Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Easy

PT10 S4 Q1 Explanation

A physician who is too thorough

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Logical Reasoning question.

TopicsWeaken

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Full official LSAT questions are available through LawHub. This page provides LSAT Lab's explanation, strategy, and review tools without republishing the full official question.

Stimulus

A physician who is too thorough in conducting a medical checkup is likely to subject the patient to the discomfort and expense of unnecessary tests. One who is not thorough enough is likely to miss some serious problem and therefore give the patient a false sense of security. It is difficult for for patients to have medical checkups when they do not feel ill.

What this question is testing

Weaken

Conclusion

The author tells healthy-feeling patients: skip the checkup.

Evidence

The author paints checkups as lose-lose. Be too thorough and you waste money on unnecessary tests; be not thorough enough and you miss real problems and falsely reassure the patient. And physicians can't reliably hit the sweet spot.

Evaluate

To weaken this, we want a reason checkups still earn their keep. The most direct version: the patient can't self-diagnose. If physicians can detect serious diseases that the patient cannot, then skipping checkups means missing problems the patient would never have caught on their own — a real loss the author didn't price in.

Goal

Find the answer that says physicians catch problems patients can't.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question
1.

Which one of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the argument

Answer choices

  1. Correct83% picked this

    Some serious diseases in their early stages have symptoms that physicians can readily detect, although patients are not

    Why this is right

    This weakens the conclusion. If some serious diseases have early-stage symptoms that physicians can readily detect but patients can't, then skipping checkups means missing exactly the kinds of problems the patient would never catch on their own. That's a real, unique value of checkups that the author didn't address. Even with calibration problems, the chance of catching otherwise-missed serious diseases makes checkups valuable for asymptomatic patients.

    Skill tested: Weaken · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

  2. No Impact1% picked this

    Under the pressure of reduced reimbursements, physicians have been reducing the average amount of time they spend

    That physicians spend less time on average doesn't bear on whether asymptomatic patients should bother getting checkups. It's an industry trend, not a reason for or against the patient's decision.

  3. No Impact7% picked this

    Patients not medically trained are unable to judge for themselves what degree of thoroughness is appropriate for physicians

    This is consistent with the author's premise (physicians struggle with calibration) and doesn't challenge the conclusion. If patients can't self-judge thoroughness either, that doesn't change whether checkups are worth getting.

  4. No Impact1% picked this

    Many people are financially unable to afford regular

    Affordability is a separate issue from the medical wisdom of checkups. The author argues that even if you can afford one, it's unwise. Affordability doesn't affect that case.

  5. No Impact8% picked this

    Some physicians sometimes exercise exactly the right degree of thoroughness in performing

    The author already concedes that some physicians get the right thoroughness sometimes; the issue is that they can't reliably do so. "Some sometimes get it right" is consistent with the author's claim that calibration is generally unreliable.

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