First off, were you able to point out any flaws in that subway ad I shared the other day?
if not........it's ok.
It's hard to look at arguments other people make, expose the gaps, and point out what they failed to consider.
Sometimes you look at an argument and go, "sounds good to me!"
So many people talk about how they "love to argue," but when it comes to studying for the LSAT, they end up arguing with the answer key!
Most people have trouble pointing out the flaws in LSAT arguments - especially when self-studying.
Because it's hard to do it alone!
That's one reason I created the LSAT courses. To walk you through how to deconstruct arguments, point out their flaws, and predict the correct answer - before even LOOKING at the answer key!
So, if you weren't able to come up with any flaws in that argument, give it another shot, then look at what other students came up with (and what I said).
|
|
Again, evidence is the correlation (in yellow):
"Kids of teen moms are twice as likely not to graduate than kids whose moms were over age 22."
Conclusion is the text at the top-right:
"I'm twice as likely not to graduate high school because you had me as a teen."
(Note the "because" in the conclusion, which suggests a causal relationship between these two characteristics, even though the evidence is only a correlation.)
What might be some other reasons why there's a correlation between being the child of a teen mom and being less likely to graduate high school?
Here are a few of your responses:
1. "failing to take into account the subjective socioeconomic factors, whether the child grows up in a single-parent family, whether there are substance issues involved, many immigrants have children younger than north americans and they generally dont have access to all the resources that many citizens do"
2. "There could be be other factors, such as a reading disability, why a child may not graduate other than having been born to a a young teen."
3. "neglect to consider the possibility that: the proposed cause and effect are both effects of a third common cause. For example, lack of intellectual curiosity might lead one to have baby young and not pay much attention to the intellectual development of the child. Irrational fear of any sort of commitment might lead people to remain single and assume less responsibility, which is arguably a precondition to accomplish anything that amount to satisfaction."
My response is kind of a combo of the 1st and 3rd above. I'd say that poverty is a potential "3rd variable" that could lead both to teen pregnancies and being less likely to graduate high school.
There are lots of potential holes in this argument, alternative possibilities/explanations, etc. It's ok if your response is different from mine.
Bottom line is, if you take a look at the world around you, you'll find there are TONS of flawed arguments everywhere you look - especially in advertisements and politics :)
After you check your responses against these, reach out and let me know how you did on this. (If enough of you had trouble, maybe I'll send out another exercise like this sometime!)
-Steve
P.S. If you haven't joined the LSAT courses and just want a quick list of some flaws, I put one together here --->
Recommended Resources:
1. LSAT Courses
The best of my LSAT material with exclusive access to attend my Live Online LSAT Master Classes + Q&As, and on-demand video lessons you can watch anytime. Plus, LSAT study plans to keep you on track. Save hundreds of dollars with an LSAT course package.
2. Logical Reasoning Explanations
The explanations that should have come with the LSAT. These don't just fall back on "out of scope," but actually tell you why the wrong answers are wrong, why the right answers are right, and the easiest way to get the correct answer.
3. Logical Reasoning Cheat Sheet
Based on what I'd typically do in college: read what the professor emphasized and condense it all onto a single piece of paper. It gave me a quick reference, making things a lot less threatening and a lot more manageable.
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment