#15 - Outsiders in any field often believe that they can

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Must Be True. The correct answer choice is (C).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):

This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[JSLSAT]

Hi PowerScore,

Could you advise on how to break down question 15? I mapped out the following, but I'm pretty sure I ended up grasping at straws:

Experience Understand Problem Solve Problem

Experience Creative Solution Futile

Thanks so much

[Dave Killoran]

Hi JSLSAT,

Thanks for the question! I suspect that the thing that caused issues here is the restatement that the test makers use in answer choice (C). It's a bit unexpected, which makes this problem feel hard. Let's look at it more closely.

First, your diagrams are correct (assuming that the "/" equals a negative). I diagrammed the first one in the contrapositive form of what you have, so mine came out positive but it has the same meaning:


Problems solved understand experience


So, to solve a problem, you need experience. It's interesting, because I feel that the second and third sentences are basically equivalent in meaning, but that the second sentence throws in some different ways of stating the same type of idea. They both drive at the the same belief: if you have a problem in a field, then you need experience in that field in order to solve it.

When you get to answer choice (C), the test makers do a smart thing: they flip the idea around and force you to make some connections, but essentially (C) is just a restatement of the concept we just discussed. Here's what it looks like:

• Answer choice (C): Creative solutions in a field always come from people with experience in that field.
  
  
  Creative solutions in a field = problems solved
  
  people with experience in that field = experience
  
  Or, in conditional terms: Problems solved experience (which is just the inference from the last sentence of the stimulus)

I've been asked a few times by students why this question seems so hard when they are doing it during the test, but then seems really straightforward after they discuss the explanation. I think it occurs because the stimulus focuses more on discussing people ("outsiders...insiders...by people...no one") and less on fields, but the correct answer choice seems to focus more on fields ("in a field...in that field.") and less on people. But, each includes the other idea, and, of course, how do people get experience? By working in the field. So, the test makers emphasize different aspects in the stimulus and answer choice, and when you are working through a problem at a high rate of speed that difference can seem to be enough to make (C) wrong. But it's not because the the two ideas are so closely connected.

Please let me know if that helps. Thanks!

[JSLSAT]

Hi Dave,

Thanks a ton for the explanation.

I also was wondering - is the second sentence technically a conclusion? When I went back over it fresh, I ended up diagramming it as "/Experience --> /Creative Attempts Successful". C popped out, since it was saying the contrapositive (assuming you equate "Creative Attempt" with "Problem Solving" in general): Creative Solutions --> Experience.

Is that accurate? Or would you need to only relate it to the last sentence's logical relationships?

Thanks again!

[Dave Killoran]

Yes, that's how I viewed it. I diagrammed it the way I did because I used your diagrams from your post and wanted you to see how that would work. But, that second sentence contain the same ideas the third (which explains the relationships that underlie the third), so both work.

Thanks!

[JSLSAT]

Great, thank you!

[PamelaO]

Hello,

Is A wrong because we simply do not know that much? We just simply know that creative solutions can only come from people with experience. We don't necessarily know that more of experience produces more creativity in a person, it's just the bare minimum.

Thank you.

[Eric Ockert]

Hi Pamela

That is correct. Answer choice (A) definitely ramps up the relationship quite a bit. It really is speaking in terms of a positive correlation between experience and creativity in solving problems. The fact that experience is required for creative solutions does not prove that the two are positively correlated.

Hope that helps!

[T.B.Justin]

Hey,

This is frustrating. This question can be answered correctly with identifying the conditionality in that last sentence. I get bogged down in these questions, under standard conditions, by the cannon fodder of distractors (the other parts of the stimulus).

I will keep at it.

[PresidentLSAT]

First I want to thank the power score team. These past few days, you guys are boosting my confidence.

I want to know if there are tips to focus on when it comes to extreme words on MSS questions. I was 100% certain it was C because I've devised a strategy to tackle questions like these but the extreme wording scared me off.

A couldn't hold because proportionality isn’t supported. You can have more experience and still be an idiot. The information basically says when you're comparing an insider to an outsider, the insider's take will always hold more weight.

B didn't make any sense

I basically worded C as a conclusion in my head and see if the question stem supported it as a premise. It worked but the "only" scared me off. I started to think, "what if there are exceptions?

D is flat out wrong

This just shifts what's being discussed.

Any tips on extreme wording, thanks