LSAT 139 – Section 4 – Question 11

LSAT 139 - Section 4 - Question 11

June 2013

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Question QuickView	Type	Tags	Answer Choices	Curve	Question Difficulty	Psg/Game/S Difficulty	Explanation
PT139 S4 Q11	+LR	Flaw or descriptive weakening +Flaw Part v. Whole +PvW	A 12% 160 B 1% 154 C 9% 160 D 5% 158 E 72% 166	147 155 164	+Harder	148.326 +SubsectionMedium

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Plumb-Ace advertises that its plumbers are more qualified than plumbers at any other major plumbing firm in the region because Plumb-Ace plumbers must complete a very difficult certification process. Plumb-Ace plumbers may or may not be more qualified, but clearly the certification process is not very difficult, because nearly everyone who takes the written portion of the certification exam passes it very easily.

Summarize Argument

The author concludes that Plumb-Ace’s certification process is not difficult to pass because most people easily pass the written portion of the process.

Identify and Describe Flaw

This is a part-to-whole fallacy because, while the written portion of the certification process may be easy, the argument gives no information about the difficulty level of the rest of the process. In other words, it assumes that what is true of the part (the written portion) is also true of the whole (the entire certification process).

treats something that is necessary to make a certification process very difficult as if it were sufficient by itself to make the process very difficult

We’re not given a necessary condition for the certification process being difficult. The flaw is assuming that the written portion being easy is sufficient to prove that the entire certification process is easy.

takes for granted that plumbers are not qualified unless they complete some certification process

The argument makes no claim as to whether any plumbers are qualified or not; the conclusion is simply that the certification process is not difficult.

overlooks the possibility that plumbers at other firms in the region complete certification processes that are even easier than that completed by Plumb-Ace’s plumbers

This is irrelevant. The conclusion is simply that Plumb-Ace’s process is not difficult to pass. It doesn’t matter if other processes are even less difficult.

infers that a claim is false on the grounds that an inadequate argument has been given for that claim

The argument doesn’t cite Plumb-Ace’s lack of evidence for their claim, but instead cites evidence that the written portion of their process is easy to pass. The flaw is assuming that this speaks to the difficulty level of the entire process.

presumes that since one part of a whole lacks a certain characteristic, the whole must lack that characteristic as well

This describes the part-to-whole fallacy. The author only offers evidence that the written portion of the certification process is not difficult, yet claims that this is true of the entire process.

LSAT 139 – Section 4 – Question 11

LSAT 139 - Section 4 - Question 11

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LSAT PrepTest 139 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Reading Comprehension

Section 3 - Reading Comprehension

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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