PT76.S2.Q18 - an article claims that many medical patients

juneby01

Can someone please explain in a real simple way I read the explanation but I just don't get it with these types of questions
Thank you in advance
https://7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-76-section-2-question-18/

blah170blah

Oh man, this question is insanely tough. I remember it taking me an hour to understand what was going on when I first reviewed this question.

So this is a really weird argument by analogy. The necessary assumption then needs to be one that doesn't say "HOLD UP... these 2 cases actually aren't analogous." The crux of the analogy is this: rumors affect reports of remembering details.

If in fact rumors don't affect the way people remember details in the case of the medical patients, then this analogy cannot hold. (B) is the only answer choice that even comes close to talking about a relationship between rumors and remembering things. (B) is saying that, if patients don't report changes, it affects the way medical staff remember that event -- i.e. they don't.

For the record, I got to (B) the second time around through POE. (A), (C), (D), and (E) have glaring problems leaving me with (B), an answer choice I don't really understand that well BUT has the elements of the assumption I'm looking for.

desire2learn

Well explained by @"blah170blah". I just did this PT and missed this question because I did not understand what they were getting at. The key is the fact that the reasoning appeals to analogy so the situations must be similar (i.e. analogous). Thus since the given situation (babies) is affected by selective/faulty memory, it is necessary that the medical prediction situation be affected by it as well (otherwise they would not be analogous).

desire2learn

I would also say that this is not "typical" of this question type (necessary assumption). NA questions often have a little different flavor to them because the key piece does not appeal to analogy. Thus, this is particularly difficult if you are looking for the "typical" NA type of answer.

juneby01

Thank you

LSAT04164

Did anyone find this PT harder than others (compared to other new PTs)? My score was way lower than what I am averaging and we are so close to test day.

legal_name

@LSATLSAT12points Surprisingly my score went up on this PT although I did unusually worse on the RC section. Might be nerves?

This question considers the idea of being more alert to a problem and thus being more likely to recognize it when it is prevalent. I'd actually recommend re-visiting PT 23, Section 2, Question 16. It hinges on a similar idea. I remember using POE to eliminate answer choices C, D, and E immediately. C and D felt fairly easy to eliminate and E weakened.
When left to answer choices A and B it's important to remember that a necessary assumption has to be accepted exactly as worded. I remember looking at A and toyed with replacing "soon" with "in the next decade". It immediately lost its appeal and I selected B. A quick negation test on B and I felt more secure in that answer. With harder questions, I've realized your best friend really is POE and you should trust the process.