LSAT 154 | Section 2 | Logical Reasoning: Q10

LR Question 10 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Wei: A respected automobile expert claims that most cars…

QUESTION TYPE: Flawed Parallel Reasoning

CONCLUSION: The auto expert’s claim that if most cars aren’t serviced once every three years, then they’ll develop transmission problems, is false.

REASONING: Wei owned both his cars for twelve years and hasn’t had either serviced, and neither have ever had transmission problems.

ANALYSIS: Wei is dismissing the expert’s claims about “most” cars by referencing his experience with his two cars. This is an unrepresentative sample. He could just be lucky.

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1. CORRECT. The vet says most cats who don’t clean their teeth yearly will get gum problems. But this person’s cat doesn’t have gum problems even though the cat’s hasn’t had its teeth cleaned in the past 10 years. This one cat is unrepresentative of most cats.”
2. A bad motive is being attributed to the car dealers, so the dealers’ claim is false. This is a different flaw and doesn’t match our stimulus.
3. This is looking at an unrepresentative sample but it doesn’t match to the stimulus’ pattern. This one says, “This happened to me, so the official’s (general) claim is false”.
4. The Discount Store doesn’t sound like a place to buy “a good pair of boots”. It’s an unrepresentative sample, but the sample needs to be of good boots.
5. This is looking at past events and extrapolating to the present case. So it’s not a sampling problem and doesn’t match our stimulus.

Recap: The question begins with “Wei: A respected automobile expert claims that most cars”. It is a Flawed Parallel Reasoning question. Learn more about LSAT Flawed Parallel questions in our guide to LSAT Logical Reasoning question types.