LSAT 148 – Section 1 – Question 15

LSAT 148 - Section 1 - Question 15

December 2016

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT148 S1 Q15
+LR
Point at issue: disagree +Disagr
Value Judgment +ValJudg
A
1%
155
B
1%
150
C
91%
163
D
4%
155
E
2%
156
129
139
149
 +Easier 142.771 +SubsectionEasier

Sanchez: The sixteen new computers that the school purchased were not as expensive as many people assume. So it isn’t true that too much was spent on computers.

Merriweather: It isn’t that the school paid more for each computer than it was worth, but that the computers that were purchased were much more elaborate than they needed to be.

Speaker 1 Summary
Sanchez says that the school did not spend too much money on some new computers. How do we know? Because the computers weren’t actually as expensive as many people believe. According to Sanchez, this makes their cost reasonable.

Speaker 2 Summary
Merriweather’s implied conclusion is that the school did spend too much on computers, even though they only paid what the computers were worth. How can this be? Because the school bought fancier computers than they needed, thus ultimately still overspending.

Objective
We want to find a point of disagreement. Sanchez and Merriweather disagree about whether the school spend too much on the new computers.

A
needed sixteen new computers
Like (B), neither speaker expresses an opinion about this. Whether or not the school needed new computers in the first place is not discusses by either Sanchez or Merriweather.
B
purchased more computers than it should have
Like (A), neither Sanchez nor Merriweather talks about this. The question of how many computers the school actually needed just doesn’t come up, so we can’t say either speaker states an opinion.
C
spent more in purchasing the sixteen computers than it should have
Sanchez disagrees and Merriweather agrees, so this is the point of disagreement. Sanchez explicitly states that the school did not overspend on the computers. Merriweather explains that the computers were fancier than necessary, thus implying that the school did spend too much.
D
paid more for each computer than it was worth
Both speakers disagree with this statement, meaning they are in agreement with one another. Sanchez takes the position that the school didn’t pay too much, and even Merriweather concedes that the school paid what each computer was worth.
E
has been harshly criticized for purchasing the sixteen computers
Neither Sanchez nor Merriweather discusses whether and how much people have criticized the school for this purchase, so we cannot say that either speaker has an opinion.

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LSAT PrepTest 148 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Reading Comprehension

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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