Self-study
i have a lot of difficulty with weakening questions. although i know a weaken question means to attack the support between the premise and conclusion, i fear i don't really entirely understand that and that's where i keep picking the wrong answers. i know the correct answer might give an alt explanation, a reversed causation, undermine the data/sample, make use of a broken analogy, or missing information but i usually miss out on those answers and end up picking the wrong one. does anyone have any suggestions or can break down the concept for me in a way i can understand better?? it's so frustrating.
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I found Loophole to be really helpful with Weaken and Strengthen questions since I had such a similar issue as you. It really helps to slow down in the stimulus and identify the "loophole" in the argument, which means just asking yourself what kinds of facts or situations could be consistent with the stimulus where the conclusion might not necessarily follow? If anything, if you're low on time, just think about what kind of works with the premises to make the conclusion "less believable" (and for Strengthen questions, it would be the opposite). My biggest tip is to practice engaging with the stimulus more and thinking about hypothetical situations that could essentially wreck the conclusion, while the premises given are still true.
Example adapted from online: We found a cache of coins from the reign of King Harthac (AD 900) in a remote cave in North. Since Harthac's kingdom was located entirely in South, and there is no record of trade between the two regions, these coins must have been brought to the cave by a thief fleeing from South.
Here, you can see they are concluding that a thief MUST have brought the coins to the North. We need to question this "MUST." Did it really have to be the thief? Even though the King is from the South, and there was no trade (these facts are established as true), could some band of rebels from the North instead have snuck into the South and looted the coins? This opens up the possibility that it wasn't a thief from the South, but rather some other party from the North coming and stealing the coins. Even if this doesn't end up being the right answer, just thinking about it like this prepares you to understand the answer choices better, and it's really worked for me.