#9 - Global Reference, Main Point

[jrc3813]

I'm having a little trouble selecting between C and E on this question. The first part of C that says "although statutes typically vary from region to region" seems a bit narrow in scope. Yes the passage mentions this objection but it was only one part of the overall argument. That's why E seemed appealing because it seems to capture the overall point of the passage which is that law schools don't devote enough time to statutory training. I assume the part after "therefore" must be incorrect but it seems to be a decent paraphrase of the argument. The ability to interpret and synthesize statutes could be thought of as analyzing legal information and the author thinks that these skills are important and underdeveloped. So therefore schools are failing to impart these neccesary skills.

[James Finch]

Hi JRC,

You're right about the problem with answer choice (E): just because law schools "are deficient in their attention to statutory law training" does not necessarily mean that they "fail to impart the skills necessary for the analysis of legal information." The final paragraph does imply that the lack of statutory training in law schools means students do not necessarily graduate with good statutory interpretation skills, but to then assume that law schools never give students the necessary skills to analyze legal information is a huge jump.

Answer choice (C) essentially summarizes the points made in the last paragraph. It refutes the stated objection that individual statutes vary by jurisdiction while emphasizing that the skills needed to interpret statutes applies to all jurisdictions, and so even when the individual statute studied in law school would be irrelevant to the student, the skills learned through the analysis of the statute would apply when that student becomes a lawyer in another jurisdiction.

Hope this clears things up!

[stephaniemaui]

hello,

i was deciding between B and C. I am still unsure as to why B is incorrect. Your help would be appreciated thanks!

[Adam Tyson]

Thanks for asking stephaniemaui! Answer B begins unraveling as soon as you hit the words "more important." The passage isn't an argument that the study of statutory law is more important than the study of cases, but rather than the former has been neglected and should be included to better prepare students for the practice of law. It's not about the relative priorities, but about placing more emphasis on statutory law than it currently gets. The study of statutory law is important, but there is nothing at all in the passage that makes it more important than anything else.

[mguitard]

Hello,

I am currently going through 59 and trying to understand why I got certain answers wrong. I picked E on 9, mainly because C seemed too specific to the last paragraph. I don't understand why it's correct if it's specific, and not general to the entire passage. I don't see the varying factor being mentioned until the last paragraph.

Also, would E be wrong because it says law schools "fail to impart the skills necessary..."? Would lines 18-22 negate that, in saying that law schools do teach these skills, however, they don't favor them?

Thanks so much!

[Paul Marsh]

Hi mguitard! Your instinct to toss out the answer choices that are too specific/narrow for Main Point questions is a good one. We typically want to be wary of answer choices that overly focus on one paragraph, and instead find the choice that hits on every paragraph in order to really lay out all of the author's argument.

However, I disagree that Answer Choice (C) is overly narrow/specific here. It's true that the first part of the (C) is referring to the last paragraph. But the rest of (C) touches on every paragraph in the passage! "Although statutes typically vary from region to region" (this is from Paragraph 4), "law schools should provide training in statutory law" (this is from Paragraph 1), "in order to develop students’ ability to synthesize legal information" (this is from Paragraph 3), "and interpret individual statutes" (this is from Paragraph 2). So every paragraph of the passage is represented here and the author's full argument throughout the passage is on display, making this a textbook correct Main Point answer.

As for (E), you're correct that the "fail to impart the skills necessary for the analysis of legal information" is where we run into trouble. There's not really much support for that, and like you said, there may even be support for the opposite (that they do at least somewhat impart some of the skills necessary for the analysis of legal information). So that "fail to impart" clause gives us three reasons to toss this answer choice out: 1) it's way too strong (always something that should make you wary on Main Point questions), 2) there's no support for it in the passage, and 3) unlike (C), this answer choice doesn't touch on all of the author's argument (it doesn't even hammer home the author's main point, which is that law schools should provide statutory law education. It also doesn't mention the two listed benefits of studying statutory law, which alone make up half of the passage).

Hope that helps!