PT53.S1.Q8 - Doctor: In three separate studies, researchers

LadyLawyer

Hi guys. I'm having a hard time understanding why answer D is the correct answer. I understand that the question states what would weaken the Doctor's research study the most, but why is E not a good answer as well? If the study continued with100 more children older than infants, than wouldn't that also prove that this is a good way to weaken the argument?

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https://7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-53-section-1-question-08/

BlindReviewer

This is one of those annoying questions where it comes down to a single word. In this case, it's "several," which could mean anything like three children or 30 children. Either way, it's not a big enough portion of the 100 children studied to really tell us anything. It's a really good trap answer where they draw you in to make the assumption, with everything else about the answer choice correct except for the most crucial part -- you can't assume that "several" means you can conclude that the children in this study were older and more likely to develop nearsightedness.

It's a pretty tough question also because having a small sample size is a pretty unusual weakness for an argument, and it's hard to anticipate it. You kind of have to POE this one rather than having a good pre-phrase, because the argument seems pretty good at first glance.

LadyLawyer

Thank you!