Q11 - A hardware store generally sells

[haeminb]

Can anyone help explain why answer choice A is correct?

Are we assuming that if Maxlast hammers are displayed just inside the entrance and people don't notice what's around them for the first several seconds, they will continue to not do so? I read this answer choice and immediately rejected it because I figured people will still take notice of Maxlast AFTER first several seconds have passed...

Help!

[db_8400]

I believe (A) is correct for the following reasons. So for starters we know that Max Hammers were on sale and near the front of the store ( id visually picture this it helps) while the Styron hammers retained their usual price and location. Answer choice A nails it because if people only spend a few seconds at the front they generally assume that the hammer would still be in the usual location maybe they wanted to buy the Max hammer and didn't see it so they settled for the Styron hammer instead? The keyword is within the MC where it says SLIGHTLY so some people did see it but more people probably just assumed its gonna be where it usually is and that could explain why it SLIGHTLY outsold the Max hammer.

B) Quality and Service? I don't think this is an issue because we don't know which hammer is better so this it out
C) This is just nonsense in my opinion, how does this explain why Styron slightly outsold Max ?
D) If this happened then why didn't it outsell Styron hammers? This doesn't explain the surprising result at all.
E) This seems tempting but when you think about it, it doesn't explain anything because we know that the Max hammer was on sale if it doesn't motivate shoppers to make a trip to the store then why did the Styron hammer only SLIGHTLY outsell the Max hammer?

[ohthatpatrick]

Great response, and thorough! 'Tis my duty to put up an official explanation on our end, but great work.

To the original poster, remember that the correct answer doesn't have to be perfect or guarantee the surprising result ... it just has to do more to explain the surprise than any other answer does.

====== Question Type: Explain the Discrepancy

Task:
Read the paradoxical information and organize it into
"Given that _____ , why is it that ______ ?"

Analysis:
Given that
M and S hammers are about equally popular by default, and that M hammers were on sale, right in front of store, while S hammers were regular price / regular location

Why is it that
S hammers sold slightly better?

Answers:
(A) This has some explanatory value. We could say that S hammers sold better because customers didn't notice the M hammer display case when they first entered the store.

(B) This doesn't offer any distinction between M and S hammers.

(C) This exacerbates the paradox. This makes us MORE likely to think M hammers should have sold better.

(D) Just like (C), this makes the paradox worse.

(E) This only explains why the store would not have had more customers than is usual. We're trying to explain why S hammers sold better than M hammers to the customers that DID come to the store.

The correct answer is (A).

[ying_yingjj]

The words that we need to pay attention to in the stimulus is that "while the Styron hammers retained their USUAL price and location".

The word "while" gave us hint that it is a contrast that maxlast brand moved their location and price.

I noticed it was due to changing the location of the Maxlast brand, however, I eliminated A because I felt "for the first several seconds" was not logically tight enough, because it does not need to be several seconds. Sometimes I was looking for an item for 30 minutes at Costco after they change an item's location, so I eliminated A.

If A was worded as "most shoppers are used to products' routine location therefore did not pay much attention to the sales display at the entrance." I would definitely consider A.

Some of the LSAT questions make me wonder: Are they really testing our logical reasoning or are they get lost in their own world to feel the satisfaction by making tricks in the test?

I will write them letters to point this out and I encourage you to point this out to them as well. It is hard for me to believe that the students who get high score out of this kind of stupid trick really reflect their ability of surviving through the law schools.

[783874728]

since I got E wrong, so I think the key is that in the first sentence the stimuli has pointed out that "sell roughly equal numbers of ......", so both B and E which try to emphasize on the particular trait of only one product don't conform to this precondition.