Dear LSAT Prep friends, seeing as we are only two weeks and some change away from the February 2015 LSAT Test, I thought we could hone in on some Logical Reasoning practice today and go over our quantity statements. Let’s go over the basics. There are two different quantity statements: MOST and SOME. Once in a while, LSAC tries to trick you by using various words that mean the same thing as “most” and “some” to throw you off kilter. So, how about we take some of your LSAT prep time to make sure that doesn’t happen?
(1) A few people in the town will be competing in the race. Every person in town does not have work on Monday. All people in town who are not competing in the race will be spectating at the race.
Remember that “a few” is the same as “some.” So let’s diagram:
Q1: PT-some-CR
CR-some-PT
P1: PT ==> not WM
WM ==> notPT
P2: not CR ==> SR
Not SR ==> CR
So to combine a Sufficient & Necessary statement with a quantity statement, the right-hand side variable of the quantity statement and the sufficient condition of the Sufficient & Necessary statement must be the same. You want to align like so: CR-some-PT ==> not WM, to conclude: CR-some-not WM i.e. some people competing in the race will not work on Monday.
Let’s try another:
(2) Everyone who doesn’t bike to work refuses to eat healthy food. The majority of people who do not refuse to eat healthy food live longer lives.
Remember that “most” means more than 50% i.e. “a majority.”
P1: not BW ==> REHF
not REHF ==> BW
Q1: not REHF-most-LLL
LLL-some-not REHF
Remember that when you switch the sides of the variables of a “most” statement, the “most” becomes a “some.” We can now align like so: LLL-some-not REHF ==> BW to conclude: LLL-some-BW, i.e. some people who live longer lives bike to work.
Simple right? Don’t let LSAC trick you into forgetting your quantity rules. They’re very straightforward, as long as you know which quantity you are dealing with! Now crack open that Logical Reasoning section and start putting in some quality time with quantities.
Happy Studying!
