Q20

[kimkxle]

Can someone please help me with question #20? I understand why the 3rd "R" can not go in the 1st and 2nd slot, but can not see why "R" can not go in the 3rd slot. Please help.

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

Q, R, S, T, U

If R speaks second at meeting 2 and third at meeting 3, then the other front two positions must be made up Q, S, T, U.

_ _ _ _ _ Meeting 1
_ R _ _ _ Meeting 2
R _ _ _ _ Meeting 3

R cannot speak first or second at the first meeting. But R could speak 3rd, 4th, or 5th. This means that answer choice (D) is correct.

Is it possible that you misread something somewhere? Because R can go into the third spot. Does that clear this one up?

[kimkxle]

That's strange because the testmaster prep course gave me the answer as R can fit 4th and 5th but not 3rd. Testmaster gave me the answer to Question #20 as A, but I spent an entire hour on this question and I kept getting D as the answer. I agree with you, maybe testmaster is wrong or I might have mistaken their answer choice to be D but I thought they meant A so I marked A as the answer choice. Thanks for the clarification. I'm glad its D.

[geo,despo]

Q, R, S, T, U

If R speaks second at meeting 2 and third at meeting 3, then the other front two positions must be made up Q, S, T, U.

_ _ _ _ _ Meeting 1
_ R _ _ _ Meeting 2
R _ _ _ _ Meeting 3

R cannot speak first or second at the first meeting. But R could speak 3rd, 4th, or 5th. This means that answer choice (D) is correct.

Is it possible that you misread something somewhere? Because R can go into the third spot. Does that clear this one up?

I def missed something here I have been studying all day, my brain hurts and for some reason I can't get over this question. My concern is if R is in 3 or 4 that leaves the 5th space in meetings 1, 2 and 3 open. The rule states if a candidate speaks fifth in any of the meetings they must speak first at at least one of the other meetings... If R is not in the 5th spot but is in the 1st spot of meeting 3 then that would mean the 3 vacant 5th spots of the meetings will be either QSTU and only 2 of them could go in the first spot satisfying rule #2. Please point out what it is im missing!!
If what I said confuses you please let me know..
Basically if R is not in the 5th speaker in one of the meetings but takes up the 1st space in meeting 3 how can qstu satisfy rule 2 if they are placed in the 5th spot an unable to be in the 1st at another meeting!!?!

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

What you're saying makes perfect sense.

The problem is that you forgot to consider that one element could go fifth twice, thereby only requiring two elements to go first. Here's how it would look.

Q, R, S, T, U

If R speaks second at meeting 2 and third at meeting 3, then the other front two positions must be made up Q, S, T, U.

Q U R S T - Meeting 1
T R S U Q - Meeting 2
R S U Q T - Meeting 3
1 2 3 4 5

Does that help clear this one up?

[goriano]

Q, R, S, T, U

If R speaks second at meeting 2 and third at meeting 3, then the other front two positions must be made up Q, S, T, U.

_ _ _ _ _ Meeting 1
_ R _ _ _ Meeting 2
R _ _ _ _ Meeting 3

R cannot speak first or second at the first meeting. But R could speak 3rd, 4th, or 5th. This means that answer choice (D) is correct.

Is it possible that you misread something somewhere? Because R can go into the third spot. Does that clear this one up?

I def missed something here I have been studying all day, my brain hurts and for some reason I can't get over this question. My concern is if R is in 3 or 4 that leaves the 5th space in meetings 1, 2 and 3 open. The rule states if a candidate speaks fifth in any of the meetings they must speak first at at least one of the other meetings... If R is not in the 5th spot but is in the 1st spot of meeting 3 then that would mean the 3 vacant 5th spots of the meetings will be either QSTU and only 2 of them could go in the first spot satisfying rule #2. Please point out what it is im missing!!
If what I said confuses you please let me know..
Basically if R is not in the 5th speaker in one of the meetings but takes up the 1st space in meeting 3 how can qstu satisfy rule 2 if they are placed in the 5th spot an unable to be in the 1st at another meeting!!?!

Another way to think about it is that the rule states

IF you speak 5th, THEN you speak 1st

This is different from

IF you speak 1st, THEN you speak 5th, which I think is why you were having trouble

[cobbkayana.m]

I had a similar issue with this question. The stimulus initially says "Five candidates for Mayor - Q,R,S,T and U - will each speak exactly once at each of three town meetings." So how could R go 5th twice?

Rule 2 says "Any candidate who speaks 5th at any of the meetings must speak first at at least one other meeting."

In formal logic this is if 5th somewhere --> 1st somewhere else at least once.

Question number 20. asks if R is 2nd at meeting 2 and 1st at meeting 3, that means that any other four elements can go 5th in meeting one. But that would mean in the event that R is not 5th in meeting one there are three different elements that could go 5th and therefore would have to go first somewhere else. If R is already taking up one of those 1st slots as the question states (meeting 3) that leaves one extra element that has taken up the 5th slot in meeting 1 without their required 1st slot somewhere else because R is using one.

It still doesn't make sense to me. If every element goes once, every element that is 5th must go first and there are three elements that have to go first, but only two slots available for them the correct answer should be that the only space R can go in given these conditions, it slot 5 for the first meeting. Or am I still missing something?