Q24 - Music critic: How well an

[LeeJ891]

I think that answer choice B is still incorrect and answer choice C is correct.

The music critic's conclusion is about the characteristics of success, claiming that sales are not an indicator. So then, an underground group not meeting criteria that other groups find desirable should not be considered a marking of their success (ie their recording may not sell well and the group is still considered successful). But then the critic states that group's low sales could just mean that the group is incompetent (ie that they are not actually very good and that is why they have low sales).

For his/her conclusion to be valid, we just need to justify that a group may have low sales and still be successful (answer choice C). For all we know, incompetence is also part of the the definition of success in underground groups. Why should we assume that if they are incompetent and have low sales that they are not successful? I know it sounds funny but I think in LSAT world, it's a stretch to assume test taker equates competence and success (especially since, in this question, we are not even equating selling more recordings with success).

Does anyone else agree?

[smiller]

This is a tough question primarily because (C) is such a tempting answer. It's helpful to note that the question stem asks for the answer that most helps to justify the critic's argument. That word "most" appears pretty frequently in LR question stems. It means that more than one answer could work—in this case, more than one answer could strengthen the argument. We need to find the best answer.

It's also important to note that the conclusion is specifically about a group's success as an underground group, not about a group's success in general.

Choice (C) does strengthen the argument to some degree, but it's focusing on the one premise about what underground musicians consider desirable. It states that this criteria is not a sufficient measure of success, but it doesn't specifically mention success as an underground group, which is the type of success mentioned in the conclusion.

Choice (B) specifically addresses a group's success as an underground group. It addresses both possible situations mentioned in the premises: good sales due to being too trendy and poor sales due to incompetence. Choice (B) states that a group is unsuccessful as an underground group if either of these situations arise, directly supporting the conclusion that neither good sales nor poor sales are an indicator of a group's success as an underground group.

If you feel frustrated by the similarity between (B) and (C), remember that very few LR questions require you to spot this subtle of a difference between answer choices. Use these questions to strengthen your understanding of LR, but don't expect your entire LR score to ride on your ability to spot this kind of difference under time pressure. Questions this difficult don't even show up on every test, and when they do you might only see one or two of them in total. Remember the other 24 questions in this section, and what you can learn from them!