LSAT Question Explanation
PT 105, Section 4, Question 18
WeakenArgument structure
Something discourages people with the personality type to be student's favorite teacher from becoming teachers.
A study showed that the best-liked teachers have a personality type that is possessed by 20% of the general public but only 5% of teachers.
Explanation
This is a flawed argument. People with the personality type being discouraged from becoming teachers is one explanation for why not many of them are teachers, but it's not the only explanation. For example, maybe people with the personality type become teachers at a normal rate but then after becoming a teacher their personality type changes.
Answer choices
This seems to have nothing to do with whether people with the personality type are discouraged from becoming teachers.
If anything, this seems like it might align with the conclusion. This seems to show people with the personality type pursuing the teaching profession at a low rate, potentially indicating that something is discouraging them from becoming teachers. If so, that would strengthen.
This also could just be irrelevant. Maybe a large proportion of applicants apply for teaching roles without a specialized education degree. Who knows.
It's not specified what the personality types of the students in this answer choice are. We're not concerned with the students of the teachers with the personality type, just with why people of the personality type aren't well represented among the teaching profession. So this doesn't seem to be relevant.
This just seems to further indicate that the personality type is very likeable. It doesn't weaken that people with the personality type are discouraged from becoming teachers for some reason.
This gives an alternate explanation for the discrepancy in the statistics - teachers with the personality type quit at a high rate. Maybe they aren't discouraged from pursuing teaching in the first place, they just frequently quit after starting their education career.