PT20.S1.Q15 - a report of a government survey

Henry An

Hi all,

I have a question on answer choice C.
I understand the flaw of the survey: how it fails to distinguish the residents who dropped out in its own schools and those who dropped out of schools from somewhere else. But, after contemplating the answer choices, I am reluctant to accept answer choice C as the correct answer (the part where it says: those who had received their schooling elsewhere).

To my understanding, if you "received your schooling elsewhere," this meant that you did NOT dropout. To "receive something" would be to finish in the transaction of getting that something. So, answer choice C would be pointing out a flaw of distinguishing that was incorrect. If the answer choice had said having "attended (which opens up the possibility of dropping out" instead of "received," then I would have no problem with the answer choice.

Any take on this? If my understanding of "received schooling" is incorrect, any explanation (or examples that can show the usage of the word/phrase) would be great!

https://7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-20-section-1-question-15/

JustDoIt

Hi!

So I actually did not read it that way. To me, “received” doesn’t necessarily imply “completed.” I would argue that you can still receive an education and dropout, even if you only take one class then leave. You were the beneficiary (aka the receiver) of an education, in at least some sense, before you dropped out. But that doesn’t mean that you completed your education, so you can technically receive an education and drop out. Receiving somewhat of an education doesn’t preclude you from dropping out. So even if I received an education somewhere else, I can still dropout. The two, in my opinion, are not mutually exclusive.

I think this is pretty hard because traditionally, we refer to “receiving an education” as synonymous to receiving a diploma or degree. I have certainly learned in the pass that many things I have assumed to be true and necessarily so, and I think that is the case here.

Hope this helps!

Henry An

@JustDoIt Thanks for your reply! I guess I wrongly assumed that receiving schooling implied finishing it. This really helped thanks!

BinghamtonDave

I think you and I had mirror problems with this question. I actually did not understand the flaw. I looked at the flaw here as two folded: it concludes drop out rate on the basis of survey data that indicated high school graduates. This seems to me to be two different points of comparison that might leave room for error. The second flaw I read here was that older than 19 means just that: an hour into your 19th birthday. Isn't it possible to be in high school on your 19th birthday? Meaning you would answer "no" to the graduate question and be counted in the dropout tally. As an aside, in high school, I had a staph infection the spring of my senior year. It was a terrible experience that forced me to take summer school and the fall semester after my senior year: making me a 19 year old senior in high school. It seems the way they have delineated the boundaries of this study would pose similar problems: categorizing possible seniors or super-seniors (like me) as drop outs. This would seem to me to inflate the numbers that allow us to derive our conclusion.

Instead, they went for a different variation on what the argument ignored. (C) claims that the argument ignores the fact that of the people that answered the survey question, some of which actually moved into the city and therefore their dropout number is attributed to another school district. This is not the most satisfying answer to the flaw question here but nevertheless, it appears to be the best.

Now, your question on the usage of the term "received their schooling." I am inclined to say that to "receive" something does not at all imply a completion of a specific entire transaction. The most applicable definition of receive in my estimation means: to take into one's possession. I think for your view of (C) to work, we would have to assume that "schooling" meant the completion of 12th grade with a diploma. It is helpful to carry the words LSAC gives to us in the beginning of the LR sections, it can be difficult, I know, but those words are: "You should not make assumptions that are by commonsense standards implausible, superfluous, or incompatible with the passage." To "receive schooling" simply cannot be, in my estimation, counted as attaining a highly specific amount of schooling. It is in the shedding of the assumptions we carry with terms, where we can really get to the core of many LR problems.

David received schooling on how to change a car's oil.
Michelle received schooling on how to ferment wine.
Brendan received schooling in France.

We know straight forward that in no way do these examples mean the completion of 12th grade, but do they even mean the completion of the task set before the names above? I'm not sure. But I'm not sure enough to know that I cannot conclude yes.

I hope this helps, I found this question to be a pain, and wasn't really happy with (C).
David

Working definition: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/receive