Try Your Hand at the LSAT!

In My Humble Opinion
1

(slythe: I agonized for ten seconds–at least–over the proper forum for this thread. I hope I’ve chosen wisely.)

So I’m studying for the law school admission test. And, in the course of my studying, I do the practice exams in the Barron’s test prep book. (Barron’s is, apparently, the “student’s #1 choice.”) Now, I’d just like to say that I’m a pretty bright guy. And I’m getting some darn good scores on the practice tests. But several of the questions and their given answers have left me, shall we say, somewhat bemused.

Actually, that’s not true. Several of the questions and their given answers have left me completely be-freaking-wildered.

Naturally, I thought of youse guys. I’m gonna give you some of these questions, one at a time, and I want you to take your best guess as to the answer. Explain your choice, if you like. Then, after I reveal the given answer and stated reasoning, you can tell me whether a) I’m just not that smart, cos the answer is perfectly logical, or b) the testmakers were completely apathetic, completely stoned, or both.

Fair 'nuff? The questions themselves are pretty self-explanatory. You’ve got a passage, followed by a multiple-choice. Here’s the first one:
All continents have mountain ranges with mountains that are dangerous to climb. Therefore all the world’s mountain ranges have mountains dangerous to climbers.

Which one of the following most closely parallels the reasoning in the passage above?

[list=a]
[li]Every bird is warm blooded. Therefore every flying animal is warm blooded.[/li][li]All the geology books in the library circulate. Therefore all the library books about geology must circulate.[/li][li]Every atom is made up of electrons. Therefore all things must contain electrons.[/li][li]Every number is either odd or even. Therefore half of the numbers are odd.[/li][li]All the television channels on this set are in Spanish. Therefore all the television channels in this city must be in Spanish.[/li][/list]

Have at it!

2

I’d say C.

If all A’s contains B’s, then a bunch of A’s contain a bunch of B’s.

3

Hm. Can an island (like Hawaii) contain a mountain range? If so, then I guess my answer might not apply since Hawaii isn’t on a continent per se.

4

It looks to me like:
“All A’s contain B’s that contain C’s. Therefore all B’s contain C’s.”
Right?

5

I knew there was a reason I didn’t go to law school. As for the answer, it must be A,B,C,D or E. Am I right? :D:D

Lame joking aside, is it B?

6

I would say E.
They both deal with a quality of a selected subset being mistakely applied to the whole of the a superset. Not exatcly in the same way, but its the closest parellel I see.

7

The reasoning looks like “all A’s have B’s which are C’s, therefore all B’s are C’s.” Which is plainly fallacious reasoning, but that happens to be irrevant to the test question as it is stated.
I’d go with E.

Gadarene, is it possible to still get the old tests from the LSAT people? you might want to get some of those too.

Dave
Who scored in the 99th percentile on the LSAT.
“Past glories are fleeting!”

8

It is possible, and I have. :slight_smile: I’ll be taking those as test day wends closer. Incidentally, I’m not too worried about how I’ll do; it just irks me that one of the leading test prep services can pass off some clearly shoddy questions that prospective law students might not catch. (Then again, if they don’t catch them, maybe they’re not cut out to be law students.)

I’ll let a few more people guess before I give both answers (mine and theirs), but I will say this: The reasoning you and Smeghead gave, 2nd Law, is what I came up with myself (though our answers are different). It doesn’t appear to be the reasoning the Barron’s people used. :smiley:

The problem with the Logical Reasoning portion, and the reason I like the analytical games best, is that there’s no one “right” answer–there’s only the best answer, usually out of a field of five duds.

9

Hey there…

I’m on my way to bed at the moment and quickly popped in while I was checking my mail. Sorry I can’t take the time tonight to say anything of note right now, but I’ll look in tomorrow. I teach LSAT prep for Kaplan, so if you have any other questions about the test let me know. Good luck!

Rhythm

10

Okay, I’ll take a stab at this.

I say A.
Because the passage specificly uses the word ‘continents’. That leaves out islands(as already noted). Wouldn’t it stand to reason that some mountain ranges located on islands may not contain dangerous mountains?

So making a generalised statement about all mountain ranges on the entire planet from what info the passage gives would not be accurate.

EX:
A sign contains 300 light bulbs. All the bulbs are recieving electricity. So therefore, all the bulbs on this sign are lit.

No, they might not be. What about the burnt out ones?

Just a thought. Might be totally off.

11

I’m going with ‘D’.

God, how this reminds me of a logic course I once took. Biggest mistake of my life!!

Anyrate, the way I see it…

A=B=C so C=B

Assuming C=B makes the statement it invalid(?- Hahh?) regardless of whether or not it is actually true.

So, to me, ‘D’ seems to be the closest to the word equation given i.e., C=B, again, regardless if it’s true or not.

Did I tell you I hated that class?

12

Hmm, not a good explaination on my part.

I think the key to this question is dismissing what the statement is saying and focussing on breaking it down, i.e., the a=b thing.

I’m sticking with ‘D’ Alex. Yep, that’s it.

13

Heh…you gotta love it. Eight intelligent people, five different answers. grin The beauty of a test section which claims only to call for “common sense and reasonableness.”

Now let me tell you what I chose, and why. Basically, I thought along the same lines as three bunny mama. The logic is specious: it says that if each continent contains a dangerous mountain range (“dangerous mountain range” being one which has a dangerous mountain), then all mountain ranges are dangerous.

As has been said, “All A’s have B’s which are C’s; therefore, all B’s are C’s.” Like saying, all cities have women who are beautiful, therefore all women are beautiful. Non? Bad logic, but there you go.

So I chose (a) Every bird is warm blooded. Therefore every flying animal is warm blooded. This, it seemed to me, could be rephrased as “Every flying animal which is a bird is warm blooded. Therefore every flying animal is warm blooded.”

This isn’t a perfect parallel (perfect would have been, “Every bird which is a flying animal is warm blooded. Therefore every flying animal is warm blooded,” which doesn’t quite make sense), but I thought–in the minute I had to ponder the question–that it was the best of a bad lot. In fact, I was quite comfortable with my answer.

Until I saw their answer.

Here it is:

Let me reprint what they say is the correct answer (and kudos, cheezit, for knowing the mind of mighty Barron’s):

“All the geology books in the library circulate. Therefore all the library books about geology must circulate.”

Okay. It seems to me as if their reasoning is stating A = B, and that they’ve configured the syllogism as “If A equals B, then A equals B.” Or, “If A (all the geology books in the library) equals B (circulate), then A (all the geology books in the library) equals B (circulate).”

The trouble is, this doesn’t fit the original statement!! Here it is again:

“All continents have mountain ranges with mountains that are dangerous to climb. Therefore all the world’s mountain ranges have mountains dangerous to climbers.”

When the first sentence says that all continents have dangerous mountain ranges, it doesn’t mean that all mountain ranges on all continents are dangerous; rather, that at least one mountain range on each continent is dangerous. Therefore, saying that “all continents have mountain ranges with mountains dangerous to climb” is not saying that “all the world’s mountain ranges” have mountains dangerous to climb. It’s not “If A equals B, then A equals B”; it’s “If all A’s have B’s that are C, then all B’s are C.” And these are two completely different things!

What do you think? Am I mad?

Next question coming up…

14

This one’s a bit lengthier, so bear with it. :slight_smile: (Oh, and please feel free to debate the correct choices in question #1; I’m interested to see what people say about that.)
After installing an expensive computer-operated drip irrigation system designed to measure moisture and to save up to 20 percent of water usage, Jackson Orchards discovered that its water bill for the month of September was 10 percent higher than last September’s bill, before the new system was in use. Jackson Orchards demanded a refund from the irrigation systems company.

Jackson Orchards’ demand would be more convincing if which one of the following were true?

[list=a]
[li]The rates charged by the water company were virtually unchanged.[/li][li]It could demonstrate that the irrigation system was functioning as it should.[/li][li]The acreage under cultivation was slightly smaller this September than last.[/li][li]September a year ago was noteworthy for its heavy rains.[/li][li]None of the farms nearby had any change in their water bills from one September to the other.[/li][/list]

If none of 'em seem right, go with the one that fits it best.

15

I had to take a basic logic course in my first semester of college. What they taught us is that all statements can be translated to equations. That is you take the basic assertions and translate them into algebraic formulas. Such as “All continents have mountain ranges that are dangerous to climbers” can be translated to the assertion A. There are only several rules of logic when you reduce sentences this way. I think how the test went wrong (or maybe tried to get you to think) is that neither of the statements can be translated that easy.

Okay, all continents have mountain ranges that are dangerous to climb. Let’s call that A. Now that leaves us with the assertion that all mountain ranges have mountains that are dangerous to climbers, let’s call that Z.

So, there must be implied statements in these two assertions. One, all continents have mountain ranges, B. If a continent has a mountain range, then in at least one of those ranges there is a mountain that is dangerous to climb, C. Or, if B then C. So far it’s all good.

Now we have to admit another assumption, this is a mountain range, D. This is only because of the last statement which says, if this is a mountain range, then it has a mountain which is dangerous to climb. If D then C. They try to assert that if B then C, so if D then C.

Now the two rules of B, and if B then C, are valid, so we have proved C. Now let us say the statement if D then C is true, just for argument. Even if it was true you could not say that because if D then C is true than if C then D is true. No way you could do it. In my class they called it affirming the antecedent. (“You might as well say I see what I eat is the same as I eat what I see.”)

So I’ve isolated the logical fallacy. I would go all the way and figure out what statement is closest, but I’m drunk right now and have to go somewhere. I’m sure there are many errors in what I’ve just said, if what I’ve just said made any sense whatsoever.

At any rate, I hope you all pay attention to the verbal conundrums I just had to put myself through next time you sit in jury duty. I’d imagine they make these lawyer tests hard for a reason.

“You can make a lawyer as smart as you want, the jury’s still probably dumb as a post.”

16

Alright. The way I see this one.

I’ll take A.

Because the passage states that Jack’s new system promises to reduce usage.Unless Jack is particularly eco-consious, I assume that he hopes to reduce his cost by reducing his usage, not just cut back on water consumption for the hell of it.

Jack’s complaint seems to be that his water bill is higher. Now, I don’t know about all of you, but I could really give a rats ass how much water I used in a month. Its the fact that I have to pay for it that I don’t like. So by saying his bill was higher and not his usage , it leads me to believe that the cost is higher and not nessacarily his usage.

So, knowing the difference in rates between this year and last could make the difference. By showing whether or not the cost of one gallon of water has risen in the last year, one could determine whether or not Jack used 20% less water but was charged more for it, or whether Jack’s system actually did not reduce his usage the promised 20%.

I think I need chocolate now…must go to fridge…

17

The listed answer to the first question is completely bogus. As has been pointed out, there are islands outside the continents. So “all continents” do NOT equal “the world”, and that renders the rest invalid.

Sheesh. It could be improved with an axe.

S. Norman

18

Mofo got the terminology right, but I wish he were sober and explain the reasoning behind their answer. I stick by the idea that what it says is not important, you need to break it into the a=b deal or as Mofo rightly points out, if a then b, if b then c etc… I don’t know why, but… ahhh… F*ck it! Lemme try to go three for four.

I’ll go with ‘E’. It seems too obvious though, so I’ll mull it over as best a person can at 7:30 in the morning and get back.

19

Darn! I got here late. The logic for the first answer seems completely correct to me. (Spiny Norman, you are adding facts to the statements and it’s throwing you off. You have to stick with the information given.)

The second one I find much more difficult. I want to say that it takes A and E together, but that’s not right. So the one that I think is most right is E. I can’t wait to find out why that’s not right. It seems so logical to me, I’m sure it’s not the right answer. :rolleyes:

20

This stuff drove me CRAZY when I was practicing for mine.

If it makes you feel any better, I found the actual test to be much easier than most of the practice tests I took, including the one I got directly from LSAC’s website. Everything was a bit more cut-and-dried. And Logical Reasoning was my worst section too–I went from missing an average of 8 per section to missing only 5 per section on the test itself.

Good luck! If you need any study tips or info about what to expect on test day, e-mail me.