#6 - Books about architectural works, unless they are not

[ctrinley]

Hello helpers,

A question about this section:

The answer to number six is listed as (C). However from what I can tell this answer is the opposite of the correct answer; in other words, Mortons's book would need to be established as NOT intended for a general audience in order to conclude that the book is flawed. This is because the stimulus states that the conditions for judging architectural books exclude those books intended for a general audience. Morton's book would not be flawed if it were intended for a general audience. Is this a typo or am I really not getting it?

Thank you!

[Steve Stein]

That's a tough question, because of the use of "unless" right next to "not."

Unless such books are not intended for a general audience, they are flawed if they don't have both types of discussion (utility and aesthetics).

The idea is this: with books for a general audience, both discussions are needed.

Morton's book doesn't have both types of discussion, so:

Unless the book is not intended for a general audience, it is flawed.

In other words:

Unless the book is intended for a more specialized audience, it is flawed.

So:

If the book is intended for a more general audience, it is flawed.


Tricky! I hope that's helpful--let me know--thanks!

~Steve

On another note, when are you planning to take the LSAT, and how have you been preparing?

[ctrinley]

Thanks, Steve.

Caught by the double negative.


In answer to your question about my preparation methods and test date: last year I worked through the three powerscore bibles and the two workbooks in their entirety. I did those without any time constraints. I chickened out on the test because while I had made a lot of progress, particularly in logic games, I could not apply the knowledge quickly enough to answer all of the questions (like most people, I would like to do well). This year I am working on the practice tests with an eye towards gradually increasing both efficiency and accuracy. I've been doing one test per day recently since I have the time. I'll probably not continue at that pace. I'll also be reviewing the content in the bibles, and hopefully taking the advanced powerscore classes. I'm not sure of my test date. No earlier than December.

I would appreciate any suggestions.

[Steve Stein]

Hi,

Thanks for your response--it's great that you've already made a lot of progress, and it sounds like you've developed a good foundation. You are right that with practice you will continue to improve on your speed--and that you should not continue at the pace of one practice test per day! You don't want to overtax your reserves--your brain needs time to process, and to rest and recover.

I would also suggest that you really take your time as you review your old tests. It can be enticing to move on quickly to the next test, but many students don't recognize how valuable the review of the old test can be; it is a custom-made group of questions that were particularly challenging, for whatever reason--these are questions on which the test makers were able to fool you, so take a new look at them, from the beginning, and assess each question as you would if you were seeing it for the first time. This might sound elementary, but as you know, in a lot of ways the LSAT is a test of pattern recognition, so if a particular type of question or concept gives you trouble, you can probably count on seeing similar ideas on future tests, in slightly different contexts. I started with this advice for you in particular, because it sounds like you probably have a number of practice tests (that you've already taken) to work with.

Also, it's great that you're considering taking the advanced PowerScore online courses, given your strong foundation and the time and practice you've already invested. I am confident that you would would get a lot out of both courses.

I hope that's helpful! Please keep us posted on your progress and let us know if you have questions--thanks!

~Steve

[ctrinley]

Hello Steve,

Thanks very much for your suggestions. I did take a day off today from practice tests. It feels strange, however I know it was needed.

I'll definitely look over past tests. That's a great suggestion and would give me much more material to work with. I tend to only re-read and analyze those I got wrong. I'd like to look over all of the questions and remember my reasoning and why it was right, instead of only trying to understand those I got wrong. The more I do the tests the more clear it is the there are patterns to the test-writers methods. I hope to gain more of that insight.

The logic games bible and workbook took me from having no clue how to do the games to actually finding them fun and almost always being able to do them. I just don't do them even close to fast enough. I'll have to keep working on that.

Maybe I'll try working with the LR and LG type training books, since that should help with pattern recognition and hopefully speed.

Many thanks to you and the others for the forum help and the great books.

[PB410]

What kind of question is this? Is this a must be true that asks for a missing piece to reach a conclusion?

[Francis O'Rourke]

Hi PB,

This is an Assumption question. These questions typically ask for an answer choice that is required for the author's conclusion to follow. This specific question deviates slightly from most Assumption questions by telling you the conclusion in the question stem: i.e. Morton's book is flawed.

[LSAT2018]

I somehow managed to get the question correct because I just looked for the general audience part. But I got lucky. I would like to ask how to deal with the opening conditional statement: where do I place the 'unless they are not intended for a general audience' part? The double negative is very confusing. Does it work in ways that 'not until' works?
Discussion on Utility and Aesthetic Appeal → General Audience



Or would it be the below statement?
Discussion on Utility and Aesthetic Appeal → Not General Audience

And how would you add the flawed part?
General Audience → No Discussion on Aesthetic Appeal → Flawed

[LSAT2018]

I would appreciate any help on this

Thanks!

[Adam Tyson]

Here's how I would approach it, LSAT2018: the "unless" refers to a necessary condition. That means the necessary condition is "not intended for a general audience", or IGA

The sufficient condition, then, using the ever-popular Unless Equation, is "doesn't discuss both utility and aesthetics", or DU or DA (notice that I have converted the "and" to an "or" here - that's because if either of the two is not discussed, then they haven't both been discussed, even if the other one has been).

Putting that all together, and allowing for the awkwardness of creating diagrams in this forum, we get:

(DU or DA) IGA

What do we do about the "flawed" part of the stimulus? I just look at that as either you follow the conditional rules, and thus are not flawed, or you violate them, and are thus flawed. I see no need to include "flawed" in the diagram (although it could be done in a "nested conditional" approach, which might be unnecessarily complicating things).

We know from the stimulus that Morton's book doesn't discuss aesthetics about one of the buildings. A sufficient condition has been met! That means that either the book is not intended for a general audience (our necessary condition) or else the conditional requirement has been violated and the book is thus flawed.

The stem wants us to prove that the book IS flawed, meaning we need to see a violation of the conditional relationship. That means the necessary condition does NOT occur, and the book IS intended for a general audience. That's answer C!

A complex web of conditionals, to be sure, but taking it one step at a time should get you there. Keep at it!