LSAT 139 – Section 4 – Question 24

LSAT 139 - Section 4 - Question 24

June 2013

You need a full course to see this video. Enroll now and get started in less than a minute.

Request new explanation

Target time: 0:54

This is question data from the 7Sage LSAT Scorer. You can score your LSATs, track your results, and analyze your performance with pretty charts and vital statistics - all with a Free Account ← sign up in less than 10 seconds

Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT139 S4 Q24
+LR
Main conclusion or main point +MC
Causal Reasoning +CausR
A
1%
156
B
11%
159
C
1%
155
D
86%
166
E
1%
155
140
149
157
 +Medium 148.326 +SubsectionMedium

Video of JY doing this

You need a full course to see this video. Enroll now and get started in less than a minute.

Parents who consistently laud their children for every attempt to accomplish something, whether successful or not, actually erode the youngsters’ sense of self-esteem. Children require commendation for their achievements, but if uniformly praised for both what they have accomplished and what they have merely attempted, they will eventually discount all words of commendation. In effect, such children never hear any praise at all.

Summarize Argument: Causal Explanation
Parents who always praise their children for every effort, whether successful or not, can actually hurt their children’s self-esteem. If parents praise their kids for both what they achieve and what they just try, the kids will start to ignore all praise. In the end, it’s like they don’t hear any praise at all.

Identify Conclusion
Parents who constantly praise their children for every effort, whether it succeeds or not, actually harm their children’s self-esteem.

A
Parents should praise their children for their achievements.
The stimulus doesn’t make this argument. It talks about the harmful effects of overpraising kids but doesn’t express an opinion on whether parents should praise their kids for achievements. Moreover, if anything, the passage suggests that parents should praise less.
B
Children whose actions are praised undeservedly eventually learn to discount all words of praise.
This is a premise. The stimulus explains that when kids get too much praise, they start to ignore it. This claim supports the main conclusion that overpraising kids can actually hurt their self-esteem. Since this claim supports the argument, it isn’t the main conclusion.
C
Parents need to distinguish between their own expectations for their children and what their children are actually capable of accomplishing.
The stimulus doesn’t make this claim. It doesn’t tell parents what they should or shouldn’t do. It simply states that a certain behavior can lead to an unwanted outcome. If anything, the passage merely suggests that parents should praise their children less.
D
Children’s self-esteem will suffer if their parents uniformly praise their attempts to accomplish things regardless of their success or failure.
This accurately captures the stimulus’s main conclusion. The stimulus argues that parents who consistently laud or “uniformly praise” their children’s attempts to accomplish something will eventually harm (or “erode”) their children’s self-esteem, causing it to “suffer.”
E
Children will develop low self-esteem if their parents do not praise them when they succeed.
The stimulus does not make this claim. It argues that too much praise harms children's self-esteem, not that too little praise causes low self-esteem. Also, the passage says too much praise lowers self-esteem but does not necessarily mean it leads to "low" self-esteem.

Take PrepTest

Review Results

LSAT PrepTest 139 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Reading Comprehension

Section 3 - Reading Comprehension

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

Get full LSAT course

Leave a Reply