LSAT 148 | Section 4 | Logical Reasoning: Q11

LR Question 11 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: University spokesperson: Most of the students surveyed…

QUESTION TYPE: Flawed Reasoning

CONCLUSION: We should rehire Hall Dining.

REASONING: Every year except last year, Hall Dining did our food. Last year, a different vendor did our food. Students said we should have a different food vendor next year. For unspecified reasons, we could only switch back to Hall Dining.

ANALYSIS: The author’s makes two mistakes:

1. They don’t say why Hall is the only other option.
2. They don’t address what students think of Hall. It’s possible that students give the following ratings out of 100 to different food providers:

• Alternate A: 100
• Alternate B: 95
• Current provider: 73
• Hall Dining: 37

In this case, the students do want to switch to a better alternative, but they don’t want to switch to Hall – Hall is even worse than the current provider.

___________

1. CORRECT. Indeed. The students might have been opposed to switching if they knew that only Hall was an option.
2. LSAT samples can generally be assumed to be representative unless the question indicates some doubtful factor. There’s no space to elaborate on exact sample sizes. Here, it sounds like a representative sample of the whole university was surveyed.
3. The university did consider other factors. That’s why they said “For a variety of reasons….the only alternative…is Hall”.
4. The argument left open the possibility of disagreement. It only said that most students preferred a replacement. There could be dissidents.
5. The spokesperson didn’t say student preferences were the only reason. They said “other things equal”, we should fulfill student preferences. This strongly implies that other factors are equal and it’s fine to adhere to student preferences.

Recap: The question begins with “University spokesperson: Most of the students surveyed”. It is a Flawed Reasoning question. To practice more Flawed Reasoning questions, have a look at the LSAT Questions by Type page.