Don’t ever feel bad for struggling with a lower numbered question.
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)
1. Difficulty is subjective. There might be "˜harder’ problems that you think aren’t that bad.
2. Even though "on the whole" the early ones are easier, there are still going to be hard ones early on.
I don’t love this problem myself. (I sometimes wonder if LSAT has tightened up its standards a bit since these Superprep tests)
Question Type:
StrengthenArgument core:
Lotsa $$$ lost recently on large projects "”> abandon large in favor of small
Looking at that argument core, what do we need to assume in order to go from "we lost a bunch of $ on LARGE" to "let’s do SMALL instead of LARGE"?
First of all, who’s this SMALL character I haven’t heard anything about until the conclusion?
(new ideas in the conclusion will almost ALWAYS be in the correct answer)
We must be assuming that SMALL projects aren’t just as likely, or even more likely, to lose a bunch of $.
We might also be assuming that we recently lost $$ on the LARGE project
because it was LARGE, and not due to some totally unrelated reason that shouldn’t be any knock against LARGE projects.
(A) This doesn’t filter in any way between small and large, and the whole point of the conclusion is to have a preference for one over the other. Eliminate.
(B) This looks better. It’s a comparison between small/large. Does this show an advantage of SMALL, a reason why we should
prefer it? No, it says that small is
just as easy to revise as large. That’s not an advantage; that places them on equal footing. We might keep this only in the sense that is RULES OUT any objection that "large projects are easier to revise".
(C) This looks better than (B). It’s again a comparison between small/large, but it actually tells us that Small is
better. Keep it and eliminate (B).
(D) This looks decent. It’s a comparison that says Small is
better. Keep it.
(E) This is a comparison, but it’s not clear whether Small or Large is better. They each have an advantage and disadvantage. Eliminate.
So how do we choose between (C) and (D), the two answers that actually gave us a reason to prefer Small?
I’d ask myself a couple questions:
- Which one is stronger, more compelling?
- Which one better relates to the argument core, to
the reasoning above?
(D) is only talking about what project managers prefer. They’re just one part of a project. Maybe people working on the projects prefer large projects. It’s hard to make the preference of project managers seem all-important.
(C) is talking about the fate of the entire project, so it’s much stronger and more compelling. Also, it relates more to the reasoning, since the premise was about losing money. Hence, financial losses are clearly a motivating concern.
(C) is correctI’m trying to figure out what it was about (C) you found more abstract. Comparing (B) to (C), they both just generalize about small vs. large.
(B) ranks them in terms of "how easy to revise/scrap"
(C) ranks them in terms of "how likely to fail and lose money"
The most important wording we should be considering whenever our conclusion is comparative, e.g. "large should be abandoned in favor of small", is whether each answer choice offers a comparison that tilts in favor of our conclusion.
Hope this helps.