LSAT 16 – Section 2 – Question 15

LSAT 16 - Section 2 - Question 15

September 1995

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT16 S2 Q15
+LR
Resolve reconcile or explain +RRE
A
1%
168
B
0%
165
C
0%
154
D
2%
158
E
96%
167
120
121
136
 +Easiest 146.82 +SubsectionMedium

This is a Resolve, Reconcile, and Explain Question. We know this because of the question stem, which includes: “...does most to help resolve the discrepancy...” and then gives us exactly what we need to be addressing in the stimulus, which has something to do with predicting the completion of a job. Before we try and understand what that means, we should read the stimulus.

RRE questions will require an explanation of a conflicting set of facts (often 2). Our correct answer choice, when plugged back into the stimulus, will resolve the discrepancy by explaining how the two sides of the apparent conflicting issues actually make sense together. The correct answer will use both sides, though not necessarily explicitly, to explain the conflict. Often, the test will entice you to make naive assumptions about the conflict - don’t fall for it! Your approach should fall under the “this seems wrong because of xyz, but I can think of a few reasons it could work.”

Our first sentence says that officials predicted repaving roads would take municipal road pavers 6 months to complete. They thought it would take a private contractor the same amount of time. However, a private contractor finished in 28 days. Wow - big overestimation by the municipal officials! Now the stem makes a lot more sense.

What could possibly account for this massive difference? A number of things! Perhaps private contractors are able to set their hours and therefore can work at night when roads are less busy, and municipal road pavers are not able to. Maybe the private contractor has a larger crew than the municipality does.

Answer Choice (A) This does not address the predicted vs the actual time it took to complete the project. We need more for this to work. This is out.

Answer Choice (B) This addresses both private contractors and municipal crew. If we were to say that municipal workers can only work 5 days and private contractors set their own hours and can/do work more hours per week than municipals, then this would be great. Alas, it does not. This is out.

Answer Choice (C) This also does not address the difference between the estimated time for completion and the actual time of completion for private contractors.

Answer Choice (D) This actually deepens the issue. If the municipal crew is larger, wouldn’t they work faster? This is out.

Correct Answer Choice (E) This is good - they’re saying municipal workers have a longer process than private contractors and that’s why it takes them longer. The municipal official's estimation of how long it would take the municipal workers could be correct, but assuming the work process is the same for private contractors would inevitably lead them to estimate the wrong amount of time it would take the contractors to finish.

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LSAT PrepTest 16 Explanations

Section 1 - Logic Games

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Reading Comprehension

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