For a ten–month period, the total monthly sales of new cars within the country of Calistan remained constant. During...

SamA on November 7, 2019

Hello @farnoushsalimian,

This is a long passage, let's see if we can break it down.

10 month period: Total monthly sales of new cars within Calistan remained constant. However, sales of Marvel cars doubled, and Marvel's market share increased. What can we conclude from this? Total sales remained the same. Marvel sales went up. Therefore, other companies' sales went down.

After emission standard: Marvel's total sales remain the same. However, their market share went down. How can we explain this? The only possibility is that total sales increased. Other companies increased their sales, while marvel did not. This explains the decreased market share, without a decrease in sales.

This is why A cannot be true. The only way Marvel's market share could decrease is if other companies increased their shares. We know this for certain. The other answer choices require speculation, and are not supported by the passage.

This was an intimidating question for me at first. Then I realized how this question was trying to test me. It is a classic "percentage vs. total number" question that you will see frequently on the LSAT. It's just disguised by a long passage. Keep an eye out for percentage (i.e. market share) questions and you will now have a better idea of how to approach them.