Top Law Schools

I could not believe that of all questions, #6 was the hardest for me. Part of it was that I could not understand the stimulus. Tell me what this line is even saying..?

"The effort was not worthwhile, however, since 357 affected live otters and 900 that died were counted, but only 222 affected otters, or 18 percent of those counted were successfully rehabilitated and survived."

Since I know that 222 of 357 is not 18%, what are they saying in that statement? So you have 357 live otters that were affected by the oil spill and only 222 affected otters were successfully rehabilitated and survived. How is that 18%?

If this were a weaken question, instead of this question, which I do not even know what type it is (lots of unique question stems from this test) would E have been a correct answer? Since it challenges the conclusion of it being not worthwhile?

secretad wrote: "The effort was not worthwhile, however, since 357 affected live otters and 900 that died were counted, but only 222 affected otters, or 18 percent of those counted were successfully rehabilitated and survived."

Since I know that 222 of 357 is not 18%, what are they saying in that statement? So you have 357 live otters that were affected by the oil spill and only 222 affected otters were successfully rehabilitated and survived. How is that 18%?

I don't have the question, so I can't really say more than this but...

222 is ~18% of 900 + 357. It's out of the total otters counted, both dead and alive.

secretad wrote:If this were a weaken question, instead of this question, which I do not even know what type it is (lots of unique question stems from this test) would E have been a correct answer? Since it challenges the conclusion of it being not worthwhile?

This is a Weaken question, although it's phrased more specifically than most (we're calling into question the evidence, not just the conclusion). The issue with E is that we have no frame of reference to evaluate this information. If we find out that the cost was $5 per otter, what does that mean? If we find out that the cost was $500 per otter, what does that mean? To have a frame of reference, we'd need to know the value of the life of an otter, too, which we don't know.

However, B attacks the evidence directly, which is what the stem asks for.