LSAT 117 | Section 4 | Logical Reasoning: Q25

LR Question 25 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: A certain medication that is frequently prescribed to …

QUESTION TYPE: Paradox

PARADOX: The medication is generally effective at lowering cholesterol. Yet people who take the medication still have above average cholesterol levels for their age.

ANALYSIS: The key is to realize these two things aren’t mutually exclusive.

Lower than before doesn’t necessarily mean below average.

The medication can be effective and yet the people taking it can still have above-average cholesterol.

A simple analogy:

Someone who weighs 300 pounds loses 50 pounds.

The diet worked, but the person still weighs 250 pounds and is above average.

Both statements can easily be true.

So we need an answer showing that the people prescribed the medication started out with unusually high cholesterol levels.

___________

1. A different, better medication tells us nothing about why THIS medication can be effective while users still have above-average cholesterol.
2. How often another medication is prescribed is irrelevant.
3. This tells us how most high-cholesterol patients are treated, not why the people taking this medication still have above-average cholesterol.
4. CORRECT. If the medication is usually prescribed only to people whose cholesterol is at least 30% above average, then lowering their cholesterol substantially could still leave them 12–15% above average. The medication worked, but the patients still have above-average cholesterol.
5. This just says high and low cholesterol levels are roughly balanced in the population. That explains why there’s an average, but tells us nothing about why people taking the medication remain above that average.