This Mini-Test consists of two Analytical Reasoning sets (9 questions altogether). Select your responses by clicking on the buttons. Limit your time to 18 minutes. . NOTE: This page contains everything you need for this Mini-Test (including explanations). So you can save the file if you wish, then test yourself off-line; or you can print the page and use pencil and paper to test yourself..
DIRECTIONS: Each group of questions is based on a brief premise and a set of rules. In answering the questions, you might find it helpful to draw rough diagrams. For each question, select the best answer from the five lettered choices.
A particular seafood restaurant serves dinner Tuesday through Sunday. The restaurant is closed on Monday. Five entrees—snapper, halibut, lobster, mahi mahi, and tuna—are served each week according to the following restrictions:
Halibut is served on three days each week, but never on Friday.
Lobster is served on one day each week.
Mahi mahi is served on three days each week, but never on consecutive days.
Halibut and snapper are both served on Saturday and Sunday.
Tuna is served five days each week.
No more than three different entrees are served on any given day.
On which of the following pairs of days could the restaurant's menu of entrees be identical? . (A) Friday and Sunday (B) Tuesday and Wednesday (C) Saturday and Sunday (D) Wednesday and Friday (E) Thursday and Friday Answer · Premise and Rules
Which of the following is a complete and accurate list of the days on which halibut and lobster may both be served? . (A) Tuesday, Thursday (B) Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday (C) Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday (D) Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday (E) Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday Answer · Premise and Rules
If mahi mahi is served on Saturday, it could be true that . (A) snapper and mahi mahi are both served on ...........Sunday (B) snapper and halibut are both served on Tuesday (C) lobster and halibut are both served on Thursday (D) tuna and snapper are both served on Saturday (E) lobster and snapper are both served on Friday Answer · Premise and Rules
Which of the following statements provides sufficient information to determine on which three days halibut is served? . (A) Mahi mahi and lobster are served on the same ...........day. (B) Lobster and snapper are both served on ...........Tuesday. (C) Tuna is served on Saturday, and lobster is served ...........on Tuesday. (D) Mahi mahi is served on Saturday, and snapper is ...........served on all but one of the six days. (E) Tuna is served on Sunday, and snapper is served ...........on Tuesday and Thursday. Answer · Premise and Rules
Eight dogs in an obedience class are learning to follow two commands—"heel" and "stay." Each dog is either a shepherd, a retriever, or a terrier, and each of these three breeds is represented at least once among the group. All female dogs in the group are retrievers. The results of the first lesson are as follows:
At least two of the dogs have learned to follow the "heel" command, but not the "stay" command.
At least two of the dogs have learned to follow the "stay" command, but not the "heel" command.
At least one of the dogs has learned to follow both commands.
Among the eight dogs, only terriers have learned to follow the "stay" command.
Which of the following statements CANNOT be true? . (A) The group includes more females than males. (B) The group includes fewer terriers than ...........shepherds. (C) The group includes more shepherds than ...........retrievers. (D) More of the dogs have learned to stay than to ...........heel. (E) More of the dogs have learned to heel than to ...........stay. Answer · Premise and Rules
If each dog has learned to follow at least one of the two commands, all of the following must true EXCEPT: . (A) All retrievers have learned to heel. (B) All shepherds have learned to heel. (C) All terriers have learned to stay. (D) No retriever has learned to stay. (E) No shepherd has learned to stay. Answer · Premise and Rules
If four of the dogs are male and four of the dogs are female, all of the following must be true EXCEPT: . (A) One of the dogs is a shepherd. (B) Four of the dogs are retrievers. (C) Three of the dogs are terriers. (D) Three of the dogs have learned to stay. (E) Four of the dogs have learned to heel. Answer · Premise and Rules
If the group includes more shepherds than terriers, the minimum number of male dogs among the group that have learned to heel is . (A) 0 (B) 1 (C) 2 (D) 3 (E) 4 Answer · Premise and Rules
If each dog has learned to follow at least one of the two commands, and if two of the dogs have learned to heel but not stay, it could be true that . (A) two of the dogs are female (B) all of the dogs are male (C) only one male dog has learned to heel (D) one female dog has learned to stay (E) two of the dogs are retrievers Answer · Premise and Rules
How To Set Up this GameThis game requires you to make six "yes-or-no" decisions for each entree. The best way to organize the information here is with a matrix, or "checkerboard," diagram (see below), in which you fill in a box with either a checkmark or an "X" as you determine whether a particular entree is served on a particular day.
Before you attempt any of the questions, ask yourself whether you can fill in any boxes in your diagram, based solely on the game's explicit conditions. Yes, you can:
You're given that halibut is not served on Friday, so place in "X" in the appropriate box (see diagram below).
You're given that halibut and snapper are both served on Saturday and Sunday, so place a checkmark in the four appropriate boxes (see diagram below).
Next, ask yourself what else you can deduce from the game's conditions. This is the key step in this game! Focus on the Saturday and Sunday columns in the diagram above. The rules of the game permit no more than three checkmarks per column. Here's what you can deduce:
Mahi mahi must be served on either Saturday or Sunday, but not on both days. Why? Because this entree must be served three days per week, but never on consecutive days.
Tuna must be served on Tuesday through Friday and on either Saturday or Sunday, but not both. Why? Tuna must be served on five of the six days, so it must be served on at least one of the two weekend days. But if tuna were served on both Saturday and Sunday, then on one of those two days four entrees (snapper, halibut, mahi mahi, and tuna) would be served. (Remember: we concluded above that mahi mahi must be served either on Saturday or Sunday.) This result would exceed the limit of three entrees per day.
Based on these deductions, two basic alternatives emerge:
Mahi mahi is served on Saturday (but not Sunday), and tuna is served on Sunday (but not Saturday)
Mahi mahi is served on Sunday (but not Saturday), and tuna is served on Saturday (but not Sunday)
We're not quite done deducing all we can from the game's rules. Based on what we've deduced so far, we can also conclude that lobster cannot be served either on Saturday or Sunday (again, because the game limits the number of entrees per day to three). So your final matrix diagram might look like this:
The correct response to Question 1 is (D). You can eliminate (A) because halibut is served on Sunday but not on Friday, so the menu for these two days cannot be the same. You can eliminate (B) as well as (E) because mahi mahi cannot be served on consecutive days. You can eliminate (C) because mahi mahi is served on either Saturday or Sunday, but not both. You can eliminate (C) also because mahi mahi is served on either Saturday or Sunday, but not both. By process of elimination, (D) must be the correct answer.
The correct response to Question 2 is (B). Halibut cannot be served on Friday, and lobster cannot be served on either Saturday or Sunday. However, both may be served on any of the other three days.
The correct response to Question 3 is (E). If mahi mahi is served on Saturday, it must be served on Tuesday and Thursday as well (otherwise, mahi mahi would be served on at least two consecutive days), and tuna must be served on Sunday rather than Saturday (otherwise, four entrees would be served on Saturday). Given these conclusions, you can eliminate (A), (B), (C), and (D) because in each one at least four entrees would be served on the day specified by the answer choice. (E) could be true, however. Lobster and snapper can both be served on Friday, since tuna is the only entree that must be served on that day.
The correct response to Question 4 is (E). This question essentially asks what information is required to determine the entire week's schedule for halibut. Only (E) provides sufficient information. If tuna is served on Sunday, mahi mahi must be served on Saturday and therefore on Tuesday and Thursday as well. (Remember: mahi mahi must be served on three non-consecutive days.) In addition, given that snapper is served on Tuesday and Thursday, snapper, mahi mahi, and tuna must all be served on these two days. Accordingly, halibut cannot be served on either of those days; otherwise, four entrees would be served on that day. Halibut must be served three days each week, and therefore must be served on Wednesday.
How To Set Up this GameThe key to handling this complex "matching" game is to recognize the inferences in each of the two conditional rules:
Rule: All female dogs in the group are retrievers. Inference: All shepherds and terriers are male.
Rule: Only terriers have learned to follow the "stay" command. Inference: No shepherd or retriever has learned to follow the "stay" command.
Here's one way to incorporate this information into a master diagram:
X
Notice in this diagram that the conditional rules are expressed visually to the right of the diagram. Follow the direction of the arrows; for example, if a dog has learned the stay command ("s"), then that dog must be a terrier ("T"). Now you're ready to tackle the questions.Question 5—Analysis (Return to Question 5)
The correct response to Question 5 is (A). At least three dogs are terriers, all of which are male. At least one dog must be a shepherd, and all shepherds are male. Thus, at least four dogs must be male, and so it is not possible for there to be more females than males among the group. Statement (A) must be false.
The correct response to Question 6 is (C). All dogs other than terriers must have learned to heel but not stay, because all dogs that have learned to stay are terriers. Thus, all retrievers and all shepherds have learned to heel but not stay, and statements (A), (B), (D), and (E) must all be true. However, it is possible for a terrier to have learned to heel but not stay; thus, statement (C) is not necessarily true.
The correct response to Question 7 is (E). Since all females must be retrievers, terriers and shepherds must all be male. There must be at least one dog of each breed among the group, and so one dog must be a shepherd, and three dogs must be terriers. (The remaining four dogs must be retrievers.) Thus, statements (A), (B), and (C) must be true. If a dog has learned to stay, the dog must be a terrier; thus, three dogs have learned to stay, and statement (D) must be true. Although at least three dogs have learned to heel, it is possible that as many as three dogs have learned neither to heel nor to stay. Thus, statement (E) is not necessarily true.
The correct response to Question 8 is (C). At least three dogs must be terriers. Since each breed of dog must be represented at least once among the group, one of the dogs must be a retriever, and the remaining four dogs must be shepherds. One of the three terriers (all of which are male) has learned to heel. All four shepherds are male, and at least one the four shepherds has learned to heel; otherwise, only three of the dogs at most could be shepherds. Thus, a minimum of two male dogs must have learned to heel.
The correct response to Question 9 is (B). All dogs other than the two that have learned to heel but not stay must have learned to stay. All of those dogs (six in total) must be terriers and thus must be male (see general comments above). Since each breed must be represented among the group, of the two remaining dogs one must be a shepherd while the other must be a retriever. Both the shepherd and the retriever must have learned to heel but not stay. The shepherd must be male, although the retriever could be either male or female.< LSAT Home | Top
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