Q10

[jtjrd10]

I am struggling with the wording on question 10. I do not understand what they are asking?

[bbirdwell]

tricky wording!

Essentially, for some trucks you know exactly how many other trucks come in front of them. For some trucks, you can't be exactly sure how many trucks come in front of them.

This question is asking you how many fall into the first category.

That is to say, for one of the trucks, you might know that exactly 2 trucks come in front of it. For another truck, you might know that exactly 3 trucks come in front it. For another, you might know that there could be either 4 or 5 trucks in front of it.

So the answer to the question for this example would be 2. For 2 of the trucks, I know exactly how many trucks come in front of them.

[sp_rose2005]

Hi. I am having trouble with this problem too. for q 10, I know that the truck for which we know exactly how many come before it is truck S, what's the other one?

[giladedelman]

Good question. It turns out that we also know how many trucks come before Y.

Since Y has T and W after it, and since S is in the sixth position, the latest Y could go is fourth. (Any later and there wouldn't be room for T and W). And since we know it has exactly two red trucks before it, the earliest it could go is third. But wait: if Y is third, that would put two red trucks in spots one and two, something that we're not allowed to do (no consecutive reds). So it must be true that Y is fourth.

So we know that Y is fourth, and S is sixth. Two trucks.

Does that answer your question?

[sp_rose2005]

Thank you, it did answer my question!

[kmewmewblue]

Hi. I still don't comprehend what the question means.

I understand Y is in forth and S is in sixth.

Does this question ask how many trucks we know which position they are at? Is it why Y and S therefore 2 trucks?

What does it have to do with "trucks arrived before it"? What is "it"? I am so frustrated, please help me. Thank you.

[timmydoeslsat]

Interesting analysis in this thread.

I just did this question. To me, this is no different than asking how many trucks do we know their exact position in this game.

To know how many come before it would require us to know where in fact that are located.

[LSAT-Chang]

Does this question ask how many trucks we know which position they are at? Is it why Y and S therefore 2 trucks?

Yes! That is basically what they are asking. It is one of those "must be true" questions that ask something along the lines of, "for how many of the variables can you determine their positions?" In this case, from our deductions, we know 100% sure that Y occupies the 4th position and S occupies the 6th position, but we know nothing else about the other trucks' positions. That is why (B) is correct.

What does it have to do with "trucks arrived before it"? What is "it"? I am so frustrated, please help me. Thank you.

The part about "how many trucks arrived before it" -- if you think about it, we know exactly where Y and S goes, so wouldn't we also know how many trucks arrived before both Y and S? We can see from our diagram that 3 trucks arrived before Y and that 5 trucks arrived before S. And the "it" they are referring to is basically those trucks that have a determined position (so in this case, Y and S).

Basically they are trying to make the question "confusing" but if you know the position of a certain number of trucks, then you would automatically know how many trucks arrived before those trucks since this is an ordering game and there are only 7 trucks.

Hope this helped!!

[kmewmewblue]

Thank you! That cleared me up.
I loose points at these kind of questions....
I have to be very careful.

LSAT makers are doing great job for eliminating people like me.
But, I will not surrender yet.

[Carlystern]

tricky wording!

Essentially, for some trucks you know exactly how many other trucks come in front of them. For some trucks, you can't be exactly sure how many trucks come in front of them.

This question is asking you how many fall into the first category.

That is to say, for one of the trucks, you might know that exactly 2 trucks come in front of it. For another truck, you might know that exactly 3 trucks come in front it. For another, you might know that there could be either 4 or 5 trucks in front of it.

So the answer to the question for this example would be 2. For 2 of the trucks, I know exactly how many trucks come in front of them.

Evil wording...not tricky. EVIL

[tommywallach]

Ha! It happens! : )

-t