LSAT 155 | Section 1 | Logical Reasoning: Q17

LR Question 17 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: For several years the Technology Institute has used a new…

QUESTION TYPE: Flawed Reasoning

CONCLUSION: The new curriculum has lowered the quality of plumbing instruction.

REASONING: A recent survey found that only one-third of graduates passed the certification test, which is well below the national average.

ANALYSIS: The word “lowered” should immediately trigger a response to you. This is a comparative conclusion – the author says that the quality has decreased from before. However, we know absolutely nothing about the quality of education before the experimental curriculum. A comparative conclusion is baseless without that information!

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1. This is not the error the author makes. The new curriculum isn’t caused by the low test scores this year – the curriculum was implemented several years ago.
2. The author isn’t basing their argument on a lack of evidence of improvement. That would be more like “scores haven’t increased, so the quality is lower now”.
3. CORRECT. The author takes a bad statistic (“only one third of graduates pass the certification test”) and concludes incorrectly that this result is lower than before. It’s possible that the scores were terrible before and this new curriculum helped them. We just don’t know.
4. The author does invoke the national average, but their flaw is not that they didn’t define the national average.
5. The author has not made this error. This is more like if they had said “only plumbers who study pass, so anyone who studies will pass”.

Recap: The question begins with “For several years the Technology Institute has used a new”. It is a Flawed Reasoning question. Learn how to master LSAT Flaw questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.