#11 - Any sale item that is purchased can be returned for

[SherryZ]

Dec 2001 LSAT, Sect 1, LR, Q11:

I chose C but the right one is D. After re-read this question, I understood why D is right. But I still don't understand why C is WRONG.

I chose C because the stimulus said "SELECTED construction tools", so I thought "SOME (unselected) construction tools are not returnable for store credit".

Thank you so much for your help! Have a nice day!

---Sherry

[Lucas Moreau]

Hello, Sherry,

I'm glad you got that D is correct. When my students tell me they're consistently narrowing their selections down to two answer choices - the correct one and an incorrect one - and picking the incorrect one, my reaction is "That means you're almost there." Being able to pick out the correct answer choice is one hurdle - being able to see past the carefully constructed incorrect answer choices is the final hurdle.

Anyway, C is close, but not quite proven. First, we don't know for sure that they didn't select every construction tool to be on sale...though I admit that the sentence structure seems to suggest that they did not, so this isn't the strongest evidence.

Stronger, though, is the fact that we have no information indicating that any item is not returnable for store credit. We know sale items can only be returned for store credit and not for a refund, but we don't know that an item being returnable for a refund means that that item can't be returned for store credit. At least, it never says so, and so it doesn't satisfy the stringent "Must Be True" test.

Hope that helps,
Lucas Moreau
PowerScore

[ivan]

Hello! could you please tell me how I can diagram the information in the stimulus properly

I have diagrammed something like that:

refund sale item store credit

inferrence: store credit refund

Also:
home appliance sale item
gardening equipment sale item
construction tools sale item

But i do not know how to add diagrams about home appliance, gardening equipment and construction tools to the main diagram

[Adam Tyson]

Thanks for asking, Ivan. I'll admit, I am not great at using the tools here to create diagrams as beautifully as you did, so I don't know if I will be able to make the visual representation as nicely. Scratch that - I KNOW I won't!

I think you have all the tools you need at your fingertips. If a Home Appliance is a Sale Item, then added to your diagram you would know that a) it CAN be returned for a store credit and b) it CANNOT be returned for store credit. Same goes for gardening equipment. Something like:

HA -> SI -> SC & R

GE -> SI -> SC & R (and this one proves the correct answer, D)

Where things get a little trickier is with the constructions tools, and that's where my diagramming skills in this forum break down. How do you create those "some" arrows? I really need to develop some tech skills in here!

We know that some CT are SI, so those, at least, are SC and R. We don't know how many those "some" are, and since the concept of some includes the concept of all, there may be none that are not on sale. That will eliminate answer C, by the way.

Approaching at least a portion of this diagram as conditional, rather than using formal logic (closely related but not exactly the same things), might help you to sort out your diagram in a way that gets you there.

Great work, just follow through and you will get there. No need to do it all in one tidy diagram - breaking it down into multiples, as I did, may make your life a touch easier.

[ivan]

Thanks for asking, Ivan. I'll admit, I am not great at using the tools here to create diagrams as beautifully as you did, so I don't know if I will be able to make the visual representation as nicely. Scratch that - I KNOW I won't!

I think you have all the tools you need at your fingertips. If a Home Appliance is a Sale Item, then added to your diagram you would know that a) it CAN be returned for a store credit and b) it CANNOT be returned for store credit. Same goes for gardening equipment. Something like:

HA -> SI -> SC & R

GE -> SI -> SC & R (and this one proves the correct answer, D)

Where things get a little trickier is with the constructions tools, and that's where my diagramming skills in this forum break down. How do you create those "some" arrows? I really need to develop some tech skills in here!

We know that some CT are SI, so those, at least, are SC and R. We don't know how many those "some" are, and since the concept of some includes the concept of all, there may be none that are not on sale. That will eliminate answer C, by the way.

Approaching at least a portion of this diagram as conditional, rather than using formal logic (closely related but not exactly the same things), might help you to sort out your diagram in a way that gets you there.

Great work, just follow through and you will get there. No need to do it all in one tidy diagram - breaking it down into multiples, as I did, may make your life a touch easier.

Great! thank you!
p.s. All these arrows are on the right side of the screen near smilies while you creating a new post!