Hi everyone,

I took the LSAT in October and bombed it so I am retaking it in December and am intensively studying for the December test.

Prayerfully, I will do really well on the December exam. 

Any helpful advice you have on how to excel on Reading Comprehension (esp if you are a slower reader, like I am) would be really appreciated!  RC is my worst section, but I am trying to improve all sections (hence, this question from LR).  Thanks in advance!

This question comes from PT #20, Section 4 - Question #13.

Mature white pines intercept almost all the sunlight that shines on them.  They leave a deep litter that dries readily, and they grow to prodigious height so that, even when there are large gaps in a stand of such trees, little light reaches the forest floor.  For this reason, white pines cannot regenerate in their own shade.  Thus, when in a dense forest a stand of trees consists of nothing but mature white pines, it is a fair bet that ______.

Which one of the following most logically concludes the argument?

A.   the ages of the trees in the stand do not differ from each other by much more than the length of time it takes a white pine to grow to maturity.
B.   The land on which the stand is now growing had been cleared of all trees at the time when the first of the white pines started growing.
C.   Competition among the trees in the stand for sunlight will soon result in some trees’ dying and the stand thus becoming thinner.
D.   Other species of trees will soon begin to colonize the stand, eventually replacing all of the white pines.
E.   Any differences in the heights of the trees in the stand are attributable solely to differences in the ages of the trees.

The answer to the above question is A, but I am very confused as to why.  I thought C sounded the most logical (though I was not blown over by that answer). 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Lisa

The answer C may sound plausible, but the passage never says anything to this effect.  You're making an assumption that trees in the stand (which are all white pines) are competing for sunlight to a level where the ones less exposed might die.  Thus you can cross out this answer.

Answer A is the best because it most closely corresponds to the second to last sentence, "For this reason, white pines cannot regenerate in their own shade".  This means that all of the white pines growing in the forest would be from the same "generation" of trees.  Thus, that means over time, you would not expect to see any white pine that far exceeds the age of other white pines by more than the time of maturity of a white pine.

thanks for the congratulations.  Uva is my alma mater, so perhaps that was a factor.

169/3.9

Thanks guys.
 
I am not going to take the LSATs again.  Thinking about it some more, I'd be content with attending some other schools.  Harvard and Stanford (not even considering yale) are both long shots, and it'd be nice to get in, but it's not my only desire.

Interestingly enough, a 170 with 3.9 gpa yields roughly a 50% acceptance rate according the LSN.  Kinda shocking to think that one more correct answer on the LSATs can make such a huge difference.

I did score higher on my practice tests, but that was on average.   I scored anywhere from 168 - 175.   The reason I don't really want to take it again is because I don't have as much time as I had before to study and there's no guarantee that I'll do better.   As you guys know, there are 20 different factors that determine your test score, aside from how well you do practice tests.

What do you guys think?