#18 - Office worker: I have two equally important projects

[Administrator]

Complete question explanation

Principle Question, Strengthen - The correct answer is (E)

The worker's conclusion here is that they should devote their time to finishing a second project, even though they might not get it done on time. The worker believes this is the correct course of action, even though they have another, equally important project that is already late and that they haven't finished. In order to justify their reasoning, we need to find an answer choice that prioritizes finishing a project on time, or perhaps that says it's important to attempt all projects, or something similar.

Answer choice (A) -this directly contradicts the worker's decision to split their time between two projects - instead of finishing the late project, they are starting a new one, so this cannot be correct.

Answer choice (B) - if this was the correct answer, then it would make sense for the worker to finish the already started late project, rather than abandoning it to attempt the second project, so this cannot be correct.

Answer choice (C) - since both projects are of equal importance, this principle doesn't help explain why the worker thinks they should abandon the late project

Answer choice (D) - this answer could be true, but it doesn't help explain why the worker would not finish the late project before moving on to the other project.

Answer choice (E) - this is the correct answer - this explains why the worker thought abandoning the late project and trying to finish the other one was the right call - they might not finish the second project, but "it's better to attempt to finish" this project on time than to keep working on the first, already late project, which doesn't have higher priority

[lsatstudent]

HI!

Why is E correct? This seemed like an attractive answer at first but the second part "... does not have priority" made me eliminate the answer choice. From the stimulus, it states that both projects are equally important. Does the fact that the deadline passed for the first project make it less of a priority?

Thanks!

[Dave Killoran]

You've locked in on the key phrase here—"two equally important projects." This tells you that neither project has a higher priority, and that's what allows the last part of answer choice (E) to be acceptable. Note how smart the test makers were here: the opened the stimulus with a statement that indicates priority without actually using the word "priority," and then they wait until the last part of the last answer to toss the idea back in. It throws most students off at first, and causes them to avoid (E). It's excellent test making, and a good example of how they manipulate the reader throughout the problem. The takeaway here is to remember that they love to equate ideas without using the same words, and you should watch for it because it happens on every LSAT!

Please let me know if that helps. Thanks!

[lsatstudent]

Yes it does!

Thank you!

[Etsevdos]

Is b incorrect bc it focuses on completing projects, rather then completing them timely? Therefore, key word is ATTEMPT in E?

[Shannon Parker]

Etsevdos,

The stimulus is an office worker's internal debate about which project to devote his time to; the first one which is already late, or the second one which he has a chance of finishing on time. He concludes that he should devote his time to the second one. We are being asked to justify the conclusion. In order to do that, we must pick the answer choice that most strengthens his argument. Answer choice B states that "it is better to finish one of two projects than to risk failing to finish both projects," but does not give any indication of which project he should finish. Answer choice E on the other hand states that its better to finish a project on time than a late project, which explains why he picked the second project to devote all of his time to.

Hope this helps.

[nrpandolfo]

Why is D incorrect? I got the higher priority confused as well on E so thats why i chose D instead

[Khodi7531]

Yeah i'm also confused on why D isn't correct. I realize the "better not to worry" issue but I mean this is a justify question. And this helps one justify choosing the second project over the first.


I think E is a stronger answer and directs you more into choosing that over D (I misread E's last portion that's why I got this wrong) but I don't see how D can be considered out of scope or the "worrying" part being an issue on a principle question like this.

[Malila Robinson]

Hi nprandolfo and Khodi7531,
Answer D does not take into account the fact that we are talking about 2 projects with the same priority. This means that Answer D may include projects with different priorities, and we do not know that it would necessarily be the case that it would be better to complete the second project if, for example, the late project was a higher priority than the second project.
Hope that helps!
-Malila

[Bmas123]

Hi! I was able to narrow it down to D and E, and I ended up going with D mostly just on gut instinct between the two (clearly my gut is wrong haha) but what should I be looking for for why D was wrong? Like is there something missing from the answer choice or something that E explicitly said that just made it the better of the two answers? Thank you!