#25 - Manager: I recommend that our company reconsider the

[Nina]

Why is answer B incorrect? Is that because the formulation of "more important consideration" cannot be inferred from the stimulus?

Many thanks!

[Steve Stein]

Hi Nina,

That's correct--the author does not discuss the relative importance of various considerations, so this choice is not confirmed by the stimulus and can be eliminated.

I hope that's helpful! On a separate note, how have you been preparing for the test? courses, books? mostly practice tests? let me know--thanks!

~Steve

[Nina]

Hey Steve,

Thank you for your response again! Indeed helpful!

As for the preparation, I just finished reading the three "Bibles" (LG, LR and RC) and began practicing PTs.

Many thanks!

[mes08]

I had a hard time figuring out what type of question stem this is. Is it a Must Be True, Strengthen, or neither? Thanks in advance for the help

[Steve Stein]

Hi

Thanks for your response--that's a Must Be True question stem.

I hope that' s helpful!

~Steve

[Rita]

Hi Steve - based on the Manager's statement, I chose option B. I thought that the managers decision to recommend reconsidering the decision was based on an assessment that familiarity is more important than flexibility/ease of use. In other words, based only on the Manager's opinion, it can be inferred that B is correct, otherwise the Manager would not recommend reconsidering the replacement. On the other hand, it did not seem reasonable to infer C, since the manager mentions no specifics about the other companies (e.g. are they similar, do they have similar employees, etc.), so based on the passage alone that inference seemed a stretch.

Could you please clarify why, in this scenario, it is not necessary for the companies being compared to be specified as the same. Also, could you please explain why it is incorrect to infer a ranking of the various attributes of the software packages from the Manager's recommendation based on those attributes.

Thank you!
Rita

[Adam Tyson]

This question fits best in the category of Must Be True, but in fact it is a subset of that question type, Most Strongly Supported. That means that the answer doesn't absolutely HAVE to be true, but it is the one, of the five presented, that has the most support. So here we have to pick an answer that has the most support, even if it may not be true.

What is our author suggesting here? Why not move to the new software? Is he arguing that it is not better, is not more efficient or easier or flexible? No, he's not. He is only arguing that, since other companies found that their employees were reverting to the old product, this company should not switch. We don't know why they stuck with the old one - it could be familiarity, as answer B suggests, but it could be any number of other reasons. Maybe the new stuff is not actually better? Maybe it doesn't live up to the advertisements? Maybe the employees have a grudge or complaint against the company that makes the new product, and they are rebelling by refusing to use their products? Maybe they are all under a magic spell cast by the publisher of the old software?

Answer B requires us to make an assumption that, while reasonable, is not supported by the stimulus as well as answer E. We have evidence that in several other cases, the employees apparently preferred the old to the new, and the manager is projecting that correlation onto his company. Why they prefer it remains unknown, at least to us, but the fact that they do prefer it seems to be what matters.

Here's one more reason to pick E over B - we call it the Uniqueness Principle of Answers. Much like the Highlander, there can be only one right answer. When the truth of one answer forces another answer to be equally true, the one doing the forcing cannot be the correct answer. If B is true - if familiarity is more important than flexibility or initial ease of use - doesn't that also mean that E must be true and that many employees of this company will keep using the old stuff? If you agree that B's truth forces E to also be true, then you must reject answer B. Otherwise you would have two equally valid answers, and the authors of the LSAT try very hard to prevent that from happening (and they are very good at their jobs).

Ponder that and see if it makes sense to you. If not, come back for more - we are always here!

[Rita]

Hi Adam,

That was immensely helpful - thank you!

Rita

[bk1111]

Hi, can someone explain why E is a superior answer choice over B? I was stuck on this for a couple minutes and eventually chose E, only after considering that we cannot infer what a "more important consideration" in selecting the software based on the stimulus. Is that correct?

[Charlie Melman]

Hi bk1111,

This is a tough question; less than 50% of people correctly choose answer choice (E).

(B) is tempting because it seems like employees are going back to the old package due to their familiarity with it, and thus it seems like the speaker is emphasizing this fact at the expense of flexibility and ease of use. But the argument never says that familiarity is the reason why people are going back. That's just an assumption.

(E) Is supported because other companies' employees returning to the old software directly implies that they prefer it to the new software. By using other companies' employees' behavior as justification, the speaker reasons that the employees at his company will behave the same way.

Hope this helps!