LSAT 6 | Section 3 | Logical Reasoning: Q6

LR Question 6 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Four randomly chosen market research companies each…

QUESTION TYPE: Most Helps to Explain

FACTS: The four market research companies produced similar predictions for the cities with stable population. Their estimates varied wildly for the city with a fast growing population. The market research companies were chosen randomly.

ANALYSIS: Before looking at the answers, try and imagine yourself predicting population growth. For a stable city you can just look at the past numbers. For an unstable city…well, I have no idea. You would have to come up with some fancy method and there isn’t likely to be one right answer.

Remember also that we’re trying to explain why the companies had different estimates. The right answer will be about the companies.

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1. If the city is more uniform then why did the predictions diverge? This doesn’t tell us anything about the market research companies.
2. This tells us why the population is increasing. But we don’t know why the companies’ estimates were different.
3. This tells us an interesting fact about the city. But we don’t know why the companies’ estimates were different.
4. This makes the situation even more puzzling. If the companies had similar methods then why did their estimates differ wildly?
5. CORRECT. This helps explain. For the stable cities the companies used similar methods and got similar results. For the changing city the companies used different methods and got different results.

Recap: The question begins with “Four randomly chosen market research companies each”. It is a Paradox question. Learn more about LSAT Paradox questions in our guide to LSAT Logical Reasoning question types.