Critique ·Author thinks "outcomes analysis" is misguided
I take it that "outcomes analysis" is Zirkel's social science technique. I predict that the next paragraph will tell us why the author thinks that's misguided.
Ah, this makes sense. The cases are too different: quality of evidence; attitude of judge; types of cases; etc. For "outcome analysis" to be predictively useful, a major assumption is that the cases are relevantly similar.
Researcher reads opinions to figure out which variables the judge thought was important in deciding the case. It then uses statistical methods to figure out the causal impact of those variables.
Researcher reads transcripts to figure out which variables and kinds of evidence contributed to the verdict. Presumably the researchers also use statistical tools to figure out causal impact.
Benefit ·These methods can help parties assess outcome of a potential case
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Problem-analysis
18.
The information in the passage ████████ ████ ██████████ ███ ██████ ███ ██████████████ █████ ███████ ███ ██████████ ████████ ██ ████████ ████████ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ██
Question Type
RC analogy
The author mentions that these plaintiffs believe in their cause and think that they’ll win, despite the evidence that success is unlikely. Let’s look for an answer that involves someone who decides to do something despite knowing that the chances of success by doing that thing are low.
This is the most analogous. The athletes in (A) use the training techniques despite knowing that they’re probably not effective, just as some plaintiffs bring lawsuits despite knowing that the lawsuits likely won’t succeed.
This isn’t analogous, because the plaintiffs described aren’t bringing many cases. They’re bringing their own cases based on their own legal cause.
c
candidates for public ██████ ███ ███ ████ ██████████ ██ ██████ █ █████████ █████████ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ████████
This isn’t analogous, because it doesn’t involve knowledge of a low chance of success. You might be tempted by (C) because we’re told the plaintiffs believe in their cause. But we have no reason to think the plaintiffs are more interested in making some point related to their cause than in winning their case.
This isn’t analogous, because it doesn’t involve knowledge of a low chance of success.
e
purchasers of a █████████ ██████ ███████ ███ ████████ ███ ████████ █ ████████████ ███████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███████ ██ ██████
Here, the purchasers classify a ticket purchase as a contribution based on the low chance of winning. But this isn’t analogous, because the plaintiffs aren’t classifying their own case in a certain way based on the low chance of success. They’re deciding to pursue the case. (E) would be analogous if it were about the people who purchase a ticket despite knowing the low chance of winning.
Difficulty
73% of people who answer get this correct
This is a difficult question.
It is slightly harder than the average question in this passage.
CURVE
Score of students with a 50% chance of getting this right
25%142
155
75%168
Analysis
RC analogy
Critique or debate
Law
Problem-analysis
Answer Popularity
PopularityAvg. score
a
73%
169
b
5%
162
c
10%
165
d
7%
163
e
5%
161
Question history
You don't have any history with this question.. yet!
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