Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Hard

PT149 S1 Q18 Explanation

If the standards committee has a quorum

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

TopicsMust be True

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Stimulus

If the standards committee has a quorum, then the general assembly will begin at 6:00 P.M. today. If the awards committee has a quorum, then at 7:00 P.M. today.

What this question is testing

Must be True

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
18.

Which one of the following statements follows logically from the

Answer choices

  1. Opposite8% picked this

    If the general assembly does not begin at 6:00 P.M. today, then the awards committee

    This acts like we're sure at least one of them will have a quorum, but we don't have any rules that guarantee a quorum will take place. These rules tell us what happens if a quorum takes place, and they could guarantee that a quorum won't take place. But if the assembly doesn't being at 6pm, all we know is that the standards committee doesn't have a quorum. We have no way to say "if standards committee doesn't have quorum, then awards committee must". We just have a way to say "If standards committee does have quorum, then awards committee cannot" (and vice versa)

  2. Opposite4% picked this

    If the standards committee does not have a quorum, then the awards committee

    This is literally the same as (awards committee), in terms of the illicit move it's trying to make. We have no way to say "if standards committee doesn't have quorum, then awards committee must". We just have a way to say "If standards committee does have quorum, then awards committee cannot" (and vice versa)

  3. Reversal29% picked this

    If the general assembly begins at 6:00 P.M. today, then the standards committee

    This acts like we're sure at least one of them will have a quorum, but we don't have any rules that guarantee a quorum will take place. We know "if standards committee has quorum, general assembly begins at 6", but this says "if general assembly begins at 6, standards committee has quorum"

  4. Opposite8% picked this

    If the general assembly does not begin at 7:00 P.M. today, then the standards committee

    This acts like we're sure at least one of them will have a quorum, but we don't have any rules that guarantee a quorum will take place. If the general assembly doesn't begin at 7pm, then we know that the awards committee doesn't have a quorum. But we have no way to say "if awards committee doesn't have quorum, then standards committee must". We just have a way to say "If awards committee does have quorum, then standards committee cannot" (and vice versa)

  5. Correct51% picked this

    If the standards committee has a quorum, then the awards committee does not

    Why this is right

    This is what we predicted. Since the two outcomes contradict each other, there's no way that both triggers can fire. Hence, if one trigger is true then the other is false. Or, if we want to see it derived standards committee quorum → general assembly at 6pm → ~awards committee quorum (~general assembly at 7pm)

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

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