Q5 - Dogs learn best when they

[panman36]

I was a bit thrown off by this answer.

1. is this not the conclusion of the argument? I swear it is. I was fully expecting to see that word in one of the answer choices. If it's not, could someone explain why it isn't?

If it is the conclusion as I suspect, then:

2. is there a special reason it's referred to as a "statement" in this answer? Can that term be used in place of "conclusion"? I can't remember them doing that before. Threw me off cuz usually when you're asked to identify the conclusion you can count on that word being used in the correct answer.

[noah]

A conclusion is a statement that's supported by a premise, so it's fine for the LSAT to use that language. And, in terms of what to learn from this, you should have worked wrong-to-right, and there wasn't anything glaring about that odd word choice, while the other answers all do have glaring issues.

Let's take a look.

I see from the stem that this is asking me to identify a role - I'll ignore which part they're asking about and instead understand the structure, and then look for the part they ask about.

The stimulus begins with a statement - dogs learn best when you use your voice and hand signals. "After all" tells us we're getting support. So, the part the question asks about is the conclusion, as (D) notes.

(A) incorrectly cites it as a premise.

(B) says it's an assumption! Assumptions are unstated.

(C) says its background.

(E) is clearly wrong since there's no intermediate conclusion!

By the way, did anyone notice the gap in this argument? (You didn't have to, since it's not an assumption family question, but if your brain is trained that way, it can be hard to turn that off!)

[t_wm]

By the way, did anyone notice the gap in this argument? (You didn't have to, since it's not an assumption family question, but if your brain is trained that way, it can be hard to turn that off!)

I guess the gap is between the concepts of learning best and obedience.

[noah]

I guess the gap is between the concepts of learning best and obedience.

Bingo! (was his name-o)

[ohthatpatrick]

What does the Question Stem tell us?
Determine the Function

Break down the Stimulus:
Conclusion: Dogs learn best when trained by voice and hand
Evidence: Recent study (voice+hand was twice as good as only voice)

Any prephrase?
It's the conclusion

Answer choice analysis:
A) Not a premise

B) Not an assumption (this answer could never be right … and assumption is by definition, unwritten)

C) Not background

D) Okay. A "conclusion" is indeed "a supported statement"

E) Not intermediate. There are only two claims in the argument, so there's no room for a three-part structure.

The correct answer is D.

Takeaway/Pattern: There were only two claims here, and "after all" is one of the big four Premise indicators (because, since, after all, for). Whenever we see "after all" or "for" begin a sentence, we know that the previous sentence was a conclusion. Finally, on Main Conclusion and Determine Function questions, the conclusion is usually the first sentence or somewhere in the middle, attached to some "but/yet/however".