Hi: I just finished the sufficient assumption section, but failed all the quiz questions. I'm having trouble grasping the subject matter. I know it should not matter what the questions are 'discussing' but when I read about a subject I have no knowledge on, I feel as if the question then becomes 90% more difficult than it already was. Any advice on this? Also, I'm pushing my test date back from September to December, and that is a total of 7 months studying, about two hours per day. Do most people simply complete these lessons pronto and move on? I'm having great difficulty piecing these sections together. My last performance on the SA section has given me great cause for concern.
"PSA questions ask you to identify an assumption that is *almost* sufficient to conclude that the reasoning in the stimulus is valid. Alone, it can't take the argument to the point of complete validity, but it gets most of the way there."
In both SA and PSA questions, there will be a gap between the premises and the conclusion. Correct answers to SA questions will completely fill the gap: they will FORCE the conclusion to follow from the premises. Correct answers to PSA questions will PARTIALLY fill the gap- they will make the conclusion MORE LIKELY to follow from the premises.
SA is a Guaranteed Conclusion so it's mostly cut and dry. PSA can but doesn't necessarily have to Guarantee the Conclusion. I treat them more like a strengthening question that strengthens 90% ish of the way.
I am not sure but I could be wrong, but it seems like the answers to PSA questions use more loose language. You still want to use the Premise-> Conclusion formula to find the answer choice but the answer choices will contain language thats a little more general.
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5 comments
Hi: I just finished the sufficient assumption section, but failed all the quiz questions. I'm having trouble grasping the subject matter. I know it should not matter what the questions are 'discussing' but when I read about a subject I have no knowledge on, I feel as if the question then becomes 90% more difficult than it already was. Any advice on this? Also, I'm pushing my test date back from September to December, and that is a total of 7 months studying, about two hours per day. Do most people simply complete these lessons pronto and move on? I'm having great difficulty piecing these sections together. My last performance on the SA section has given me great cause for concern.
"PSA questions ask you to identify an assumption that is *almost* sufficient to conclude that the reasoning in the stimulus is valid. Alone, it can't take the argument to the point of complete validity, but it gets most of the way there."
Above poster nailed it.
Just to put it in slightly different terms:
In both SA and PSA questions, there will be a gap between the premises and the conclusion. Correct answers to SA questions will completely fill the gap: they will FORCE the conclusion to follow from the premises. Correct answers to PSA questions will PARTIALLY fill the gap- they will make the conclusion MORE LIKELY to follow from the premises.
SA is a Guaranteed Conclusion so it's mostly cut and dry. PSA can but doesn't necessarily have to Guarantee the Conclusion. I treat them more like a strengthening question that strengthens 90% ish of the way.
I am not sure but I could be wrong, but it seems like the answers to PSA questions use more loose language. You still want to use the Premise-> Conclusion formula to find the answer choice but the answer choices will contain language thats a little more general.