#16 - Stress is a common cause of blood pressure

[Adam Tyson]

"Most" does not imply either a sufficient condition or a necessary one, nor does it imply a cause or an effect, SGD2021. There is nothing automatic about where it belongs in a diagrammed relationship, and you have to analyze the author's meaning to determine what is sufficient or necessary and what is a cause and what is an effect.

In this case, the author is saying that most people can calm their minds by exercising. "Calm their minds" is an active, causal relationship - doing one thing (exercising) causes another thing (a calm mind). The "most" just means this is true for more than half of all people. It doesn't apply to most exercise, nor does it have anything to do with how calm one becomes. It's just another way of saying that this is usually the case; more than half of all people can bring about this effect by engaging in this cause.

It's understandable to want to find absolute rules about the LSAT that can be reliably applied to all uses of a certain word or phrase or construction, but the test usually isn't that simple. You have to think about what the author intends in the way they crafted their argument, and how the words and phrases they choose relate to each other and support their claims. As soon as you try to nail down an absolute rule, like "most goes on the left side," you are bound to find many exceptions that frustrate that process! Instead of looking for absolute rules like that, look for concepts and relationships and patterns. Be flexible, and be prepared for them to shake things up and do things differently!

[SGD2021]

Thank you very much! So in this case, since we're saying that "most" people who exercise can calm their minds, that is why we drew it this way: E CM ? (as opposed to saying "most who can calm their minds exercise" which wouldn't necessarily be the case). So it can help to say the statement backwards when determining how to diagram.

Additionally, with "most" statements, is it always possible to draw the following conclusion or is this another thing we should avoid making a general rule for? Example: A--> (m above the arrow for most) B. The conclusion is that, since most of A is B, then some of B is A, always?

[Adam Tyson]

Looks like you've got it! The diagram A B can be read as "most As are Bs", and if that is true then it must also be true that some Bs are As. The "some" can go backwards, but the "most" cannot.

[LSATtaker23]

I originally chose D instead of E for this question, and understand why the word, "directly", makes it incorrect, but still have some reservations about E. If "most" people can calm their minds by exercising, and "some" people can lower their blood pressure by calming their minds, that could mean that 60% of people can calm their minds by exercising, while 10% of people can reduce blood pressure by calming their minds. If that were the case, there is not guarantee of overlap between those two populations.

So, I felt that D, because it said exercise "can" lower blood pressure, rather than making a guarantee that the statement was true for some people, was more strongly supported. If this were a "must be true" question, would I be correct in saying that E is not necessarily true?

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

LSATtaker, answer choice (E) IS necessarily true.

Let's look at the relationship in the stimulus. Most people can calm their minds by engaging in exercise. That means that some of the people who engage in exercise calm their minds. We know that calming your mind reduces stress. So now we can say that some people who engage in exercise can reduce their stress. Which people? Those exercisers who can calm their minds by engaging in exercise.

You appear to be trying to go further---linking these ideas and chains to lowering blood pressure. We can't quite do that here. Answer choice (E) doesn't require us to. It just needs to link engaging in exercise with lowering stress. We only need one person who engages in exercise to have lower stress for answer choice (E) to have to be true.

Hope that helps!