December 2005 LSAT Section 1 Question 3

A recent study proves that at least some people possess an independent "sixth sense" that allows them to detect wheth...

AndrewArabie on April 21 at 01:55AM

Similar Question and similar answer choice

Im not sure what practice test it is from, but I know it is question 274 in the strengthen section in analytics. The stimulus on that question goes: "People in our city primarily care about rain forecasts. Our station predicts rain correctly most of the time which is more than our competitors so we are more useful and reliable than our competitors" The correct answer for that question to strengthen it was "the news station predicts rain more often than the other stations" because it addresses whether or not they're just always saying it will rain so naturally they're going to be correct more often than others when it does. It seems like "A" would have the same effect in this argument. If they're guessing they're being watched more often than not, and they're right 60% of the time, wouldn't that strengthen for the same reason as the rain prediction question above? What's the difference?

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AndrewArabie on April 21 at 01:57AM

I see my explanation for 274 was wrong but my question still remains

Emil-Kunkin on April 22 at 04:06PM

Hi, I think the difference is that in the other question you cited, the stat in question wasn't overall accuracy, but percent of correct yesses. That is, the station is measuring success only in terms of the number of times they correctly said it would rain, not in terms of overall correctness. If you say it will rain every day, then you will have correctly predicted every instance of rain even if your overall accuracy will be lower, since your measure of success ignores false positives.

This question is concerned with overall success rates unlike the one in question. A doesn't really pass the so what test. Why does it matter if they usually said they were being watched? We have no idea from the passage as to the underlying rate of being watched or not.

That said C is a pretty soft strengthener. I think it strengthens by rebutting the possibility that people in the study with really good eyesight were able to see changes in shadow or reflection or use their peripheral vision to actually detect the person watching them.

AndrewArabie on April 22 at 08:30PM

Yes I agree the C is certainly the strengthener. My problem was just with A because it just seemed to me that answer choice A would have the same impact on the argument as the correct answer choice for question 274. But reading how you describe the difference makes total sense. Thank you!