Prephrasing

davidfaulcon66

Usually able to locate the correct answer, however on weaken, strengthen, and both kind of assumptions questions, I am not finding the answer by prephrasing. I usually go into the answer choices knowing what the right answer should do. Does that make any sense?

Nikkkkkkk

For Weaken and Strengthen questions, I think prephrasing may be difficult because there are so many ways to weaken and strengthen the bond or link between premises and the conclusion. Going into the ACs, it's more important to be aware of the bond rather than a specific way to weaken/strengthen, precisely because there are so many ways to weaken/strengthen. As for assumption questions, I think this is also sometimes (but not always) expected. Both Manhattan and PowerScore classify necessary assumption questions that are not supporters as "defenders." These are usually the kinds of assumptions that are totally out of left field and are harder to anticipate either because they're so basic or because they're so random. JY also went through these in the CC but did not name them as defenders, if I'm remembering correctly.

Alex

@davidfaulcon66 said:
Usually able to locate the correct answer, however on weaken, strengthen, and both kind of assumptions questions, I am not finding the answer by prephrasing. I usually go into the answer choices knowing what the right answer should do. Does that make any sense?

sort of, but you need to make sure you're always flexible with prephrases, especially those in the that assumption family questions or Strengthen/Weaken because there could be infinite things that could weaken an argument/ strengthen an argument. Going in having an idea and a good grasp of the argument core is the most important things you can do.