LSAT 159 | Section 3 | Logical Reasoning: Q23

LR Question 23 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Principal: All of our school’s rural students participate …

QUESTION TYPE: Flawed Reasoning

CONCLUSION: Some participants in extracurriculars are rural and some are urban.

REASONING:

1. All rural students are in the lunch program, and about half of urban students are too.
2. Some lunch program participants also take part in extracurriculars.

ANALYSIS: Which lunch program participants take part in extracurriculars? The overlap between the lunch program and extracurriculars could consist entirely of urban students or entirely of rural students.

Nothing given in the premises requires both groups to be represented, yet the principal assumes both groups must appear.

___________

1. The principal just said that some of the lunch participants that do extracurriculars are strong academic achievers, but made no comparisons on academics.
2. This mischaracterizes the conclusion. It’s not saying more rural students do extracurriculars than urban ones, just that some of each group do.
3. CORRECT. This is the flaw. The conclusion assumes that both groups are represented, but the premises don’t guarantee that overlap.
4. Irrelevant. We don’t care about how they spend their time, just who the extracurricular participants are.
5. Participate clearly means “take part” throughout. No shift in meaning occurs.