PrepTest 10 (Feb. 1994), Section B, Question 2--Please help! Forum

[LSAT_Padawan]

Paraphrasing this STRENGTHENING question...

A doctor who is too thorough in conducting a medical checkup is likely to subject the patient to the discomfort and expense of unnecessary tests. One who is not thorough enough is likely to miss some serious problem and therefore give the patient false sense of security. It is difficult for docs to judge exactly how thorough they should be. Therefore, it is generally unwise for patients to have medical checkups when they do not feel ill.

Which one of the following, if true, would provide the most support of the conclusion in the passage?

(B) Sometimes, unnecessary medical tests cause healthy people to become ill.
(E) Doctors can eliminate the need to order certain tests by carefully questioning patients and rejecting some possibilities on that basis.

My reasoning:

1st Premise: A doctor that is too thorough in conducting medical check up will cause client discomfort and monetary expense.

2nd Premise: A doctor that is not thorough will neglect serious medical condition and give patient false sense of security.

Conclusion: Patient should not ask for a medical checkup unless they feel ill.

I do not get why (B) is the correct answer. If anything, (B) weakens the conclusion because according to the conclusion, if someone is sick, then they go to the doctor and if the doctor administers unnecessary tests, they the patient becomes ill? (E) Allows the doctor to respond a patient feeling sick by asking a series of questions, thereby not being too thorough or too careless.

Thank you for your enlightenment.

[r6_philly]

I chose B right away. But explaining it is a little harder.

Conclusion is that people who feels healthy should not go get check up.

If you are healthy, you have 2 possibilities when you go for a check up
1. doctor is not thorough, in which case, he will either miss any hidden illness, or give you a false sense of security. End result, nothing. You will not benefit anything from the checkup, so there is no point in going

2. doctor is thorough, then you will a. experience discomfort, and b. undergo expensive unnecessary tests. If B is true, these tests will make you ill even though you are actually healthy before the check up. So that will worsen you as a patient, and the check up should not have been performed.

So 1 does nothing, 2 make you worse, so you should not go get the check up.

Now if you feel sick, then the thorough doctor and the tests would probably help, BUT the conclusion in the stimulus, the one you need to support is that check up is not wise for people who *do not feel sick*

[r6_philly]

BTW, E can be eliminated because it contradict premise 1. The tests in question are "unnecessary", meaning doctor will order it with out any reason. If E is true, it would mean that doctor will only order necessary tests, and will avoid unnecessary tests. Generally if the answer is weakening/contradicting the premise then it would not support the conclusion.