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Problem with this LSAT Question?

Historian: One traditional childrearing practice in the ni...
demanding excitant nursing home
  03/20/17
here we go
Mustard titillating ape philosopher-king
  03/20/17
The LSAT writers tend to be bad about dealing with degrees o...
Indecent vibrant faggotry electric furnace
  03/20/17
are my objections valid?
demanding excitant nursing home
  03/20/17
Yes. Irl. The unstated premise or skill is that you are l...
Indecent vibrant faggotry electric furnace
  03/20/17
but aren't you exaggerating re: fuzziness, probability, beli...
demanding excitant nursing home
  03/20/17
I don't think I am. In fact, questions posed as about fuzzin...
Indecent vibrant faggotry electric furnace
  03/20/17
He has a point with this one, I think. (E) ignores the po...
abusive apoplectic piazza striped hyena
  03/20/17
Looking at the question, the trick is that "tend" ...
Indecent vibrant faggotry electric furnace
  03/20/17
Agreed. You can quickly arrive at this conclusion by realizi...
abusive apoplectic piazza striped hyena
  03/20/17
Iow the test asks you to convert statements re belief or CAU...
Indecent vibrant faggotry electric furnace
  03/20/17
cr. one got in trouble for existential import
Mustard titillating ape philosopher-king
  03/20/17
...
Indecent vibrant faggotry electric furnace
  03/20/17
The question and answer are fine... you are reading way into...
vivacious candlestick maker
  03/20/17
This is true, too - a to c have no support, d is backwards, ...
Indecent vibrant faggotry electric furnace
  03/20/17
yes, but it's not a proper inference - as in 100% logically ...
razzle maniacal national security agency boiling water
  03/20/17
No, but the other answers are obviously incorrect, leaving o...
abusive apoplectic piazza striped hyena
  03/20/17
this was a very easy question, peterman
bespoke stag film
  03/20/17
How quickly did it take you? I definitely had to think about...
razzle-dazzle domesticated garrison brethren
  03/20/17
That's your problem. You shouldn't be thinking about these. ...
abusive apoplectic piazza striped hyena
  03/20/17
what'd you get on the real thing?
razzle maniacal national security agency boiling water
  03/20/17
...
razzle maniacal national security agency boiling water
  03/23/17


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Date: March 20th, 2017 10:45 AM
Author: demanding excitant nursing home

Historian: One traditional childrearing practice in

the nineteenth century was to make a child who

misbehaved sit alone outside. Anyone passing by

would conclude that the child had misbehaved.

Nowadays, many child psychologists would

disapprove of this practice because they believe that

such practices damage the child’s self-esteem and that

damage to children’s self-esteem makes them less

confident as adults. However, no one disagrees that

adults raised under that traditional practice were, on

average, as confident as adults not so raised.

Which one of the following can be properly inferred from

the historian’s statements?

(A)

The beliefs of many present-day child psychologists

about the consequences of loss of self-esteem are

incorrect.

(B) Some of the most confident adults, as well as some

of the least confident adults, were raised under the

traditional practice in question.

(C)

With the traditional childrearing practice, passersby

did not always make correct inferences about

children’s behavior by observing them outdoors.

(D) The most confident adults are those who developed

the highest level of self-esteem in childhood.

(E)

If children’s loss of self-esteem makes them less

confident as adults, then the traditional childrearing

practice in question did not tend to cause significant

loss of self-esteem.

SPOILER:

The correct answer starts with the first letter of the name of the world's largest land mammal.

But that answer is NOT properly inferrable from the statements above!

Many child psychologists believe that the childrearing practice leads to lower self-esteem in children, which leads to those children having less confidence as adults. But, "no one disagrees that adults raised under the traditional practice, were, on average, as confident as adults not so raised."

The answer the LSAT calls "properly inferred" from the above is that at least one part of the causal chain asserted by the psychologists is incorrect. But this depends on 2 critical assumptions that are entirely unjustified and could easily have been described as flaws. First, just because "no one disagrees" about a statistic DOES NOT MEAN THAT STATISTIC IS TRUE. Second, EVEN IF THAT STATISTIC WERE TRUE -- that adults raised under the practice are on average as confident as adults not raised under the practice -- the correct answer IGNORES CONFOUNDING VARIABLES! Maybe the kind of child who is subject to the childrearing practice starts off with a higher self esteem than the children not so raised, so even though the practice does decrease self esteem, it doesn't make it lower than the other children on average. We'd need to know that the two compared groups -- those raised under the practice and those not so raised -- started off equal in the relevant areas -- self esteem and confidence level when they become adults.

Can someone please explain to me why the correct answer is considered to be 100% logical, to be "properly inferred" from the above?



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558677&forum_id=2#32872640)



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Date: March 20th, 2017 10:48 AM
Author: Mustard titillating ape philosopher-king

here we go

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558677&forum_id=2#32872653)



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Date: March 20th, 2017 10:51 AM
Author: Indecent vibrant faggotry electric furnace

The LSAT writers tend to be bad about dealing with degrees of belief, probability, and fuzziness. You are to restrict yourself to the classic syllogism. E is the only answer that fits a classic syllogism.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558677&forum_id=2#32872671)



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Date: March 20th, 2017 10:52 AM
Author: demanding excitant nursing home

are my objections valid?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558677&forum_id=2#32872673)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 20th, 2017 10:56 AM
Author: Indecent vibrant faggotry electric furnace

Yes. Irl.

The unstated premise or skill is that you are looking for a way to convert any q into an Aristotlean syllogism. Hence your objections don't "exist" in the world of the test.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558677&forum_id=2#32872691)



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Date: March 20th, 2017 11:03 AM
Author: demanding excitant nursing home

but aren't you exaggerating re: fuzziness, probability, belief? There are definitely LSAT questions that relate to flaws about belief and probability. It's not like everything boils down syllogism. in addition, the lsat uses the confounding variable in causal relationship idea all the time -- so they are aware of it and apply it.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558677&forum_id=2#32872750)



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Date: March 20th, 2017 11:04 AM
Author: Indecent vibrant faggotry electric furnace

I don't think I am. In fact, questions posed as about fuzziness or probability are actually tests of whether you can convert such q's to syllogism.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558677&forum_id=2#32872770)



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Date: March 20th, 2017 11:56 AM
Author: abusive apoplectic piazza striped hyena

He has a point with this one, I think.

(E) ignores the possibility of confounding variables, though it would take one hell of a confounding variable to counteract the historical practice if it did, in fact, cause a significant decrease in children's self-esteem. If they would have thrown in an "all else equal" caveat, it would have cleared up this issue, but that it would have made it too easy. Regardless, (E) is the best answer.

Initially, I also thought it had a problem from the perspective that the historical practice may have a significant effect on outlier children, but upon reading it again, the psychologists' opinion appear to apply to all children, so that is not an issue.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558677&forum_id=2#32873083)



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Date: March 20th, 2017 12:55 PM
Author: Indecent vibrant faggotry electric furnace

Looking at the question, the trick is that "tend" and "average" cancel out, such that the q reduces to a classic syllogism - the other answer stems don't permit reduction of probabilistic or casual reasoning to a syllogism.

IOW these "hard" problems are built on tricking you into thinking you should use probabilistic reasoning, when in fact you are looking to remove it from the answer.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558677&forum_id=2#32873607)



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Date: March 20th, 2017 3:01 PM
Author: abusive apoplectic piazza striped hyena

Agreed. You can quickly arrive at this conclusion by realizing the answers are fairly obviously incorrect and intuitively realize that the correct answer is at least a possible explanation based on what you described, whether or not you fully grasp it.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558677&forum_id=2#32874448)



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Date: March 20th, 2017 10:54 AM
Author: Indecent vibrant faggotry electric furnace

Iow the test asks you to convert statements re belief or CAUSATION into absolute premises, and then use the classic rules of inference.

BTW they never announce that that is what they are doing - this is just meta-knowledge about how the test is constructed.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558677&forum_id=2#32872681)



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Date: March 20th, 2017 10:54 AM
Author: Mustard titillating ape philosopher-king

cr. one got in trouble for existential import

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558677&forum_id=2#32872682)



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Date: March 20th, 2017 10:59 AM
Author: Indecent vibrant faggotry electric furnace



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558677&forum_id=2#32872715)



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Date: March 20th, 2017 11:48 AM
Author: vivacious candlestick maker

The question and answer are fine... you are reading way into it. The logical conclusion of the paragraph is obvious based on the evidence available.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558677&forum_id=2#32873032)



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Date: March 20th, 2017 12:57 PM
Author: Indecent vibrant faggotry electric furnace

This is true, too - a to c have no support, d is backwards, so you can get to e by elimination. But it is fun to probe why the writers wrote e in the way they did.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558677&forum_id=2#32873624)



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Date: March 20th, 2017 1:36 PM
Author: razzle maniacal national security agency boiling water

yes, but it's not a proper inference - as in 100% logically valid based on the evidence.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558677&forum_id=2#32873862)



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Date: March 20th, 2017 3:02 PM
Author: abusive apoplectic piazza striped hyena

No, but the other answers are obviously incorrect, leaving only one answer that is possibly correct. This is how they create "hard" questions.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558677&forum_id=2#32874455)



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Date: March 20th, 2017 12:58 PM
Author: bespoke stag film

this was a very easy question, peterman

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558677&forum_id=2#32873626)



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Date: March 20th, 2017 1:46 PM
Author: razzle-dazzle domesticated garrison brethren

How quickly did it take you? I definitely had to think about it and closely read the possible answers.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558677&forum_id=2#32873919)



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Date: March 20th, 2017 3:08 PM
Author: abusive apoplectic piazza striped hyena

That's your problem. You shouldn't be thinking about these. Reduce the assertions in the first part of the question to their most basic essence and then solve the logic question.

If you are serious about doing well on the LSAT, I strongly recommend practicing these sections with a time limit that is 5 minutes less than what you will be afforded on the actual test. If you have to think about them, you will miss them.

Also, when I started studying, I had a book that contained the observation that sections like this were limited to 6 or 7 types of questions and described the different types. After each practice section, I would go back and categorize each question by its type and tabulate how many questions I missed under each type of question. It turned out almost all of the questions I was missing fell under two types of questions. I worked on identifying what I was missing, and after that, I was getting getting 98% of the questions correct.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558677&forum_id=2#32874528)



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Date: March 20th, 2017 4:42 PM
Author: razzle maniacal national security agency boiling water

what'd you get on the real thing?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558677&forum_id=2#32875184)



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Date: March 23rd, 2017 2:14 PM
Author: razzle maniacal national security agency boiling water



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3558677&forum_id=2#32898512)