if they demonstrated a willingness, just that they had to respect property rights once parliament stepped in.

D is supported. Transitioned to clay tablets so didn’t have to use multiple tokens “At first it took two ovoid tokens to record two jars of oil. A little later, it took two markings on a clay tablet to achieve this”

A is not supported. Government, much less a strong, centralized one, is not referenced in how or why the tokens were used.

B is not supported. We don’t get any information about religious rituals or what the society values more.

C makes too strong of an assumption. Just because “envelopes contained official records of villagers' contributions to temple-based grain and livestock pools” does not mean that everything the villagers had had to go to these pools or that they shared it all. Might have been more like a tithe system for the villagers who went to the temple.

E is not supported. Just because the tokens were made out of clay, does not mean that without clay the villagers wouldn’t have created them with something else.

Got this one wrong for a couple different silly reasons. Here's my analysis though so I can hopefully not make these same mistakes going forward!

B supported. To me, this answer choice is worded in a confusing way, but if we break it down it is supported. “As used until then had provided” is the tricky part of this AC for me. Broken down, it just means that the HC needed a more complex form of communication using the wampum then what had previously been the use of the wampum. Before the formation of the Haudenosaune Confederacy, we know from the passage that wampum is used to communicate based on different shades of it. Once the confederacy forms, wampum is used in communication based on color “The arrangements of the two colors also directed interpretation of the symbols.”, but also to create symbols which are more complex than just the color system.

What makes the wrong answers wrong?

A is unsupported. We only know from the passage that it was used as a currency after the arrival of Europeans, not before.

C is unsupported. Have no idea how Haudenosaune used wampum after the arrival of Europeans. For all we know they could have continued using wampum as communication and as a currency.

D. I think what went wrong here is that I didn’t understand the word “promulgating” which means “promote or make widely known (an idea or cause)” OR “put (a law or decree) into effect by official proclamation.” Now knowing this definition, I can say this is unsupported. Only know from passage that “Thus, the belts served to record, store, and make publicly available items of governmental business”. No evidence that when they announced new edicts and policies they made official announcements with belts or something of that nature. Despite this vocab mistake, could have ruled this AC out because it uses the word “primarily”. How am I supposed to know this is what they primarily did when there are so many uses talked about?

E. unsupported. Nothing in the passage talks about acquiring more shades of wampum.

How can I change my process to do better on these in the future?

Don’t necessarily need to understand all vocab, there will be other indicators in ACs to help you rule it out (for D it was strong language)

Don’t rule out ACs just because you are scared to break down the grammar…

What makes the correct answer correct?

D is supported. Patent holders can assert legal control through materials-transfer agreements or licensing agreements. “Some researchers fear that patenting biological materials will result in the patent holder's attempting or threatening to enjoin further research through a legal action for patent infringement. In other instances, a patent holder or the owner of biological materials may refuse to make such materials available to scientists conducting basic research unless a costly materials-transfer agreement or license agreement is undertaken.”

What makes the wrong answers wrong?

A is unsupported. In passage, I thought this sentence, “However, questions about the extent to which biotechnology patenting is hindering basic research have recently come to the fore, and the patenting and commercialization of biotechnology inventions are now the focus of increased scrutiny by scientists and policy makers.” served as support for AC A. However, it actually doesn’t support A because it doesn’t tell us anything about the likelihood of them to favor these restrictions. All we know from this sentence is that policymakers and academic researchers are questioning patenting in this space.

B is unsupported. We don’t know what most biotechnology patent holders think.

C is unsupported. The passage says, “Biotechnology researchers in academic institutions increasingly share this view because of their reliance on research funding that is in part conditional on the patentability of their results. However, questions about the extent to which biotechnology patenting is hindering basic research have recently come to the fore…”. However, this does not support that researchers are unable to get funding, just that they are in fear of losing access to funding because of potential hindrances from biotech companies.

E is unsupported. There’s just no information about this in passage.

How can I change my process to do better on these in the future?

Be sure that ideas match when looking for support. An idea in an AC being kinda similar to one in the passage is not supported. When doing this, ask yourself if you’re stretching to make these ideas fit, or if they actually match-up.

I haven't taken LSAT yet, but have liked using 7Sage! I completed core curriculum including all info from LR and RC. Once I was done "learning", I moved on to taking practice tests and drilling. Currently, I like to do one practice test a week, two days of RC then two days of LR (5 day study week). On the days where I focus on either LR or RC, I take a section and blind review. After that, I go over what I missed using my wrong answer journal, then drill the rest of the day on stuff I need to focus on. Hope this helps!