Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Easy

PT149 S4 Q12 ExplanationFor years, university administrators

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

TopicsStrengthen

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Stimulus

For years, university administrators, corporations, and government agencies have been predicting an imminent and catastrophic shortage of scientists and engineers. But since there is little noticeable upward pressure on the salaries of scientists and engineers, and unemployment is as these doomsayers are turning out to be wrong.

What this question is testing

Strengthen

Your task

Find the choice that makes the argument's conclusion more likely to be true.

Common trap

Answers that are consistent with the argument but add no real support, or that strengthen a claim the argument doesn't make.

Winning move

Locate the gap between evidence and conclusion, then pick the choice that closes it.

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

The question
12.

Which one of the following would, if true, most strengthen the

Answer choices, explained

  1. Unclear Impact6% picked this

    The proportion of all research in science and engineering being carried out by corporations is larger than it

    There's no common sense connection between a higher proportion of corporate-sponsored research and whether or not there's a shortage vs. adequate amount of scientists and engineers. A higher amount of research would suggest that there are plenty of scientists and engineers producing work, but a proportional increase can happen even as an overall total is shrinking.

  2. Unclear Impact7% picked this

    Most students choose fields of study that offer some prospect of

    We don't really know whether the fields of science and engineering would be considered fields with a prospect of financial success. All we know is that salaries in these fields seem consistent over time, but we don't know in relation to other fields of study whether they'd be considered financially successful salaries or not.

  3. Correct81% picked this

    The number of students in university programs in science and engineering has increased significantly in

    Why this is right

    This definitely is fitting the bill of, "help convince me that there isn't going to be an imminent shortage of scientists and engineers". Not only do we seem to have plenty science and engineering workers now (unemployment isn't unusually low / salaries aren't being driven up by bidding wars for scarce employees), it also seems like we're going to be well stocked in the future with scientists and engineers, since there is an increasing number of them starting the educational pipeline to that career track.

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

  4. Mixed Impact5% picked this

    Certain specializations in science and engineering have an oversupply of labor and

    Part of this strengthens (oversupply) and part of it weakens (shortage). So in the end it loses out to the correct answer which purely strengthens.

  5. No Impact1% picked this

    The knowledge and skills acquired during university programs in science and engineering need to be kept current through

    This is just a timeless fact. It doesn't help us assess whether the labor supply is going up, going down, or staying the same.

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