LSAT Question Explanation

PT 112, Section 4, Question 15

Sufficient Assumption

Argument structure

Conclusion

It's not good to have very large or very small classes, and it's not good to have professors with very light or very heavy teaching loads.

Evidence

Crowded classes and overworked professors make it hard to recruit/retain good students and faculty.

Explanation

This conclusion claims that four(!!) things are bad. But the evidence only talks about two (large classes, heavy teaching loads) of them being bad. The other two (small classes, light teaching loads) are introduced in the conclusion and aren't proven to be problematic.

To prove the conclusion we need to prove small classes and light teaching loads are bad for a university.

Answer choices

(A)

This doesn't touch on small classes at all and doesn't prove that small teaching loads are bad.

(B)

If anything this makes small class sizes seem good. And regardless, it doesn't mention small teaching loads.

(C)

Here we go! This tells us that small classes and light teaching loads are bad.

(D)

This gives us no indication of if these small classes and light teaching loads are bad for universities, just that they are common.

(E)

This seems to indicate that light teaching loads could be beneficial. And doesn't tell us anything about small class sizes.