#9 - Global, Must Be True, Except

[Dave Killoran]

Complete Question Explanation
(The complete setup for this game can be found here: lsat/viewtopic.php?f=296&t=2115)

The correct answer choice is (D)

As shown by the three distributions, it does not have to be true that exactly one person left two messages, and thus answer choice (D) is not necessarily true and is correct.

[Em.P.]

Could someone please help explain the 9th questions in this game. I don't really understand it. I was able to get rid of A,B,C. easy. It's D and E I don't understand, aren't they essentially the same. If exactly one person left two messages wouldn't that mean four other people left one message. Leaving exactly two messages does not break the rule since max amount is 3 (second rule). Which is why I lean more towards E but that is incorrect. So that is where I am, please help!
Thanks!

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi Em,

Let's take a look at this one. When we think about the game as a whole, we have 3 different potential distributions for the number of messages per person.

3-1-1-1
2-1-1-1-1
1-1-1-1-1-1

That's because we know that at most one person leaves multiple messages, and they can only leave a maximum of 3. This is a global question, and so it's based on the rules for the game as a whole. For answer choice (D), we don't know that exactly one person left at least two messages. It's possible that no one left two messages---everyone could have just left one. We have the potential 1-1 distribution, where each of the six people leaves exactly one message each. Answer choice (D) then is a could be true, but not a must be true.

Answer choice (E) on the other hand, has to be true based on the distributions. The smallest distribution we have (3-1-1-1) still has four individuals leaving messages.

Hope that helps!
Rachael