Unplugged Practice Test: Logical Reasoning Set 3, Question 19 (Flaw)
Taking the test? Finish it first. This page shows the answer.
- Flaw questions ask you to name the reasoning error the argument commits, not to judge whether its conclusion is true.
- Before you read the choices, describe the argument's error in your own words. Most Flaw questions reward 1 of a small set of recurring patterns, so naming the pattern first keeps the trap answers from sounding right.
- Every question on this test is original, written to the same logical skeletons as real questions, and Steve checked every one himself before release.
The question
Hospital planner: A regional hospital is weighing 2 ways to cover its emergency department overnight: keep attending physicians on the floor through the night, or hand those hours to residents who sleep on call. The records leave no doubt that the second arrangement stretches out the time before treatment decisions get made and sends patients home in worse shape. Overnight attending coverage is therefore what hospitals should adopt, since it puts a seasoned clinician beside a patient the moment that patient arrives.
19. Which one of the following most accurately describes a flaw in the planner's reasoning?
- (A)It assumes that residents on call handle no useful work during the overnight hours.
- (B)It treats the 2 arrangements it mentions as exhausting the ways a hospital might cover those hours.
- (C)It holds at once that hospitals ought to accept overnight resident coverage and that they ought not to.
- (D)It derives the drawbacks of overnight resident coverage from its recommendation that attendings staff those hours.
- (E)It never says what backs its claim that resident coverage delays decisions and worsens outcomes.
BWhy (B) is correct
The planner lays out two options for overnight emergency coverage, attendings on the floor or residents who sleep on call, and using records showing the resident arrangement delays treatment decisions and worsens outcomes, concludes hospitals should adopt overnight attending coverage instead. That move only holds if those two arrangements are the only ways to staff the hours, and the planner never rules out other coverage models a hospital might use. (B) names that gap.
Why the other answers are wrong
AWhy (A) is wrong
(A) says the planner assumes residents on call do no useful work, but the argument never needs that; it rests on the records on delayed decisions and worse outcomes.
CWhy (C) is wrong
(C) would require the planner to both endorse and reject resident coverage, which the argument never does.
DWhy (D) is wrong
(D) has the direction backward: the planner derives the recommendation from the drawbacks of resident coverage, not the drawbacks from the recommendation.
EWhy (E) is wrong
(E) is answered by the stimulus itself, which points to records as the basis for the claim about delay and worse outcomes.
Common questions
What type of question is this?
Flaw. Flaw questions ask you to name the reasoning error the argument commits, not to judge whether its conclusion is true.
How do I get better at Flaw questions?
Before you read the choices, describe the argument's error in your own words. Most Flaw questions reward 1 of a small set of recurring patterns, so naming the pattern first keeps the trap answers from sounding right. The free LSAT cheat sheet lists the wrong-answer patterns to watch for on every type.
