#5 - A government agency publishes ratings of airlines,

[Administrator]

Please post your questions below!

[mrcheese]

I picked E. The reason I picked it is because the stimulus says at the end:

"in meeting published flight schedules"

I only had B and E as contenders.

I understand that the stimulus says it was measuring the "efficiency of different airlines' personnel," but my thought process is this....

You want to get to the area according to the "published flight schedule" and WHAT IF the airline you took was on average 12 minutes late, every flight.

It does not say how often these weather conditions are affecting one airport versus another. Why should I think they will drastically change anything in the results. Perhaps "objective" and "personnel" are the keys to this question.

Does the question stem demand a different approach, since it says "tend to invalidate use" and I should make a mental note of that phrase?

It just seemed that it would be too easy for a flight to be consistently late, but never over 15 minutes late. Another flight could be early/on time usually and have a few incidents where they are over 15 minutes late and then all of a sudden they look way worse, but it is actually the other flight that is always 10 minutes late.

If the thought process I had is entirely bad, let me know. Any tips are appreciated.

[Malila Robinson]

Hi Mrcheese,
This is sort of a classic LSAT question where many of the answers are incorrect for the same reason: If it affects all (of the things you are talking about) then it doesn't really matter to the discussion.

So for example in the Answer E, it means that all flights are considered late if they are more than 15 minutes past their scheduled arrival. This would affect all airports which means it would not help to distinguish one airport from another in terms of a personnel issue.

Answer B is different because it states that the issue of weather affects some airlines more than others, so that would invalidate the personnel issue because even if the personnel were all equally as efficient, the weather may slow down some airports more than others.
Hope that helps!
-Malila

[lsatstudent99966]

I didn't choose (E), but doesn't (E) cause a problem?

Suppose there are two airlines, airline A and airline B. Both A and B had 1000 flights last month. Every single flight of A was 14 minutes late. B had 995 flights on time, but 5 flights were 30 minutes late.

Based on (E)'s standard, B will have a higher proportion of late flights compared to A, and as a result, A will receive a better rating than B. However, wouldn't A's personnel likely be less efficient at meeting flight schedules than B's personnel?

And this problem doesn't seem to be solved by the fact that (E) applies to every airline.

[Jeff Wren]

Hi lsatstudent,

The problem with your hypothetical is that you're changing the criteria in judging the efficiency of the personnel. In other words, you're assuming that being late 14 minutes every flight is objectively "worse" or less efficient than being late 30 minutes only 5 times.

While that may seem like a reasonable way to judge efficiency, that's not the criteria being used here. In other words, being late 14 minutes is "considered" on time for all intents and purposes, even though it isn't literally on time. In your hypothetical, the first airline that is always 14 minutes late may be pushing their luck, but they are technically always on time according to the rules.

This doesn't invalidate the ratings; it simply changes what the agency cares about in determining efficiency. If a plane is late by 15 minutes or more, that is the cutoff for being considered inefficient.

[lsatstudent99966]

Hi lsatstudent,

The problem with your hypothetical is that you're changing the criteria in judging the efficiency of the personnel. In other words, you're assuming that being late 14 minutes every flight is objectively "worse" or less efficient than being late 30 minutes only 5 times.

While that may seem like a reasonable way to judge efficiency, that's not the criteria being used here. In other words, being late 14 minutes is "considered" on time for all intents and purposes, even though it isn't literally on time. In your hypothetical, the first airline that is always 14 minutes late may be pushing their luck, but they are technically always on time according to the rules.

This doesn't invalidate the ratings; it simply changes what the agency cares about in determining efficiency. If a plane is late by 15 minutes or more, that is the cutoff for being considered inefficient.

Hi Jeff,

Many thanks for your response! It's really helpful!