LSAT 126 – Section 3 – Question 09

LSAT 126 - Section 3 - Question 09

October 2008

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT126 S3 Q09
+LR
Weaken +Weak
Causal Reasoning +CausR
Net Effect +NetEff
A
5%
153
B
2%
151
C
5%
157
D
87%
164
E
2%
155
139
147
154
 +Medium 144.364 +SubsectionEasier

Among people who have a history of chronic trouble falling asleep, some rely only on sleeping pills to help them fall asleep, and others practice behavior modification techniques and do not take sleeping pills. Those who rely only on behavior modification fall asleep more quickly than do those who rely only on sleeping pills, so behavior modification is more effective than are sleeping pills in helping people to fall asleep.

Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author hypothesizes that behavior modification techniques are more effective than sleeping pills for helping people fall asleep. She bases this on the observation that, among people who chronically struggle to fall asleep, people who use behavior modification techniques fall asleep quicker than people who use sleeping pills.

Notable Assumptions
Based on relative correlations between the techniques (behavior modifications, sleep pills) and falling asleep, the author hypothesizes that one technique is more effective than the other. This means the author assumes that all other variables—e.g. severity of insomnia, mental health, medical status—are constant between the two groups of people who chronically struggle to fall asleep.

A
People who do not take sleeping pills spend at least as many total hours asleep each night as do the people who take sleeping pills.
We don’t care how long people stay asleep for. We’re interested in how easily they fall asleep, and whether any conclusions about different techniques can be drawn from the author’s data.
B
Most people who have trouble falling asleep and who use behavior modification techniques fall asleep more slowly than do most people who have no trouble falling asleep.
We’re not comparing against people who don’t have trouble falling asleep. Of course those people have an easier time.
C
Many people who use only behavior modification techniques to help them fall asleep have never used sleeping pills.
It doesn’t matter if these people have ever tried sleeping pills. We only care about the relative efficacy of the two techniques.
D
The people who are the most likely to take sleeping pills rather than practice behavior modification techniques are those who have previously had the most trouble falling asleep.
The two groups in question aren’t in all respects equal. People who use sleeping pills have had more difficulty falling asleep than people who use behavior modification techniques. Thus, no conclusion can be drawn about the efficacy of the techniques.
E
The people who are the most likely to practice behavior modification techniques rather than take sleeping pills are those who prefer not to use drugs if other treatments are available.
This isn’t a significant difference between the groups. Maybe people using behavior modification techniques didn’t want to use sleeping pills. But that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t have derived the same benefit from those pills as from the behavior modification techniques.

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LSAT PrepTest 126 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Reading Comprehension

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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