LSAT 153 | Section 3 | Logical Reasoning: Q9

LR Question 9 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Political organizer: Our group needs to assemble at least…

QUESTION TYPE: Identify the Conclusion

CONCLUSION: Our group needs to assemble at least 30 volunteers for Marcia Garson to have a chance of winning the election

REASONING: She will win only if the public is fully informed of her record. The public is fully informed if at least 30 of our people campaign for her. We cannot pay people to campaign.

ANALYSIS: The conclusion is the statement that is best supported by the other information available in the stimulus. It is important to break down the argument to see which statements support the others. For example, we can break it down as follows:

Premise 1: To have a chance at winning, Marcia needs the public to be informed.

Premise 2: The public is informed if at least 30 people campaign.

Premise 3: We cannot pay people to campaign.

Conclusion: Therefore, we need 30 unpaid people, aka volunteers, to campaign for Marcia to have a change at winning

___________

1. The stimulus says nothing about the likelihood of winning the election.
2. This supports the idea that the group needs to assemble volunteers in particular but is not the conclusion.
3. CORRECT. The main idea of the argument is to lay out the conditions for Marcia to have the possibility of winning, which this answer provides.
4. The conclusion talks about what is required for Marcia to win, not one of the ways in which she can lose.
5. This is a tricky answer because it is almost correct. The one thing that is missing is that the political organizer’s group must gather volunteers specifically, since it states that they cannot afford to hire people.

Recap: The question begins with “Political organizer: Our group needs to assemble at least”. It is a Identify The Conclusion question. Learn how to master LSAT Identify questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.