the statement 'if true' on questions and outside information

jpandl

I wanted to get some more clarification on a misdirected thought that I had about the words 'if true' in the question stem of certain questions. I had previously thought that this phrase was placed like some of the other words on the LSAT to confuse. This comes from the idea that you are not supposed to bring in outside info to try and bridge the gaps between a right and wrong answer choice. However, I was driving and listening to the MSS webinar by Corey and he stated that the 'if true' is saying even though this is not information found in the stimulus if it were true it could lead to a right answer. So, my question: is it true that when I see the 'if true' that it is a hard fast rule that the LSAT is allowing this (outside) information to be relevant to the task of choosing the correct answer. If you want to listen to where I heard this go to the MSS webinar by Corey and go to minute 23:00.

AllezAllez21

If true in the question stimulus means you should assume the truth of the answers regardless of what outside information you know.

Hypothetically, let's say the stimulus was like "Todd claims you can walk to the end of the earth and fall off into space." Then the stem says, "Which one of the following, if true, strenghtens Todd's argument," and one of the answer choices was "The earth is flat," then that would be a great answer choice. Of course the earth is not actually flat, but the stem has asked us to assume that everything given in the answers choices is true for the purposes of the question.

So, the use of "if true" is not at all to confuse you. It's there to help clarify that you should be focusing on the relationship between the argument in the stimulus and the answer choice, not on the factual, real-world validity of that answer choice.

jpandl

Thanks for the help