LSAT 144 | Section 3 | Logical Reasoning: Q4

LR Question 4 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: James: Community colleges, by their very nature…

QUESTION TYPE: Point At Issue

ARGUMENTS: James says that community colleges meet the educational needs of their communities, and universities don’t.

Margaret says that universities work to serve the communities they’re located in. People attend college and university to get a job.

ANALYSIS: This question shifts terms frequently. James says community colleges ‘work towards’ serving their communities. You can assume that this is the same thing as ‘having a goal’, which is the language that Margaret uses.

Many topics are only mentioned by one author. For instance, Margaret tells us nothing about the goals of community colleges. And James doesn’t tell us why people go to school, so the last half of Margaret’s argument is irrelevant.

James says ‘educational needs’ and Margaret simply says ‘needs’. These aren’t the same thing; this seems like a minor flaw since the credited answer talks about educational needs. However, the question stem just says ‘most support’, so we don’t need 100% proof of disagreement.

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1. CORRECT. James says community colleges work towards this, but universities don’t. Margaret says universities want to serve the needs of their communities. Presumably this includes educational needs.
2. Neither James nor Margaret says whether universities serve educational needs in practice. They both talk about goals, while this answer is about what actually happens.
3. James doesn’t say why people go to university.
4. James doesn’t mention the primary educational need in a community, so how could he disagree? For that matter, Margaret also doesn’t say what a community’s main need is.
5. Margaret agrees, but James has no opinion on this point. So they can’t disagree.