Yay!! Congratulations!
Witcher analogy for the win!! Excellent post, thank you very much for taking the time to write this.
Hey Andrew,
So excellent to hear about a fellow classical musician! I have two degrees in historical voice and I was recently thinking about writing a diversity statement myself. However, my personal statement states in depth why I am a non-traditional and diverse applicant based on my musical identity. I decided that a diversity statement would be a little redundant since I described why I wanted to go to law school based on my past musical experiences.
Hope this helps.
I highly recommend the 7sage consulting. I'm not trying to people please or anything, I just think they do great work and are good listeners about your personal story and application. Message me for any further questions!
Excellent! You are very welcome.
So this swans conversation is pretty confusing I think. I don't get it. I'm not going to address it. Main conclusion questions test your ability to understand an argument and your ability to get at why the author is even saying anything. For this question, why did the statistician say anything at all? In plain English, the author says that the two studies don't test enough people when disorder Y affects 0.2 percent of the population. So the studies are bad, flawed, unsound.
I think knowing indicator words are important, but don't get so caught up in indicator words that you don't understand why the author is telling you something. The statistician here is trying to tell the reader that the studies are flawed.
Hey, I'll try to help. I think this is a great question, by the way. You are right, this is a tricky main point question because to me, there are no conclusion indicators that help guide the way to the correct answer. It's okay though. There are other tools that can help you. When I'm stuck on a main conclusion question, it could be question one or question 25, it doesn't matter, I look for the author's tone and opinion. Does the author include any descriptive words that might show their position on the topic? What opinions does the author offer?
For this question, our author definitely has some opinions. Paraphrasing, the author says that even with sophisticated technology, scientists are not finding any evidence of extraterrestrial life. None at all. The author then says that there is no reason for why scientists will find extraterrestrial life in the future because science hasn't found extraterrestrial life before. So finding extraterrestrial life will remain a dream only.
Two phrases really jumped out to me. Because there is NO REASON for why scientists will find extraterrestrial life in the future, finding extraterrestrial life will remain A DREAM only.
These are strong claims with lots of tone and opinion. I tried them in two different ways. Finding the conclusion can often depend on the order of the premise to the conclusion. What makes sense to you? Because finding extraterrestrial life will remain a dream only, there is no reason for why scientists will find extraterrestrial life? No.
What about the other way? The premise of having no reason for why scientists will find extraterrestrial life in the future supports the idea that extraterrestrial life will remain a dream only.
This is also a great question because the LSAT is being tricky and mean, and the test writers did not give us this exact or even a close paraphrase in the answer choices. This is why tone is so important. When the LSAT tries to throw a curve ball and doesn't give you the perfect answer choice, you can be a flexible test taker and find the best answer anyway.
So, answers A and C. I think answers A and C are very different. Be careful here. High scorers usually can eventually see the difference between similar answer choices. This is a critical skill on the LSAT in my opinion. Answer A says something that the author never stated. What if there were no reasons to BELIEVE that life exists on other planets? Sure, lots of people could say that there is no reason to believe life exists on other planets, but I don't think the author is arguing for this claim. If you are still confused, take the final sentence of the stimulus out. Put AC A in. Does it make sense? Not really. This answer doesn't connect anything about FINDING extraterrestrial life.
I think AC C is better because it connects with the premise about that there is no reason for why scientists will find extraterrestrial life in the future. Because there is no reason for why scientists will find extraterrestrial life in the future, scientists probably won't find extraterrestrial life and finding extraterrestrial life will remain a dream only.
In summary: when you are confused on a main point question, look for the author's tone and opinion. This has helped me in the past. I hope this analysis helps! Let me know if you have any further questions.
Manhattan prep explanations are also very useful for the earlier tests that don't have explanations on 7sage.
https://www.manhattanprep.com/lsat/forums/q19-fares-on-the-city-run-t1005.html
This answer is incorrect because it weakens the argument as I described. This question is a weaken EXCEPT question, so therefore, four answers weaken or barely weaken, and one answer does not weaken.
I have no idea if the city councillors are trying to help taxpayers.
Look at the rest of AC C. If all the city counselors agree that TAX-EXEMPT residents should be able to take advantage of the city-run services, then increasing bus fares would disadvantage those city residents whose low incomes make them exempt from city taxes. There is referential language in this AC.
I don't think C weakens the argument if low-income individuals aren't taxpayers. This AC addresses that gap. Even if low-income individuals aren't taxpayers, that's okay. All the city counselors agree that tax-exempt residents should be able to take advantage of city-run services. With that, if tax-exempt residents would be less likely or unable to take advantage of the city-run services, then this is a problem, and maybe raising the bus fares isn't the best option.
Improper appeal to authority: June 2007 test section 2 question 17. We don't know if the computer experts really have any idea about what they are talking about. This flaw isn't outside of the computer experts' authority so to speak, but the flaw is that the argument accepts the computer experts' statements and makes a broad conclusion that might not be true if the computer experts's claims are untrue.
20.4.20. More of a classic appeal to authority than the other example.
Hope this helps!
Hey, I'll take a stab at this. I think this is a tough question and good on you for continuing to work at this question until you understand it!
This is how I understand the stimulus:
The city-run buses in Greenville are subsidized by tax revenues. Some people outside of Greenville also use these buses but don't pay taxes in Greenville. Some city councillors don't like this. The city councillors argue that the buses should be used primarily by Greenville residents. So the bus fares should be raised because the Greenville buses are not being used primarily by Greenville residents.
Here's my reasoning for the ACs:
A. This weakens. If many businesses will leave if the bus fares increase, this sounds pretty bad to me. I would think that the city councillors don't want businesses to leave the area.
B. If increasing the bus fare means that more people will drive and create air pollution and more money will be needed to clean the streets, this also sounds like a bad consequence of the raised bus fares!
C. This answer brings in a new situation. Break it apart. I reads backwards to me, so I'm going to flip it. If all city counselors agree that low income residents exempt from city taxes should be able to take advantage of of city-run services (the bus service), then increasing the bus fares would disadvantage those residents. This seems like another bad consequence to me. If low-income and city-tax exempt residents can't use or are less likely the bus service that the city counselors want Greenville residents to primarily use, then the weakens that the city counselors should raise the bus fare.
D. Careful here! I didn't realize that increasing local taxes has NOTHING to do with raising bus fares. My bad. This answer does not affect the argument.
E. If everyone in Greenville who earns wages above the nationally mandated minimum pays the city wage tax, then raising the bus fare would not benefit Greenville residents who pay taxes.
Does this make sense? Ask more questions if you need help.
Hi all,
Lots of schools offer public interest scholarships. I would like to do public interest work after law school, but I don't have a lot of a lot of experience in anything that falls under the vague umbrella of public interest. Could someone elaborate on how they added more public interest experience to their resume if they were in a similar position? Any and all advice is appreciated!
Awesome video to watch after doing this passage as part of my warmup today!
Thank you so much for doing this! Really enjoyed talking with you.
Asking questions is how we learn. Keep posting them. I would put your questions in the main discussion area if they are not getting answered within a week or so. I personally don't check the #help area often, I probably should, but it seems the 7sage community talks more frequently on the main discussion boards. Good on you to ask this.
I love this community. Completely missed preponderance like lots of people here and the roast was so fun to read.
This is exactly what I need to do. Thank you for this.
Joy's a very cool lady in my opinion.
Therapy can be great. I wasn't sleeping well for a solid year as well before really naming and facing my LSAT-related fears. When that wave of anxiety is trying to crush me, I now ask myself why I am feeling this emotion. Name it. Mine usually is that I don't feel smart enough or I run through a list of hypotheticals, the what ifs. I've taught myself to shut down the hypotheticals. They are noise and make me lose focus. Meditation and yoga can help too. I don't think you or anyone should throw in the towel, however. Talking to an experienced tutor who has faced test anxiety themselves can really helpful too, in my opinion. I hope this helps.
Take it when you are ready, not when you feel like your scores are within a range. Take a test so you know where you stand with the test. Also, maybe get a tutor. I studied for a solid year without a tutor, hit a plateau, and I'm finally improving again and seeing my mistakes. Sometimes tutors have a way of helping you see something on the page you might consistently miss. Have a few tests within a couple points of your target score, whatever that may be. October is okay to apply with I personally believe, but that means October is your final test before submitting applications early unless you delay and test again. I've delayed two cycles myself. It happens and life goes on too.
Try your LSAC username and password in ProctorU. I did this last year and I was able to register early for the August flex.
When this happens to me I get a large Dairy Queen blizzard, cry, and then go do a really thorough blind review. Keep going! It's a learnable test even when it feels like it isn't or never will be.
To my knowledge, the account info in ProctorU is the same username and password as your LSAC account. I just signed up for my date and time myself.
Powerful.