A group of 1,000 students

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

TopicsFlaw

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Stimulus

A group of 1,000 students was randomly selected from three high schools in a medium-sized city and asked the question, “Do you plan to finish your high school education?” More than 89 percent answered “Yes. ” This shows that the overwhelming majority of students want to finish high school, and that if due to a lack of desire on the part of the students.

What this question is testing

Flaw

Your task

Describe the reasoning error the argument actually commits.

Common trap

Answers that name a real logical flaw the argument doesn't actually make.

Winning move

Articulate the gap in the reasoning yourself, then match it to the choice that describes that gap.

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

The question

The reasoning of the argument above is questionable because

Answer choices

Trap1% picked this
fails to justify its presumption that 89 percent is an
1%
Trap2% picked this
attempts to draw two conflicting conclusions from the results of
2%
Trap1% picked this
overlooks the possibility that there may in fact not be a high dropout rate among
1%
Trap1% picked this
contradicts itself by admitting that there may be a high dropout rate among students while claiming that most students
1%
Correct96% picked this
treats high school students from a particular medium-sized city as if they are representative of
Why this is right
Answer E is correct.
Skill tested: Flaw · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.
96%

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