Logical Reasoning

PT155 · S4 · Q12 Typically, a design that turns

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

  • Save & drill this skill — build targeted practice sets from questions like this one

  • Video walkthroughs — watch every question solved step by step

  • 81 official LSATs — as questions, timed sections & full-length tests

Start practicing free

Typically, a design that turns out well has gone through many drafts, each an improvement over the previous one.

Statements

Causal Difference-Maker (what usually allows)

Sketches help us to see the flaws and advantages of a design.

Most Claims (typically / tend to)

Most good designs are the result of many drafts, and each draft usually is an improvement on the previous one.

Most of the time, the tentative parts of the sketch help the designer to see the parts of the design they haven't thought sharply enough about yet.

Evaluate

If we're looking for a safely worded takeaway that combines multiple ideas, it will probably play off the causal sequence of how sketches help designers, and how successive drafts tend to get better.

We'd be speculating a little, but one idea that would tie them all together is to say something like: as a designer goes from one draft to another, she makes a sketch, which helps her see the flaws or under-conceptualized parts of the design and then fix them.

But there's no reason the answer needs to tie everything together. We could make a Trait Overlap inference by saying , or .

Goal

Beware strong wording, out of scope ideas, or unknown comparisons. Look for the correct answer to reinforce the fact that sketches are usually the way that designers figure out the way forward with their design.

12.

The statements above, if true, most strongly support which one of the following?

  1. The designs that turn out

    Too Strong: best / most

    Here's the classic Too Strong type of trap answer. This paragraph spoke in general terms, not extreme terms like "best" / "most".

    9% picked this

  2. Correct

    Many good designs have emerged

    Why this is right

    This is sort of a Trait Overlap type of inference. The first sentence talks about good designs (ones that turned out well), and said that most of them go through many iterations. The second sentence talks about the idea that designers usually use sketches to see the flaws in their ideas. The third sentence talks about how the weak parts of the sketch point the designer to towards the most inadequate (flawed) parts of the design. It's not quite derivable in a Must Be True sense, but this is Most Supported. "Many" is a relatively weak quantity that just means "at least a few".

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

    74% picked this

  3. Designs that do not turn

    Fake Opposite Too Strong: universal

    We were told that designs that turn out well typically did go through many drafts. This answer is just trying to flip those two ideas (and not hedging its wording at all, which makes it sound like "all ideas that don't turn out well" didn't go through drafts). If we say, college athletes that make it to the pros typically started playing their sport by the time they were 10 years old Does that mean we can infer that, college athletes that don't make it to the pros typically did not start playing their sport by the time they were 10 years old? Of course not. We aren't allowed to take claims and just flip the polarity of both ideas. Saying "black lives matter" does not imply "non-black lives don't matter".

    10% picked this

  4. Designs whose initial conceptualization was

    Too Strong: rarely

    We can't speak to the frequency with which ideas ultimately turn out well. "rarely" = less than 50% of the time. Do we know whether "most inadequately conceived ideas do not turn out well"? No, for all we know, most of them eventually turn out well via sketches, drafts, and iterative improvements.

    4% picked this

  5. A designer will never see

    Too Strong: never

    My goodness, this is too strong. We know that sketches usually allow a designer to see the flaws and advantages, but this answer acts like we were told that only sketches allow a designer to see these things.

    3% picked this

Continue the review in LSAT Lab

Save this question, watch the video walkthrough, and drill similar questions in your LSAT Lab account.

Save and practice this skill
LSAT Lab

Turn this review into a targeted study plan.

Save this question, drill more like it, watch the video walkthrough, and track your progress in your LSAT Lab account.

Start practicing free