Competitive figure skaters are judged by panels of up to nine judges,

Question

Competitive figure skaters are judged by panels of up to nine judges, who use a numerical scale with the highest mark being 6. To arrive at a total score, all judges’ marks are summed. Competitive divers are judged by panels of five or seven judges using a scale with 10 as the highest mark. Before all judges’ marks are summed to a final score, however, the highest and lowest marks are discarded in order to eliminate the possibility of bias either in favor of or against a particular diver. Competitive figure skating should adopt the approach taken in diving because it is a fairer system.

Which one of the following can be inferred from the passage above?

(A) There is wider disagreement among figure skating judges than among diving judges. 
(B) Currently, there is a greater possibility of bias in the scoring process for competitive figure skating than in that for diving. 
(C) It is more likely that a diver will receive a biased total score than that a skater will. 
(D) It is fairer to judge a competitor on a 10-point scale than a 6-point scale. 
(E) Without the discarding of highest and lowest marks, diving would be more vulnerable to bias than figure skating.

Source : LSAT PrepTest February 1997

To make an inference, assume all the statements in the stimulus are true, and look for one that must be true as a consequence.

This is one of those rare Inference questions based on an argument instead of a set of premises. Figure skating should adopt diving’s fairer scoring system. How come? Because diving knocks off the top and bottom scores from judges in order to eliminate bias (that is, the bias of a judge who might seek artificially to boost or damage a diver’s score). Since diving takes steps to eliminate the extreme scores, while figure skating just adds all scores up, there must be more room within figure skating to admit the bias an extreme score might represent. That’s exactly what correct choice (B) says.

(A) No inference can be made about relative levels of disagreement. If all judges agree, then their individual scores will be close together, and that’s fine. The issue is, rather, what happens if most scores are quite close but one maverick decides, through bias, to buck the trend.

(C) is a 180. The author clearly feels that diving scores offer less room for bias than figure skating scores. That’s why she wants the latter to adopt the system of the former.

(D) focuses on irrelevant details—details included, frankly, largely to support wrong choice (D). The six- and ten-point details, introduced in passing, aren’t material to any correction for bias.

(E) goes too far. If the omission of outlying scores were discontinued, at most we could infer that diving would be as vulnerable to bias as skating currently is. There’s no grounds for believing it would be more so.

nahid78 · Answer

Dear mikemcgarry sir,
Hope you are doing well.
Can you please help me understand this one?
Passage says that in Diving divers are judged after removing highest and lowest score, thus reducing the possibility of unfairness and that skating process, in which no such elimination is observed, should adopt this process. Then can't we infer that diving would be biased if these highest and lowest marks aren't discarded?!!

Thanks in advance...

-Nahid

kannu44 · Answer

Could you please explain why E cant be the answer .

Thanks

vmelgargalan · Answer

(A) There is wider disagreement among figure skating judges than among diving judges.  Wrong, we do not know whether there is a bigger disagreement between judges of the two sports. Out of scope.  
(B) Currently, there is a greater possibility of bias in the scoring process for competitive figure skating than in that for diving.  Correct, the argument is implying that there are higher chances of bias in competitive skating than in diving, since diving eliminates the highest and lowest score to make it more fair. 
(C) It is more likely that a diver will receive a biased total score than that a skater will.  Wrong, the question never estates that it is more likely for the score to be biased. Just that it is more likely for bias to occur. Exaggeration. 
(D) It is fairer to judge a competitor on a 10-point scale than a 6-point scale.  Out of scope. This has nothing to do with the question and is neverr discussed. 
(E) Without the discarding of highest and lowest marks, diving would be more vulnerable to bias than figure skating.  Wrong, once again this an exageration. This is saying that if diving eliminated the process of deleting the highest and lowest score, divers would scores would be more biased than dancers. We do not know this, all the argument says is that 'to reduce bias' not that the sport in itself is more biased and that is why it is done.

VyshakhR1995 · Answer

Competitive figure skating should adopt the approach taken in diving because it is a fairer system. 
----> discarding of highest and lowest marks diving is less vulnerable to bias than than figure skating
But from this We cannot infer Without the discarding of highest and lowest marks, diving would be more vulnerable to bias than figure skating. 
That case is not discussed here.Even without the discarding of highest and lowest marks, diving may be less vulnerable to bias.

Consider this 
A has 10 points including grace points
Excluding grace points A has 8
B has 7 points in total.
----> A has more total points(including grace points) than B 
this doesn't mean when grace points are excluded B has more points

RohitSaluja · Answer

Option is E is a mistaken negation, the argument says Discarding high/low -> Fair judgment; and option E just negate both sides i.e. No discarding high/low -> No fair judgment, hence it is wrong. If the option would have been No fair judgment - > No discarding high/low then it could have been the right answer choice

mayankdgmat · Answer

Here is my view on E, why it can't be an answer:

(E) Without the discarding of highest and lowest marks, diving would be more vulnerable to bias than figure skating.

This tells us that Diving is more biased hence process of elimination of highest and lowest marks are being done, and figure skating is less biased and may be that much we even don't need to consider removing extreme marks. Hence it may or may not be inferred from passage depending on intensity of bias in skating figure.

unraveled · Answer

First of all the situation where without the discarding we would not be sure what may be the outsome so inferring based on that is unreasonable.
It is not necessary that what discarding leads is true. It may or may not be so the case. Otherwise you said it right.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Competitive figure skaters are judged by panels of up to nine judges,

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