LSAT 139 | Section 4 | Logical Reasoning: Q11

LR Question 11 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Plumb-Ace advertises that its plumbers are more…

QUESTION TYPE: Flawed Reasoning

CONCLUSION: The certification isn’t difficult.

REASONING: The written part of the certification is easy.

ANALYSIS: This is a part to whole flaw. It’s like saying: It’s easy to get in to Yale law school, because it’s easy to fill out their application form.

Filling out the form is the easy part of getting into Yale. Overall, it’s very hard to get in to Yale.

Likewise, it could be that the written part of the certification is easy, but the practical part of the certification is very, very hard.

___________

1. There’s no conditional statement in the stimulus. Sufficient and necessary conditions aren’t relevant here.
2. The conclusion was about whether the certification was hard. The argument didn’t say whether plumbers need to be certified.
3. I found this tempting. But if you read the start of the second sentence, the author admits that Plumb-Ace plumbers may be more qualified.The conclusion is only about whether or not the certification process is difficult. That has nothing to do with whether it is harder or easier than other certification processes. Difficult is an absolute term, harder is a relative term.
4. This is a different error. It’s like saying: “There’s no proof we’ll get out of recession, so we won’t.” The only correct conclusion would be “so we might stay in recession”.
5. CORRECT. The written part was easy. That doesn’t mean the whole thing was easy.