Critique ·Author thinks "outcomes analysis" is misguided
I take it that "outcomes analysis" is Zirkel's social science technique. I predict that the next paragraph will tell us why the author thinks that's misguided.
Ah, this makes sense. The cases are too different: quality of evidence; attitude of judge; types of cases; etc. For "outcome analysis" to be predictively useful, a major assumption is that the cases are relevantly similar.
Researcher reads opinions to figure out which variables the judge thought was important in deciding the case. It then uses statistical methods to figure out the causal impact of those variables.
Researcher reads transcripts to figure out which variables and kinds of evidence contributed to the verdict. Presumably the researchers also use statistical tools to figure out causal impact.
Benefit ·These methods can help parties assess outcome of a potential case
Passage Style
Critique or Debate
Problem-Analysis
14.
Which one of the following ████ █████████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ███ ████████
Question Type
Main point
Focus on the author’s expression of opinion to identify the main point. Here, the author criticizes “outcomes analysis” technique at the end of P1 and in P2, and points to two approaches she views as more useful in P3.
a
The analysis of █ ███████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██████████████ █████ ██ ██ ██████ █████ ██ █████████ ███████████
This doesn’t capture the author’s criticism of “outcomes analysis” technique or her support for two other approaches. In addition, the author never suggests that “outcomes analysis” involves only a limited number of unusual discrimination suits. Rather, it involves counting the number of successful and unsuccessful plaintiffs.
b
When the number ██ ███████ ████████ ██ █ ███ ██████████████ ████ ██ ██████████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ███████████ █████ ███████ ████████
This doesn’t capture the author’s criticism of “outcomes analysis” technique or her support for two other approaches. In addition, the author doesn’t suggest that the validity of conclusions becomes more suspect when the number of factors analyzed increases. Rather, the author criticizes “outcomes analysis” because it doesn’t take into account the various factors that may contribute to success or lack of success in discrimination suits.
c
Scholars who are ████████ ██ ███████████ █████ ████████ ██████████ █████ ███████████ ██████████ ████ ███ ████ █████████ ███████
The main point is about what scholars frequently offer. It’s about how a particular approach supported by two scholars isn’t very useful, and that other approaches are more useful. In addition, the author comments only on Zirkel and Schoenfeld; she doesn’t comment on other scholars who offer flawed approaches. So it’s not supported to say scholars who are critical of traditional legal research “frequently offer” flawed approaches.
This doesn’t capture the author’s criticism of “outcomes analysis” technique or her support for two other approaches. Also, this is too extreme. The author never suggests that we can predict with “certainty” whether a plaintiff will be successful.
Difficulty
86% of people who answer get this correct
This is a moderately difficult question.
It is similar in difficulty to other questions in this passage.
CURVE
Score of students with a 50% chance of getting this right
25%132
145
75%157
Analysis
Main point
Critique or Debate
Law
Problem-Analysis
Answer Popularity
PopularityAvg. score
a
2%
161
b
1%
155
c
7%
164
d
86%
168
e
3%
160
Question history
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