Q11 - Plumb-Ace advertises its plumbers are more qualified

[valjohnson948]

How is E the correct answer here?

[Daniella.owusu]

The conclusion states that the certification process is not very difficult This is based off of the fact that almost everyone who takes the written portion passes very easily.

Passing very easily is, in this case, the same as saying not very difficult. So the argument is essentially saying that if it not very difficult to pass it easily, then the process itself is not very difficult. But why does that have to be the case? Maybe the process is very difficult but these people are putting in a whole lot of work. It is assuming that because one part of this exam (almost everyone passing) is a certain way, the whole test itself must be easy and not difficult.

HTH

[ohthatpatrick]

Interesting interpretation ...

You definitely COULD make the rebuttal that just because almost everyone passes a test easily we can't infer that the test is easy since it could just be that the test is incredibly hard but almost everyone studies assiduously to get adequately prepared.

But I think what LSAC was really going for in this question is this:

Prem: Passing the written portion of the certification process is not very difficult

Conc: The certification process is not very difficult

The written portion is just one component of the certification process. (Think back to getting your driver's license --- many people failed to get their license the first time they tried, but not because of the WRITTEN portion. They may have passed that easily, but they failed the much more challenging DRIVING portion of the examination)

Same deal here. To be certified, you have to pass EVERY portion of the certification process, so we can't infer anything about the difficulty of the entire certification process based solely on how easily the written portion is.

(A) This is the classic Nec/Suff Flaw (which means that there was a conditional statement in the premise and the author either illegally reversed it or illegally negated it to get to his conclusion). Was there a conditional statement in the premise? No. Eliminate.

(B) Did this author need to assume that being a qualified plumber REQUIRES that you complete some certification process? No. This author isn't trying to assess what makes someone a qualified plumber (he even admits "they may or may not be qualified" ... i.e., not my concern). This author is trying to assess whether or not the certification process is difficult.

(C) Does it weaken this author's argument if OTHER certification processes are even easier than Plumb-Ace's? No. That almost sounds like it strengthens the author's argument. (Technically, it doesn't matter either way because the argument is concerned with an absolute quality of "whether or not it's very difficult" not a relative quality of "whether it's more/less difficult")

(D) This is the classic flaw called Absence of Evidence (which means the author says something like, "no one has ever proven that cell phones cause cancer. Therefore, they don't.") Although this does author infer that the claim "the certification process is very difficult" is false, it's not true that someone advanced an argument in favor of that claim, which the author rejected as inadequate. Instead, the author simply attacks that claim with a counterpremise "everyone passes the written portion very easily".

(E) because the written portion (part) of the certification process (whole) lacks the characteristic of being very difficult, the author concludes that the certification process (whole) must not have the characteristic of being very difficult.

[paul_piaskoski]

I see now why E is correct. However, I think you could also make a pretty good argument for C. According to the first sentence in the question stem, the "qualification" of Ace plumbers is completely relative to the qualification of other plumbers at major firms in the region, and if those other plumbers are going through a certification process that we know is "even easier", then by comparison, isn't it possible that Ace's certification is, in fact, relatively difficult? And doesn't ignoring that possibility also represent a major flaw?

[paul_piaskoski]

To put a finer point on it...how can you say this...

(Technically, it doesn't matter either way because the argument is concerned with an absolute quality of "whether or not it's very difficult" not a relative quality of "whether it's more/less difficult")

When the question stem specifically says this...

"Plumb-Ace advertises that it's plumbers are more qualified than plumbers at any other major plumbing firm in the region..."

[SharonC832]

Only a plumber who offers emergency plumbing services will be able to answer it.