LR Question 8 Explanation, by LSATHacks
QUESTION TEXT: To qualify as a medical specialist, one must usually…
QUESTION TYPE: Necessary Assumption
CONCLUSION: If you’re a recognized medical specialist, then you’re competent in your specialty.
REASONING: You must study for quite a while and pass an evaluation to be a medical specialist.
ANALYSIS: Doing something for a long time doesn’t automatically make you competent. It’s possible these medical graduates don’t know what they’re doing, even after training.
The argument has to assume that anyone who has trained that long is competent. Or anyone who is a recognized medical specialist is competent.
___________
- The conclusion is about competence. This answer is about motivation. Unfortunately, being motivated doesn’t automatically make you good.
- This isn’t quite good enough. Being a doctor is hard. Maybe being among the most talented people doesn’t guarantee you are competent.For instance, only the most talented students apply to Yale, but that doesn’t guarantee they all get in.
- CORRECT. This works. It’s a conditional statement: complete evaluation ➞ competentWe know that the doctors completed an evaluation. Using that condition is a required link in the argument.This is actually a sufficient assumption as well as a necessary assumption. If we know this is true, the argument is 100% correct.
- This is a sufficient assumption answer. This proves the argument true if it’s correct, but it’s not necessary. We can see that by negating it while still trying to keep the argument valid. Negation: six to ten years of medical training isn’t always sufficient for competence, however, the incompetent practitioners are weeded out by the medical specialty board.
- This answer makes it harder for doctors to be competent. That goes against what we’re trying to prove.
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I have to disagree with you on D. It’s wrong, but not because of “usually”? You are implying that if D left out usually, it would be correct, but that’s not so. It’s incorrect because we don’t need to know that our necessary condition (six to ten years) is sufficient to give us competency, just medical specialist. If what you are saying is true about D not being strong enough, it would still have to be required because usually falls within the scope of all, so if the latter was required so would the former.
Thoughts?
Oh, you’re right. I think I slipped into evaluating it as a sufficient assumption answer. I reread C and noticed it was sufficient as well as necessary, so it may have put me in that mood.
I edited the explanations. Thanks!