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Difficult LSAT CR Questions

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Difficult LSAT CR Questions

by sachin_Anand » Fri Oct 22, 2010 11:35 pm
(1)
Top college graduates are having more difficulty demonstrating their superiority to prospective employers than did the top students of twenty years ago when an honors degree was distinction enough. Today's employers are less impressed with the honors degree. Twenty years ago no more than 10 percent of a given class graduated with honors. Today, however, because of grade inflation, the honors degree goes to more than 50 percent of a graduating class. Therefore, to restore confidence in the degrees they award, colleges must take steps to control grade inflation.
Which one of the following is an assumption that, if true, would support the conclusion in the passage?
(A) Today's students are not higher achievers than the students of twenty years ago.
(B) Awarding too many honors degrees causes colleges to inflate grades.
(C) Today's employers rely on honors ranking in making their hiring decisions.
(D) It is not easy for students with low grades to obtain jobs.
(E) Colleges must make employers aware of the criteria used to determine who receives an honors degree.

(2)
Investigators concluded that human failure was not responsible for the fatal airplane crash last August, and since that time new and more stringent rules for identifying and reporting mechanical problems have been in effect. That accounts for the fact that reports of airplane mechanical problems have increased in frequency by 50 percent since last August.
Which one of the following is an assumption underlying the argument in the passage?
(A) Airplane travel is still relatively safe, despite the increase in reported mechanical problems.
(B) Mechanical problems in airplanes have increased dramatically since last August.
(C) Mechanical problems in airplanes have not increased by 50 percent since last August.
(D) Airlines are less reluctant to report mechanical problems than they previously were.
(E) Mechanical problems in airplanes have become easier to detect since last August.

(1) OA : A
(2) OA : C


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by shovan85 » Sat Oct 23, 2010 6:30 am
sachin_Anand wrote:(1)
Top college graduates are having more difficulty demonstrating their superiority to prospective employers than did the top students of twenty years ago when an honors degree was distinction enough. Today's employers are less impressed with the honors degree. Twenty years ago no more than 10 percent of a given class graduated with honors. Today, however, because of grade inflation, the honors degree goes to more than 50 percent of a graduating class. Therefore, to restore confidence in the degrees they award, colleges must take steps to control grade inflation.
Which one of the following is an assumption that, if true, would support the conclusion in the passage?
(A) Today's students are not higher achievers than the students of twenty years ago.
(B) Awarding too many honors degrees causes colleges to inflate grades.
(C) Today's employers rely on honors ranking in making their hiring decisions.
(D) It is not easy for students with low grades to obtain jobs.
(E) Colleges must make employers aware of the criteria used to determine who receives an honors degree.
Premises clearly say Grade inflation caused too many honors (Now). A caused B NOT B caused A. discard B.

Employer hiring criteria is out of scope. So we can discard C and E.

Students with honors now are facing difficulty showing their superiority as compared with students with honors 20 years ago. This idea does not state that the difficulty of students getting into the job. Discard D.

Thus left after POE is
A
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by shovan85 » Sat Oct 23, 2010 6:52 am
sachin_Anand wrote: (2)
Investigators concluded that human failure was not responsible for the fatal airplane crash last August, and since that time new and more stringent rules for identifying and reporting mechanical problems have been in effect. That accounts for the fact that reports of airplane mechanical problems have increased in frequency by 50 percent since last August.
Which one of the following is an assumption underlying the argument in the passage?
(A) Airplane travel is still relatively safe, despite the increase in reported mechanical problems.
(B) Mechanical problems in airplanes have increased dramatically since last August.
(C) Mechanical problems in airplanes have not increased by 50 percent since last August.
(D) Airlines are less reluctant to report mechanical problems than they previously were.
(E) Mechanical problems in airplanes have become easier to detect since last August.
Assumption fills the logical gap.

Premise: Human faults are not the cause but the mechanical problems. So stringent rules for identifying and reporting mechanical problems have been in effect (from Last August).
Assumption: ?
Conclusion: mechanical problems have increased in frequency by 50 percent since last August

Before going to the options let us think what can be the problem which tells us this conclusion. Before August if there were a rule for reporting the mechanical faults then say it was 1000 reports. After August now it is 1500 reports (50% increase). If the 500 faults were previously there and could not be found before the implementation of the stringent rules then the conclusion is seriously flawed. We need to overcome this to make the Conclusion true.

Options:
(A) Airplane travel -- Out of scope.
(B) Mechanical problems increased dramatically -- One can infer this but not assume this
(C) Mechanical problems in airplanes have not increased by 50 percent since last August. This is left after POE. (Actually I am confused ;) as when I negate this it clearly states the Conclusion )
(D) If less reluctant now then how can we get more faulty reports.
(E) Mechanical problems easier to detect -- Detection method is out of discussion
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by Dani@MasterGMAT » Tue Oct 26, 2010 3:53 am
shovan85 wrote:
sachin_Anand wrote: (2)
Investigators concluded that human failure was not responsible for the fatal airplane crash last August, and since that time new and more stringent rules for identifying and reporting mechanical problems have been in effect. That accounts for the fact that reports of airplane mechanical problems have increased in frequency by 50 percent since last August.
Which one of the following is an assumption underlying the argument in the passage?
(A) Airplane travel is still relatively safe, despite the increase in reported mechanical problems.
(B) Mechanical problems in airplanes have increased dramatically since last August.
(C) Mechanical problems in airplanes have not increased by 50 percent since last August.
(D) Airlines are less reluctant to report mechanical problems than they previously were.
(E) Mechanical problems in airplanes have become easier to detect since last August.
Assumption fills the logical gap.

Premise: Human faults are not the cause but the mechanical problems. So stringent rules for identifying and reporting mechanical problems have been in effect (from Last August).
Assumption: ?
Conclusion: mechanical problems have increased in frequency by 50 percent since last August

Before going to the options let us think what can be the problem which tells us this conclusion. Before August if there were a rule for reporting the mechanical faults then say it was 1000 reports. After August now it is 1500 reports (50% increase). If the 500 faults were previously there and could not be found before the implementation of the stringent rules then the conclusion is seriously flawed. We need to overcome this to make the Conclusion true.

Options:
(A) Airplane travel -- Out of scope.
(B) Mechanical problems increased dramatically -- One can infer this but not assume this
(C) Mechanical problems in airplanes have not increased by 50 percent since last August. This is left after POE. (Actually I am confused ;) as when I negate this it clearly states the Conclusion ) - not it doesn't - the conclusion is that reports have increased, not that the errors themselves have increased.
(D) If less reluctant now then how can we get more faulty reports.
(E) Mechanical problems easier to detect -- Detection method is out of discussion
Follow the reasoning of the argument:
Premise:
1) new rules for identifying mechanical errors have been in effect.
2) Number of reports of mech. problems has increased 50%.

Conclusion: the new rules ("that accounts") account for the number of reports for mechanical errors has increased.

Think about the reasoning: why would the new rules account for the increase in the number of reports? (note that the conclusion is that the reports increased - we don't really know that there are more problems, just that we're seeing more). As far as we know, the new rules are the only thing that's changed - so the new rules must be forcing people to report as mechanical failure things that they would not have reported in the past. This is the argument's claim - that it's the rules the are causing more reports (and not something else such as more accidents causing more reports). Thus, C is a definite assumption: If c is not true and there are indeed more actual mechanical problems, then this would provide an alternative explanations for the rise in reports, and not the new rules for reporting, thus weakening the conclusion. If the reverse of C weakens the conclusion, then C is indeed a necessary assumption for the conclusion to hold.
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