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October 2010 LSAT Section 1 Question 27

As it is presented in the passage, the approach to history taken by mainstream U.S. historians of the late nineteenth...

MichelleF on March 21, 2019

On the question about Charlie's Soup...

I notice that you said the answer is A. But one of the rules states that if Mushrooms are added third, then Lentils are added last. So, in the third question, why is the answer A (at least two items are added before zucchini) and NOT answer C: Mushrooms are added third? They both seem to be true, so why is A "more correct" than C?

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Jacob-R on March 22, 2019

Hi @michelleF

Your questions raises an absolutely crucial issue that you need to master for the LSAT. The issue is understanding if -> then statements, and knowing that just because you know the “then” is true, you do not know the “if”!

What do I mean by that? We have an if -> then conditional rule. The rule states: If mushrooms are added third, then the lentils are added last.

This tells us two pieces of information: first, that IF mushrooms are 3rd, then we KNOW lentils are last. We also know the contrapositive: that IF lentils are NOT added last, THEN mushrooms are NOT added third.

But that is absolutely it! We do not know anything about what happens if lentils are added last, other than that fact itself. And so on question 3, when we are told that lentils are added last, we do not know anything about mushrooms.

This point is absolutely crucial to master. You need to know exactly what the “direction” of the if -> then conditional is.

Does that help answer your question? Please let us know if you are still confused!