Assume that John receives a lower grade in economics than in physics. He must have failed at least one course if whic...

Partv July 7, 2020

Using Italian before Russian for the Consecutive Grade

Hello, the previous explanation mentioned that "answer choice (E) forces John to have a failing grade because the best grade History can have is a D and if Russian gets a lower grade than History, then John MUST HAVE failed Russian." I was wondering why the Russian Course placed after the Italian Course when both of them can be interchangeable. For example, Russian can have a D, then John MUST HAVE failed Italian. I understand through the process of elimination, E is left standing and this was the only choice. Yet, I was anticipating the idea that Italian was what John failed, ad this question threw me off. Thank you for reading this

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shunhe July 7, 2020

Hi @Partv,

Thanks for the question! So the fact that the Russian course and the Italian course are interchangeable is actually what answers your question. You shouldn’t have anticipated that Italian was what John failed, since Italian and Russian are interchangeable; instead, you should’ve anticipated that either Italian or Russian could’ve been what John failed, again, because they’re interchangeable. Sure, Russian “can” have a D, which makes John fail Italian, but also Italian could have a D, which makes John fail Russian. It doesn’t matter as long as he fails one of the two (or any other class), and that’s why (E) which concerns Russian and history is correct. In the explanation, Russian had to place after Italian because we also assume that Russian gets a lower grade than history. So if History gets a D, then Russian has to fail, if it’s also true that Russian is a lower grade than history. It’s really any grade that gets a lower grade than history has to fail; that’s the key to note.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.

Partv July 7, 2020

Thank you!!

shunhe July 7, 2020

Glad I could help!

JPB May 28, 2021

I realize we take what LSAT gives us...the consecutive grade concept was not the greatest explanation on the opening. But anyway on to other questions, learn from every question