PT35.S4.Q22 - Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease

Giant Panda

Hi guys,

Please help if you can. The question is filled with technical terms, which I know that I should just replace it. But then, the answer choices put in more of those terms and I literally felt like my brain just had blown up after doing this one single question.

But in any case, I have some questions. Please help and it may help to strengthen your ability too because the question I guess is not an easy one.

1) When it comes to this kind of questions, what is your approach in terms of understanding what this question is saying?

2) When it comes to the answer choices, with some fuzzy knowledge of what had just happened, how do you choice the correct one? For example, please take a look at answer choice C. The state of my brain was already blown up after reading and analyzing the stimulus and this term "cerebrospinal fluid" gets throw in. Naturally I picked it with the hope that JY will say in the video "we don't know that". I mean where did the stimulus say about fluids? Isn't it about some stuff attacking some other stuff.

3) How do you understand answer choice A?
In the end of all the elimination, I have A & C left. And I finally eliminated A, the correct answer. My brain process went like the following:

It says "Gamma interferon stops white blood cells from producing myelin-destroying compounds". But wait, white blood cell produce myelin? What is this dash doing here? What does destroying compounds mean? Isn't the problem that white blood cell is killing the myelin instead of producing it? Does Gamma stop white blood cell? All I know is that Gamma doesn't work.

In the end, I am left with an answer choice A that I could hardly understand and answer choice C with a term" spinal fluid". So I guessed for C.

Please let me know how you would approach the problem and how your mind works when you are reading this kind of passage which is filled with technical terms and your approach to answer choice A & C.

Thanks in advance.

Admin note: edited title
https://7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-35-section-4-question-22/

mzthaidumpling

Firstly, I think you might be going about it the wrong way. There isn't an argument here, so you don't have to bomb your brain in trying to understand everything lol. You are not comparing arguments.

A bunch of statements are introduced, accept what is given and make sense of it, and your task is to find anything in the AC that would contradict the stuff given. Be open here. Usually the answer will just contradict one sentence. For some reason, it is usually at a place that is not loaded with heavy information. You don't have to put difficult ideas together. If I say, “Salami is the most delicious food ever” and “No food is as delicious as salami, but some food are as delicious”, these two statements are INCOMPATIBLE.

Incompatible DOES NOT mean stuff that doesn't really seem to be addressed and appears to be random (cerebrospinal fluid). The least compatible answer will be one that CONTRADICTS the argument. Therefore, when you see random stuff, they are actually COMPATIBLE.

Incompatible questions typically throw in a bunch of irrelevant stuff in the AC to throw you off because they seem incompatible and random, but that's actually what makes them compatible.

For example,

Hotdogs are awesome and delicious. However, small puppies are mean and nasty.

These two statements are COMPATIBLE, because they are addressing two different things. They are so different that they cannot contradict each other. They can both be true! Fortunately, in these types of questions, there will be at least one of these trap answers in the AC and they are easy to spot and eliminate. C is one of those randoms! If it wasn't talked about, it isn't incompatible with anything.

1) I see how each sentence relates to one another (structure) in simple terms and what is happening instead of trying to consume all the details. Make note of introductions to new terms and actions. Also, you should always at least have a general understanding of the stimulus within the first read before seeing the AC. Re-read if you have to. This time, seeing the structure and how they relate. If not, it would be a massive waste of time to match AC to stimulus. It should not feel "fuzzy". Small details are usually not important.

MSS
Definition given (relates to MSS) action
MSS can now be treated (detail related to MSS)
Suspect MSS is triggered by viral infections. New element: Viral infections.
Test Gamma Interferon (new element)
Definition of Gamma Interferon and action (relates to Gamma Interferon)
Result: Bad

I pay attention from "so in 1984" to "dramatically worse" because the conclusion is always important (patients getting worse). "So" usually introduces something important. Also, you can bank on some stuff being fluff because the question is so long. Knowing that some stuff are fluff, which parts would you take out if you had to take out one? That's usually it. I don't really know how to explain how to anticipate these. It's usually the statements that explain something further, doesn't introduce a new element, and isn't the conclusion. "Medical science now has a drug.." They just don't really fit into the structure of anything else in the stimulus and are additional details. Anticipating fluff comes with practice.

Often the conclusion in LR questions say, "So because of X, then Y (conclusion)". So I think in this format.

General Argument:
Stimulus: X, X, and X happened. Conclusion: So because of [reiteration of X], Z is the result.

We don't see that exact format here, but [reiteration of X] is the interferon, because X, X, and X led to the interferon being investigated. Basically, the stuff right after "So.." is usually important, conclusions are important, and the idea that leads right up to the conclusion is important. Usually appears at the end.

I actually had to reread A to understand it because I glossed over it. However, A is suspect in tough questions because it is often the right answer since it is easy to dismiss in a state of confusion and students are stuck wasting time waffling between other AC. I got to A from process of elimination. B, D, and E are out of scope. (If it’s out of scope, then it cannot be contradictory because it is a bunch of mumbo jumbo). Then, since A is left, I tried to find something in the stimulus that would be incompatible with A. A isn't an airtight answer, but if gamma interferons stop myelin sheath destroying compounds, then it seems to contradict the result we would expect. We know that MS is white blood cells attacking the myelin sheath, so why would something that eliminate this be a bad thing? There wasn't anything else in the stimulus to put against A except the MS thing anyway.

PS. PT 28 question 11 Sharks is a good example of this type of question.

Hope that makes sense

BlindReviewer

This was a rough question just because of the terminology. I think the biggest hurdle is just understanding what the stimulus is saying. In this case, I was particularly confused about what they meant by "testing" the gamma thing. But basically, today we know MS is caused by the autoimmune system with white blood cells. Before, scientists thought it might be caused by viral infections, so they tested the gamma antiviral thing to see if it would reduce the frequency/severity of MS.

The question stem is asking which one is incompatible, which is another way of saying Must Be False. Everything else could be true, so it may or may not have anything to do with the information/principles that are given to us. If you ask yourself, "I don't know?" after one of the answer choices, then it's compatible. If you say, "No that can't be true" then that's going to be the right answer.

A is right because there's no way gamma whatever stopped the white blood cells from producing myelin-destroying compounds -- if it did, then it would have been an effective treatment of MS.

I do agree that C is probably the second best answer because it seems vaguely relevant. But if the gamma compound is associated with MS, that doesn't tell us anything about whether or not the gamma compound would make MS any better or worse. It's already present when MS happens, so testing it on a patient would at best have no effect. We just don't know, and this isn't entirely contradictory of the evidence given in the stimulus like A is.