LSAT 158 | Section 4 | Logical Reasoning: Q4

LR Question 4 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: A club wanted to determine whether it could increase…

QUESTION TYPE: Flaw

CONCLUSION: Schedule conflicts aren’t causing club attendance problems.

REASONING: The club wants to see if changing its meeting date from Tuesday to Thursday would increase attendance. 95% of members surveyed at a Tuesday meeting said that they had no problem attending on Tuesdays.

ANALYSIS: This is a sampling problem. The club president wants to figure out if more people can attend on Tuesday or Thursday, but only surveyed the people who were present at a Tuesday meeting. Obviously, if these people are present at the Tuesday meeting, they didn’t have scheduling conflicts that Tuesday.

But what about the people who weren’t at the meeting? If there are no other members, or very few who weren’t at the meeting, then the club president’s conclusion would hold. But what if over 51% of the club’s overall members weren’t at the Tuesday meeting because they had scheduling conflicts? Then this survey would not be representative.

___________

1. There’s no circular reasoning in this stimulus.
    
   Example of flaw: Tuesday is the best day because it is the best.
2. CORRECT. This one matches our prephrase. Surveying only people who have attended a Tuesday meeting isn’t representative of those who can’t attend on Tuesdays.
3. This is a different flaw. We don’t know if the members who attended that Tuesday meeting represents “most” of the club, and the argument doesn’t say there are no exceptions.
    
   Example of flaw: Most people leave their house to do stuff like attend clubs. So everyone does, including this hermit.
4. There are no contradictions. The premises are consistent with each other. This type of answer is rarely right; it refers to a nonsense argument.
    
   Example of flaw: My pen is only blue, and my pen is only green. So my pen is blue and green.
5. There isn’t a conditional flaw in the argument.
    
   Example of flaw: Simply taking the LSAT won’t get you into law school. So, you don’t need to take the LSAT to get into law school.

Recap: The question begins with “A club wanted to determine whether it could increase”. It is a Flawed Reasoning question. Learn more about LSAT Flaw questions in our guide to LSAT Logical Reasoning question types.