LSAT and Law School Admissions Forum

Get expert LSAT preparation and law school admissions advice from PowerScore Test Preparation.

 Administrator
PowerScore Staff
  • PowerScore Staff
  • Posts: 8927
  • Joined: Feb 02, 2011
|
#23237
Complete Question Explanation

Parallel Reasoning—SN. The correct answer choice is (C)

This stimulus presents a fairly simple, valid conditional argument:

Premises: If you have a lot of money in the bank, your spending power is great, and if your spending power is great, then you are happy:
  • Lot of $ ..... :arrow: ..... great spending power ..... :arrow: ..... happy
Conclusion: If you have a lot of money in the bank, you are happy:
  • Lot of $ ..... :arrow: ..... happy
Based on the two diagrams above, we can see that the conclusion is valid, and the correct answer choice should reflect similar argumentation (A→B→C, therefore, A→ C).

Answer choice (A): While this answer choice begins along the right lines, the new condition, "comfortable life," means that this answer choice invalid, and fails to parallel the argumentation in the stimulus.

Answer choice (B): As with incorrect answer choice above, the argumentation here is invalid—this choice incorrectly links two necessary conditions—so this answer choice cannot parallel the argument in the stimulus and cannot be correct.

Answer choice (C): This is the correct answer choice, and can be diagrammed as follows:
  • Premises: ..... Swim energetically ..... :arrow: ..... heart rate increases ..... :arrow: ..... overexcited

    Conclusion: ..... Therefore, Swim energetically ..... :arrow: ..... overexcited
As we can see from the diagrams above, this conclusion is valid, and it parallels the author's argumentation found in the stimulus.

Answer choice (D): This answer choice parallels the invalid reasoning found in answer choice (B) above, unjustifiably linking two necessary conditions, so this answer choice cannot parallel the valid reasoning in the stimulus.

Answer choice (E): We should know immediately to beware of this answer choice, because it deals with similar-sounding conditions—a common component of attractive wrong answer choices on the LSAT. While it deals with the topic of money in the bank, it reflects flawed reasoning, in this case incorrectly linking the two sufficient conditions of "large amount of money," and "optimistic by nature."

Get the most out of your LSAT Prep Plus subscription.

Analyze and track your performance with our Testing and Analytics Package.