October 2010 LSAT Section 3 Question 2

Since there is no survival value in an animal's having an organ that is able to function when all its other organs ha...

JohnBondi on May 20, 2022

Conclusions

Is there a better way to learn conclusion verbiage in the passages? My main problem is determining the conclusion and premise. I feel stupid when the person in the video says things like "clearly, the conclusion is..." or "obviously, the conclusion is..." It isn't obvious to me and I feel like a moron getting that incorrect on three of four sample passages.

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on May 20, 2022

I have that same question as I'm finding it difficult with these videos to tell which is the conclusion based on the paragraphs. especially on the Mars Human technology one (Main Point Q 2)

Emil-Kunkin on May 25, 2022

Hi Johnbondi,

While there are some terms that tell us when we are dealing with a conclusion (like thus or therefore), we generally want to consider how the logic flows.

One test I like to use to find the main point is to use a because or a therefore. That is, if I am struggling to figure out if A or B is the main point, I will try to say "A therefore B" and "B therefore A" and use the one that sounds logically correct to determine what the conclusion is.

We could try that for the Mars technology question (which is one of my personal least favorite questions): it is probably within reach to alter the climate of mars therefore research into altering the climate is justified.

This makes perfect logical sense- we have a statement that something is possible, therefore we should do it.

Let's try this the other way around.

We could say: It is justified that we research altering the climate of mars, therefore it is within reach to alter it.

This makes little sense. Just because research is justified does not guarantee that it will happen, and even if the research does happen, that does not guarantee it to be possible to alter the climate of mars.

Since this test shows that A supports D rather than D supporting A, D is the main point.