After being subjected to clinical tests

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

TopicsSufficient Assumption

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Stimulus

After being subjected to clinical tests like those used to evaluate the effectiveness of prescription drugs, a popular nonprescription herbal remedy was found to be as effective in treating painful joints as is a certain prescription drug that has been used successfully to treat this condition. The manufacturer of the herbal agents are unnecessary for the successful treatment of painful joints.

What this question is testing

Sufficient Assumption

Your task

Find the assumption that, if added, guarantees the conclusion follows.

Common trap

Answers that only partly bridge the gap, leaving the conclusion unproven.

Winning move

Identify the new term in the conclusion and pick the choice that links it to the evidence.

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 test results would provide the proof that the manufacturer claims they do if which one of the

Answer choices

Out of Scope7% picked this
People are likely to switch from using prescription drugs to using herbal remedies if the herbal remedies are found to be as
This answer speculates about what will happen if the herbal remedy were to be found as effective as prescription drugs, but offers no support for the conclusion that chemical agents are unnecessary to successfully treat painful joints.
7%
Correct81% picked this
The herbal remedy contains no chemical agents that are effective in
Why this is right
This ensures that the manufacturer is correct in asserting that chemical agents are not necessary to successfully treat painful joints. If chemical agents aren’t involved in the herbal remedy and the herbal remedy is effective, then chemical agents are not necessary to treat painful joints.
Skill tested: Sufficient Assumption · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.
81%
Too Weak2% picked this
None of the people who participated in the test of the prescription drug had ever tried using an herbal
This supports the study showing that the herbal remedy is as effective as prescription drugs in treating painful joints by removing one possible mechanism by which the study would have mistakenly attributed the impact of remedy. But this doesn’t speak to whether chemicals were involved in successfully treating painful joints by the herbal remedy.
2%
Too Weak8% picked this
The researchers who analyzed the results of the clinical testing of the herbal remedy had also analyzed the results of the clinical
This removes a possible way in which the study could have been misguided--say if different standards were used when calculating the effectiveness of each treatment. But this doesn’t speak to the conclusion’s assertion about chemicals.
8%
Out of Scope2% picked this
The prescription drug treats the discomfort associated with painful joints without eliminating the cause
The issue isn’t whether the prescription drug or the herbal remedy cure the patient but whether they treat the patient equally.
2%

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