PT85.S3.Q21 - In an experiment, some volunteers were assigned

Nabintou-1

Hi Hello,
Can someone explain this question? As in, the correct ans. choice. I'm having a realllly hard time convincing myself that it's "necessary". #help

Admin note: edited title

msk12345

You're talking about the weight-training one, right? I'll go through both ways: why E is right and why A-D are wrong.

Why E is right:

Premise: You have two groups, A and B. Group A is taking an aerobics class (I want to say soul-cycle but soul-cycle has weights) and B is taking a weights class (not sure what this would be, but I'm imaging 25 people doing bench presses while getting yelled at by a Russian man). Then, you give them a really really hard math question (like 10 * 5). After that problem, the soul-cycle without the weights group is way less stressed that the Russian weights group.

Conclusion: This experiment provides strong evidence that aerobic exercise helps the body handle stress.

So, what do you need? Like in all of these questions, there is an unstated assumption. Just because somebody takes soulcycle and somebody takes a Russian man weights class, does that mean that the person taking soulcycle is getting more cardio? I lift weights and even on the days I lift weights I still do cardio (I'm a badass, I know). The assumption is that the people in Group A are getting more cardio in Group B. It could be a super lame cardio class (like hot yoga. How that is different from sitting in a sauna is beyond me.)

Anyway, that's exactly what Answer Choice E picks up on. It even says outside the class which it didn't have to, that's just the LSAT being nice.

You can also use the negation trick on this. If the people in the Russian weights class were getting more cardio then the whole thing falls apart.

Why A-D are stupendously, horrifically, and unforgivably wrong:

A: Three months is enough time to fully benefit from cardio? Who cares? Like your heart rate and six packs abs and stuff? It's probably not enough time. Besides that's wayyyyy too broad; we're talking about a psychological response to stress.

B: Who cares if soulcycle people lifted weights? They're still getting cardio. That doesn't detract from anything. This is one of those answer choices they put in there to just make you read and to get people who didn't understand which group was which, I think.

C: Getting more than before? Super doesn't matter.

D : Less difficult to do 5 * 10? We're not talking about difficulty, we're talking about stress. I guess if you choose this you're thinking less difficult = less stressful. But that would actually weaken the argument. They didn't find it as stressful because they're better at math that the people taking the Russian weights class, not because cardio improves our psychological response to stress (which kind of makes sense since those people are spending money on a weights class? Like what is that? Just do some push-ups for free.)

Nabintou-1

THANK YOU SO MUCH @msk12345 no idea why this q was tripping me up so bad. REALLY helpful.