#19 - It takes 365.25 days for the Earth to make one

[Steve Stein]

Hi Jacob,

That's a good question. First, it's great that you are attempting to prephrase! As you have likely noticed, though, some answers can be prephrased more easily and precisely than others. In this case, the question asks who would have continues scheduling conflicts based on this new approach.

The suggestion is that every year, January 1 be "reset" to Sunday, so this could mean two Sundays in a row, a Sunday appearing in the middle of the week, etc. I'm not sure who might suffer continued scheduling conflicts from this. In this case I don't have much of a prephrase, so I'll take a look at the answer choices and assess.

Answer choice (B) provides the basis for a lot of scheduling difficulty. With the system that is currently in place, religious people can schedule around their Saturdays or Sundays. With the new system, that would no longer be the case: If Sunday were to fall on December 29th, for example, seven days later would be Thursday, January 5th. At that point the religious, formerly Sunday church goers, for example, would have to ask for Thursdays off for the rest of the year (if they are to continue attending church every seventh day).

Tricky! I hope that's helpful--please let me know whether this is clear--thanks!

Steve

[Jleon25]

Thank you very much for the quick response!

Your reply was very helpful. I think I was confused after reading the stimulus because I did not understand the implications regarding the week before January 1st.

Have a good day!

[kristinaroz93]

"It takes 365.25 days for the Earth to make one complete revolution..."

I am so confused by this problem in its entirety =/
Any thorough examination of this problem and its answer choices would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[Nikki Siclunov]

Hi kristinaroz93,

This is a confusing question. Let's take a look at the problem more closely:

The author has a problem with her anniversaries (birthdays, etc.) falling on different days of the week each year, so she is proposing a simple solution: the last day of each year and an additional day every fourth year would belong to no week, so that January 1 is a Sunday every year. The calendar would show 364 days + Extra Special NoDay.

It's a compelling idea, but let's say you need to refrain from working every 7th day, and that day is currently a Sunday. Under the new plan, you'll be OK until the very end of the year. But if the last day of the year is a NoDay, then 7 days counting from Sunday the year before won't be again a Sunday the following year. This is because your religious observance is based on a time interval - an absolute number of days (7) - and not on a specific day of the week. That extra day at the end will mess up your 7-day time interval, and you may end up having to take off Saturday instead of Sunday next year, and then every Saturday for the rest of the year.

The day you take off will shift again next year, so you'll end up having to take off Fridays (or even Thursdays if it's a leap year). This presents a scheduling conflict, so (B) is correct.

Does that make sense?

(A) doesn't matter, because the proposal won't affect the dates: December 31 is still a real date, it just won't be a day of the week (M-Sun). This could make your birthday extra special, but it won't present a scheduling conflict.

(C) won't be affected by the proposal at all, because you can still be in school the same number of days as before.

(D) won't be affected, because you can still take 3 days off (Friday - Sunday or Thursday - Monday).

(E) - not sure why that's even relevant.

Does that help?

Thanks!

[kristinaroz93]

Dear Nikki,

I fully understand it now! Thanks so much=)

[JDBRAM]

Hi Hyun,

You've run across another all-time classic LSAT question

First, yes, this is a Must Be True question.

Second, this is a very odd stimulus, or at least the scenario they describe is very unusual. The proposal in the stimulus attempts to standardize the calendar so that the same date every year is on the same day. So, for example, if May 1st was a Saturday once the proposal was implemented, then it would always be a Saturday. This would be great for some things--your birthday would always be on the same day, and you wouldn't have to think about which day of the week it was on--it would always be the same (and let's hope it is on a Friday or Saturday

How would they accomplish this standardization? By adding one or two "free days" at the end of each calendar year. These days would essentially be unnumbered and undated, that is, they wouldn't be a Monday or a Thursday. Instead, they would be place holder days. In this way, they can set January the 1st as a Sunday each year--and then it stays that way, forever. They make it happen that way, but it also means that December 31st isn't really the day before January 1st--there is a free day or two in-between. The calendar each year starts on Sunday, January first, and plays out regularly until they get to December 31st, and then they add in however many free days they need to balance with the orbital cycle.

Now, who would that affect the most? In (B), this group of people would be fine during the first year this is implemented. Every seventh day they would take off, probably on Saturday or Sunday depending on their religion. But, what happens to this group at the end of the year? Those "free days" are still actual days, so they count for religious purposes, but they aren't on the calendar. So, all of sudden, in the second year when this group goes to take every seventh day off, they are now taking every Friday (or maybe Thursday--it depends on how this aligns). That's not really going to work over time, and it gets worse the next year, when they then have to count in more free days at the end of year 2. Eventually it comes back around and they get Saturday or Sunday off for the whole year, but most years, they'd be taking a day off in the middle of the regular work week, and that would cause a lot of employment problems (as well as simply being inconvenient since it wouldn't mesh with everyone else's weekends and time off).

An odd stimulus, but please let me know if the above helps. Thanks!

Hello,

I have read all the questions and replies but still need clarification.

I chose Answer (D) as the "most" Must Be True of the answer choices because I found the other answer choices, to include Answer Choice (B), implausible.

My issue with Answer (B) is that:

People can be "employed," not-work every "seventh day" and be compliant to "strict religious observation.” Therefore, this group would NOT have a “continued-scheduling-conflict”

My issue with Answer Choice (B) is that it does not define "employed" to only include those who work Monday thru Friday and does not define "seventh-day" as being required to fall on either a Saturday or Sunday. These definitions are also not stated in the stimulus.

For example, a worker (e.g. in the fast-food-industry), who is considered employed, can have a flexible-schedule which would allow them a non-working-day, every seventh-day. This person can also be a part of a lesser-known religious-minority, which holds central to its belief "religious observance...of not working...every seventh day," who does not concern itself with the particular day of the week, the “seventh day” falls on. Hence this person, can be "employed," can not-work every "seventh day" and can be compliant with "strict religious observation."

The explanations provided in this forum, for why Answer Choice (B) is the correct choice, seems based on application of "real world" information bias rather than "LSAT world" information.

Why can’t a person just count 7 days from the day they start work and request those days off? Not everyone who is employed has Saturday and Sunday off.

The explanations presented in this forum, presumes both: (1) that "employed" means only work that occurs Mon, Tue, Wed, Thur and Friday and (2) that "strict religious observance" can only occur on either Saturday or Sunday.

The explanations, seem to me, to take liberties with the scope-of-the-stimulus, limiting it to a particular country’s (United States’) work-schedule variant (Mon-Fri) and to a particular religious-grouping (possibly Judeo-Christian) and this religious-grouping's definition, of what day-of-the-week a "religious observance" can be (only Saturday or Sunday).

The explanations presume "outside information.” Neither “employed” nor “seventh day” were defined in either the stimulus or the answer choices.

The explanations provided do not seem to me to fall under "commonsense assumptions" as it relates to todays’ global-citizen. Therefore, I find it implausible to mark Answer (B) as the Must Be True choice, when identifying the group who would most likely result in continued scheduling conflicts. Leaving just Answer (D) as the only answer that could be true.

Regarding Answer Choice (D) I am unclear how one would come to understand “belong to no week,” as meaning unnumbered or not part of the days experienced in the year. I took “belong to no week” merely as a decategorization of these 1-2 days from the umbrella of “week.” Perhaps being part of a random week-like-category, one day of which always occurs between Dec 31st and Jan 1st. Adding to this I did not limit my scope to The United States and or Christian holidays, as needing to do so, was not stated in the stimulus. Opening up this answer choice to many global variations of when holidays, for particular religions, fall on Mondays or Fridays.

"Scheduling conflicts" is not defined in the Questions Stem or the Stimulus. Therefore, it would seem to me, that scheduling a non-work-day every 7-days for ONE-group WOULD BE EASIER than scheduling MANY-groups holidays some of which may fall on a Monday or Friday.

Q: Thoughts on my reasoning?

Understanding that this questions was written in 1993, I wondered when reading that Answer Choice (B) was the most correct, what effect the year (1993 vs 2016) has had on, what a scope of “commonsense assumption” can look like. For instance, I would not assume that employed meant Monday thru Friday (e.g. flex-scheduled self-employed schedules are common these days). I also, would not assume that religious observation was limited to Saturday or Sunday (e.g. Muslims observe Friday for religious observance).

Q: If this questions were on a test in December could it be contested based on the argument I presented?

[Adam Tyson]

Wow, that's a heck of a detailed argument, JDBram, and I can see that you have really given this a lot of thought. Perhaps too much thought, though - over-analyzing and over-thinking is a major problem for a lot of LSAT students, and you should try to avoid going down a path quite like this one in the future, at least on actual tests. It's a fun intellectual exercise, for sure, but it ultimately doesn't help raise your score (our goal for you, and I hope yours as well), and may indeed tend to lower it.

Let me address the last question first: could you contest this answer if this question were presented on a test now, in a more enlightened age than way back in 1993? (wow, that makes me feel old when I put it that way). Sure, you could, but that's the wrong question, much like when your future clients will ask you, after telling you a long and detailed story about some problem they are having with their neighbor, landlord, employer, ex-spouse, competitor, etc., "can I sue"? Yes, of course you can. The right question, however, is "can I win"? The answer in your case is no, you can't, because this question is actually much more straightforward and simple than you may realize.

First things first - what are we instructed to do in this test? We are told to pick the "best" answer (of the five choices given). They do not tell us to pick the right answer or a good answer or a correct answer, just the best one of the bunch, and answer B is head and shoulders above all the others here. Here's why, and where your analysis may be off:

No matter what your religious traditions, days of worship, or employment schedule, if you are required to not work every 7th day in a constant repeating cycle, then, under this new calendar plan, you will need to request a specific day off each week for an entire year, and then that day will change every year. This year you might have a 9-5, M-F job, no work on the weekends and worship every Sunday, for example - a fairly traditional, Western schedule that is built around a Judeo-Christian ethic - but then next year, after the one extra day at the end of the year that isn't part of a standard week (call it Funday), followed by another Sunday to start things over again, you now will worship every Friday for the entire year. The next year, if it isn't a leap year, it's every Tuesday that you now need off for an entire year. While some folks, such as the fast food workers you mentioned, might find that easy (I doubt it - ask anyone in that business how hard it is to get a specific day off every week and still get enough hours or even keep your job), wouldn't a lot of folks begin to have scheduling problems? Even a hypothetical non-Judeo-Christian, non-Western person whose day of worship under the current system is Tuesday would quickly run into problems.

Would everyone have problems? No, probably not. Would these problems be insurmountable? Not necessarily. Does that diminish this answer any? Not at all, because we aren't looking for an answer about which group will be greatly and permanently inconvenienced, only which group would be most likely to have some conflicts. It doesn't have to be a great answer, or even a good answer, but just the best of the bunch. If a group of people must avoid work every 7th day, and that day is not a fixed day of the week every week as it is in our current calendar, that group could reasonably be expected to have some problems with the proposed change to the calendar. That's all we need to pick answer B here.

So what about your choice, answer D? If International Creepy Clown Recognition Day is on a Monday, and that means you get a three-day weekend, how does this new calendar cause you any new problems? You still get your three day weekends whenever that happens. In fact, it would become more predictable - for those holidays that always fall on certain dates, you would always know exactly what day of the week it would be on and whether that meant a three day weekend or not. Vacation planning might actually get simpler.

None of the other answers present anyone with any kind of scheduling problem (and E would probably be a case where the new system would be a help rather than a hindrance), whereas answer B presents at least some people with a potential problem. Since that is the only one that does so, it must be the best answer, and so it must be the credited response.

I hope that helped! Avoid too much deep analysis on these, stick to the idea of the "best" answer (of the five) instead of a perfect or even good one, and you will find this test to be much, much easier.

Good luck!

[Mi Kal]

Hi,

I don't get why A wouldn't be the correct answer.

No matter what your religious traditions, days of worship, or employment schedule, if you are required to not work every 7th day in a constant repeating cycle, then, under this new calendar plan, you will need to request a specific day off each week for an entire year, and then that day will change every year. This year you might have a 9-5, M-F job, no work on the weekends and worship every Sunday, for example - a fairly traditional, Western schedule that is built around a Judeo-Christian ethic - but then next year, after the one extra day at the end of the year that isn't part of a standard week (call it Funday), followed by another Sunday to start things over again, you now will worship every Friday for the entire year. The next year, if it isn't a leap year, it's every Tuesday that you now need off for an entire year. While some folks, such as the fast food workers you mentioned, might find that easy (I doubt it - ask anyone in that business how hard it is to get a specific day off every week and still get enough hours or even keep your job), wouldn't a lot of folks begin to have scheduling problems? Even a hypothetical non-Judeo-Christian, non-Western person whose day of worship under the current system is Tuesday would quickly run into problems.

Would everyone have problems? No, probably not. Would these problems be insurmountable? Not necessarily. Does that diminish this answer any? Not at all, because we aren't looking for an answer about which group will be greatly and permanently inconvenienced, only which group would be most likely to have some conflicts. It doesn't have to be a great answer, or even a good answer, but just the best of the bunch. If a group of people must avoid work every 7th day, and that day is not a fixed day of the week every week as it is in our current calendar, that group could reasonably be expected to have some problems with the proposed change to the calendar. That's all we need to pick answer B here.

If you look at the calendar (and this year (2017) is a good example because the year started on a Sunday) you'll notice that everyday would be on the same day going forward if December 30th and/or December 31st was treated as a non-day of the week. I understood, Adam's explanation (quoted above) to mean that if we switched to the new calendar format that everyday would be different, but everyday is different in our current format. If everyday was the same each year because we started on the same day every year that would leave 1 to 2 days, depending on the year, as extra days (non-days). That would leave December 30th and December 31st as potential problem days, which would make A the best choice in this situation. Wouldn't it? I'm just not seeing how D is correct.

Thanks.

Michael

[Adam Tyson]

Hey Michael, let's do use 2017 as an example. Let's say you are one of the folks who worship every 7 days, and your day of worship, under the current system, happens to be Sunday. So, January 1 of this year was a day of worship. Looking ahead to the end of the year, that means that December 24th, also a Sunday, will be a day of worship.

Now what happens 7 days later, when your faith requires that you worship again? Under the new system just implemented, you aren't worshiping on Sunday the 31st - you are worshiping on Funday the 31st! The day after that is Sunday the 1st, and 7 days after your last day of worship it isn't Sunday, but Saturday January 7th, 2018, right? For the rest of 2018, every 7th day is a Saturday, not a Sunday, and your life has been profoundly altered. At the end of the year 2018, the 30th will be a Saturday again, now your regular day of worship, and what comes 7 days later? Friday the 6th (because Funday got in the way again)! Now you're worshiping every Friday for all of 2019, and that's another profound change in your work schedule, the childrens' school schedules, etc. What a mess!

Remember, this is about people who have to worship not on a particular day of the week, but every 7 days. Under the new system, which day that is will change each year.

Take another look and count the days, and see if that makes sense now.

[Mi Kal]

Hi Adam,

Can't believe I had to sit here with a calendar for this one. Now, I see what you're saying about how every 7 days would move if we had to readjust the calendar every year, basically starting from day 1 on Sunday. I see it and I understand it. But, I just can't wrap my brain around it and reconcile that answer. I guess it just is what it is.

Thanks so much for your help.

Michael