Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Easy

PT142 S2 Q7 Explanation

Talbert: Chess is beneficial for

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

TopicsAgree/Disagree

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Stimulus

Talbert: Chess is beneficial for school-age children. It is enjoyable, encourages foresight and logical thinking, and discourages carelessness, inattention, and promotes mental maturity.

Sklar: My objection to teaching chess to children is that it diverts mental activity from something with societal value, such as has no societal value.

What this question is testing

Agree/Disagree

Your task

Break the argument into its conclusion and evidence, then do exactly what the question stem asks with that structure.

Common trap

Answers that sound relevant to the topic but don't connect to the argument's actual reasoning.

Winning move

Predict what a right answer must do, then test each choice against the conclusion-evidence 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
7.

Talbert's and Sklar's statements provide the strongest support for holding that they disagree with each

Answer choices

  1. Unsupported Disagree Position5% picked this

    chess promotes mental

    Although it's clear that Person 1 believes this, we can't well support that Person 2 believes that "chess does not promote mental maturity". Our only support would be "chess has no societal value", which isn't nothing, but it's easier with the correct answer to support the Agree and Disagree positions.

  2. Out of Scope2% picked this

    many activities promote mental maturity just as well as

    Out of Scope: other activities Unsupported Comparison: just as well We wouldn't be able to extract this idea from either paragraph. No one is comparing how well chess promotes mental maturity to how well other activities do.

  3. Unsupported Agree Position3% picked this

    chess is socially valuable and science

    We know that Person 2 thinks that science is valuable. But we couldn't derive from Person 1 that science is not valuable.

  4. Correct90% picked this

    children should be taught to play

    Why this is right

    Person 1 seems to believe this (it's beneficial and has all these positives), while Person 2 seems to think children should not be taught to play chess (it has no societal value and diverts attention from things that do).

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

  5. Out of Scope0% picked this

    children who neither play chess nor study science are

    We never talk about kids who don't play chess and don't study science.

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