October 2011 LSAT - Section 2 - Question 12

Which one of the following, if substituted for the constraint that if Jaramillo is assigned to one of the ambassadors...

Dina May 19, 2021

clarification

can someone explain why A is not correct? thank you

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Victoria June 7, 2021

Hi @Dina,

Happy to help!

Let's start by going through our game set-up. We know that a government needs to assign new ambassadors to Venezuela, Yemen, and Zambia.

There are five candidates for these ambassadorships: J, K, L, N, and O.

One ambassador will be assigned to each country and no ambassador will be assigned to more than one country. Therefore, 3 of the 5 candidates will be assigned to ambassadorships and 2 of the 5 candidates will not.

_ _ _ | _ _
V Y Z

Now let's start going through our conditions.

Rule 1: Either K or N, but not both, is assigned to one of the ambassadorships.

IN: K/N _ _
OUT: N/K _

Rule 2: If J is assigned to one of the ambassadorships, then so is K.

J --> K
Not K --> Not J

We know that both K and N cannot be assigned to ambassadorships; therefore, if J is assigned to one of the ambassadorships, then N cannot be. This is restated by answer choice (D), making it our correct answer.

Answer choice (A) is incorrect because it is simply a reversal of Rule 2 and it is possible that J is assigned to an ambassadorship and K is not.

K --> J
Not J --> Not K

We know that, if J is not assigned, then K cannot be assigned; however, it is entirely possible that J is assigned, and K is not assigned.

Notice that the following set-up meets all of our conditions (with Rule 2 substituted):

N J L | K O
V Y Z

Rule 1 - Either K or N, but not both is assigned to one of the ambassadorships. N is the ambassador to Venezuela and K is not assigned to an ambassadorship.

Substituted Rule 2 - K is not assigned to an ambassadorship, so this rule is irrelevant.

Rule 3 - O is not assigned as ambassador to Venezuela, so this rule is irrelevant.

Rule 4 - L is assigned as the ambassador to Zambia.

Therefore, answer choice (A) does not have the same effect as the current Rule 2 because it is possible for J to be assigned to an ambassadorship when K is not.

Hope this helps! Please let us know if you have any further questions.