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Course: LSAT > Unit 1
Lesson 7: Logical Reasoning – Video lessons- Identify the conclusion | Video lesson
- Identify an entailment | Video lesson
- Strongly supported inferences | Video lesson
- Disputes | Video lesson
- Identify the technique | Video lesson
- Identify the role | Video lesson
- Identify the principle | Video lesson
- Match the structure | Video lesson
- Match principles | Video lesson
- Identify a flaw | Video lesson
- Match flaws | Video lesson
- Necessary assumptions | Video lesson
- Sufficient assumptions | Video lesson
- Strengthen | Video lesson
- Weaken | Video lesson
- Helpful to know | Video lesson
- Explain | Video lesson
- Resolve a conflict | Video lesson
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Resolve a conflict | Video lesson
Watch how we approach a question on the Logical Reasoning section of the LSAT that asks us to resolve or explain an apparent discrepancy.
Want to join the conversation?
- How does A resolve the discrepancy? What city limits?(1 vote)
- The choice is talking about Springfield, so obviously Springfield's city limits.(2 votes)
- How is a resolve question different from an explain question? I understand both concepts it is just different wordings or is there different strategies too?(1 vote)
Video transcript
- [Instructor] In this question, we're asked each of the following, if true, contributes to a resolution of the apparent discrepancy
described above, except. We can identify this question
as a resolve question, but it presents that twist by asking us to find the exception. It is so easy to forget
that we're dealing with an except question on test day, so definitely make sure to
circle that word except, and characterize what
we're actually looking for. In your mind, tell yourself the answer will provide information that
doesn't help the situation and the passage make sense,
and the four wrong choices will help resolve the discrepancy. Pause your video now if you'd like to try this question on your own. Otherwise, let's move to the explanation. Okay, let's read simulus, and as we do, I want you to just focus on describing the discrepancy in your own words. Don't think about what the
answer could be just yet. The passage reads, working
residents of Springfield live, on average, farther from their workplaces than do working residents of Rorchester. Thus, one would expect that the demand for public transportation would be greater in Springfield than in Rorchester. However, Springfield has only half as many bus routes as Rorchester. Just like with explain
questions, our first job in resolve questions is
to describe the situation that doesn't seem to make sense. You'll generally be able
to find a contrast keyword that divides the statements that don't seem to work together. Here, that contrast keyword is however. What are the facts that
don't seem to work together? First, we're told that
Springfield residents who work generally live farther
from their workplace than do Rorchester residents who work, and so we would expect that the demand for public transportation would be greater in Springfield than in Rorchester. Okay, but we also learned that in reality, Springfield, which has the
workers who are farther from their workplaces,
actually has only half as many bus routes as Rorchester. It can be immensely helpful
to do a quick sketch of the action so that the
relationships are easier to see. Springfield has the farther
workers and fewer bus routes. Rorchester has the closer
workers and more bus routes. Let's phrase this
discrepancy as a question. Why are there half as many
bus routes in Springfield when the Springfield workers
live farther from work than the Rorchester workers? It's possible that you're
already thinking of reasons that the situation could be, but we don't need to make a prediction for these question types. There could be so many
possible explanations. The most important piece is
to understand the discrepancy in a very clear way. Now we move to the choices
and evaluate each one. We're gonna ask ourselves,
does this choice's information provide the light bulb
that we're looking for? Does it make us say, ah okay, now I understand why
Springfield has only half as many bus routes as Rorchester, even though their workers
live farther from work. Let's take a look. Choice A. 3/4 of the Springfield
workforce is employed at the same factory
outside the city limits. What's the impact of this information? Well, it helps shed
light on the situation. If such a high proportion of people work in the same factory
outside city limits, then they could potentially
take the same bus line to the factory, which would
necessitate fewer bus routes. Remember, in this question,
we're eliminating choices that contribute to a resolution. Let's keep going. B, the average number
of cars per household is higher in Springfield
than in Rorchester. This contributes to a resolution. If Springfield households
have a higher number of cars than Rorchester households do, then Springfield may just not
need public transportation as much as Rorchester does,
since more Springfield people can just drive to work. Choice C, Rorchester has fewer railway lines than Springfield. What does this do for us? Well, it helps resolve the discrepancy, because if Springfield
has more railway lines than Rorchester, then that might explain why they have fewer bus
routes than Rorchester. People could just be taking
the railway instead of the bus for their public transportation to work. D reads, buses in Springfield
run more frequently and on longer routes than in Rorchester. That helps resolve the situation. There are fewer routes in Springfield, but they run more frequently
and on longer routes than in Rorchester, so it's very possible that Springfield buses could transport more people to farther places, even though there are
fewer routes overall. We can eliminate this since
it's a possible resolution. Finally, E tells us that Springfield has a larger population
than Rorchester does. When we think about the impact of this, it just makes the situation
even more surprising. Springfield has a larger population, and people farther from
work, and fewer bus routes. This is our answer, because
it does not contribute to a resolution, and in fact, it makes the discrepancy worse. To recap, for resolve
questions, you're reading with the purpose of understanding
the discrepancy. It's really helpful to form a
question around it if you can. For example, why are there
fewer bus routes in the city where people live farther from work? Then pretend that each
choice is a proposed answer to that question, and pick the one that actually does answer the question and shed light on the situation. Or in this case, since we
had an except question, we needed to eliminate the choices that shed light on the situation, and then select the choice
that didn't resolve anything.