Q1 - Crimes in which handguns

[charleneroche]

Hi can someone explain why the correct answer choice is a as opposed to c?
Thanks

[noah]

In this match the flaw question we have a stimulus that can be seen as this:

H is more likely to lead to D.
But, most of the time H doesn't lead to D.
Therefore, no need to do anything special about H.

The flaw is that we still might want to worry about handguns leading to death even if 50%+ of handgun crimes don't lead to death (i.e. wouldn't 45% be a cause for alarm?!).

Let's do this real time:

(A) has:

1. Overweight more likely to lead to heart disease.
2. But, most overweight don't get heart disease.
3. Therefore, no need to do anything special about overweight.

That's a good match! I'd be a bit torn at this point about whether to go through the rest of the answer choices since it's a bit of a time-consuming process, perhaps opting for putting an asterisk next to the question and returning if I have time. But, at the same time, it's usually easy to be accurate with these if you invest the time--and this is #1, so it should be relatively easy--so here goes:

(B) 1. Many swim daily to stay fit.

Hunh? Seems like a mismatch. Maybe it's just background? Let's confirm:

2. Swim daily increase risk of ear infection.

Mismatch! "increase their risk" is not a match for "majority."

(C) 1. Most Dr.s say balanced diet.

Hmm, fishy. Where's the "more likely"?

2. Many find non-traditional diet is OK.

Mismatch. "Many" is not a match for "majority"

(D) 1. rich food bad for most people.
2. many reluctant.

Eliminate. "Many" is not a match for "majority."

(E) 1. Many health problems from diet.

Eliminate. "Many" is not a match for "more likely."

[WaltGrace1983]

In this match the flaw question we have a stimulus that can be seen as this:

H is more likely to lead to D.
But, most of the time H doesn't lead to D.
Therefore, no need to do anything special about H.

The flaw is that we still might want to worry about handguns leading to death even if 50%+ of handgun crimes don't lead to death (i.e. wouldn't 45% be a cause for alarm?!).

Let's do this real time:

(A) has:

1. Overweight more likely to lead to heart disease.
2. But, most overweight don't get heart disease.
3. Therefore, no need to do anything special about overweight.

That's a good match! I'd be a bit torn at this point about whether to go through the rest of the answer choices since it's a bit of a time-consuming process, perhaps opting for putting an asterisk next to the question and returning if I have time. But, at the same time, it's usually easy to be accurate with these if you invest the time--and this is #1, so it should be relatively easy--so here goes:

(B) 1. Many swim daily to stay fit.

Hunh? Seems like a mismatch. Maybe it's just background? Let's confirm:

2. Swim daily increase risk of ear infection.

Mismatch! "increase their risk" is not a match for "majority."

(C) 1. Most Dr.s say balanced diet.

Hmm, fishy. Where's the "more likely"?

2. Many find non-traditional diet is OK.

Mismatch. "Many" is not a match for "majority"

(D) 1. rich food bad for most people.
2. many reluctant.

Eliminate. "Many" is not a match for "majority."

(E) 1. Many health problems from diet.

Eliminate. "Many" is not a match for "more likely."

Would your process be different if this question was, say, #18? It seems like on trickier problems the LSAT be less likely to use similar quantifiers like most vs. many. What do you think?

[christine.defenbaugh]

Good question, WaltGrace1983!

I'm a big fan of being as lazy as possible on the LSAT. Let me explain - you never want to do work that you don't really NEED to do, as that's a waste of precious time. However, if the work NEEDS to be done, you don't want to spend a lot of time dithering about whether or not to do it - you just do it!

So, if this were a #18, I would absolutely use Noah's approach above - to begin with. If I can slice through the answer choices quickly and realize that one or two of them don't even have a proper 'most' statement - bonus! I can eliminate them quickly.

On a #18, I'm aware that I'm most likely going to have to take a second, deeper sweep. Maybe even a third! But that's okay. Layering the work is the most efficient way to sort them out. On a hard question, I might end up with TWO answers that both contained all the right pieces (a comparison between two groups, a most statement, and a conclusion that we don't need to do something).

All that means is I have one more bit of work to do - I'd need to make sure the pieces had the right relationship to each other. But this is work I only want to do if I really need to, and only on the the answer choices that I wasn't able to eliminate some other way.

So, the process for a harder question absolutely begins the same way, but on a hot zone question, you should simply be aware this will probably only be a first pass, and you may have a bit more to do on a second pass.