June 2010 LSAT Section 1 Question 9

In one study of a particular plant species, 70 percent of the plants studied were reported as having patterned stems....

Julie-V on August 20, 2019

Breakdown for (A)

Hi LSAT Max, After reading the previous thread, I understand why (D) would be the correct answer. I was wondering if someone could further expand on the explanation as to why (A) would be incorrect. My thought process was that if there were more of that species in the area during the first study, then it would make sense why there's a decrease during the second study. I didn't assume that the stimulus's lack of including the populous of the plant species would affect that argument because the quantity of the plant species would bridge the gap (at least in my head). Any help is greatly appreciated, as always!

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jonah-Mead-Vancort on November 19, 2019

this is an evil quetion

shunhe on January 1, 2020

Hi @Julie-V,

The problem with (A) is that the absolute number of plants at the time shouldn't have an effect on the overall RATES of patterned stems. Notice here that one particular plant species is being covered in the study. Thus, we would normally expect the rates of a certain characteristic (such as patterned stems) to stay roughly consistent over time. Whether there are 500 plants or 1000, there needs to be another explanation for the rate changing from 70% patterned stem to 40% patterned stem. Hope this helps!

And @jonah-Mead-Vancort, keep your chin up! Figuring out the evil questions is all part of the fun Â¨Ì®