Necessary Assumption Questions - Be Wary of Conditional Statements?

Paul Caint

Hey all.

I've noticed the more recent exams have a lot of difficult necessary assumption questions. Another thing I noticed was that these questions frequently have conditional statements as wrong answer choices, while the right answer choice is most often just a direct statement.

If I'm choosing between two good sounding ACs on a PT, but one is conditional and the other is a direct statement, do you all think the direct statement is more likely to be true?

It seems to me that the conditional statements are very often sufficient assumption answer choices, while the direct statements are necessary.

Thanks

TheMikey

I'm no LSAT expert but my approach to NA questions is just that. I am always wary of strong sounding AC's unless the stimulus is strong itself. So usually when I see conditional language (mostly when they say ONLY), I'm wary and go for the more weaker sounding AC or more direct statement that makes sense.

Idk, it's what I've always done and it has always worked for me!

Paul Caint

@TheMikey I think this is a perfect example of that:

https://7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-73-section-4-question-26/

Look how tempting answer choice B is. After deliberating for a while, I eliminated it simply because of the conditional statement - and that proved to be the right choice

TheMikey

@"Paul Caint" said:
@TheMikey I think this is a perfect example of that:

https://7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-73-section-4-question-26/

Look how tempting answer choice B is. After deliberating for a while, I eliminated it simply because of the conditional statement - and that proved to be the right choice

Yeah!
For NA questions, I'm also very cautious with IF statements. I don't eliminate them if they have the right ideas and stuff, but I do make sure to check all other AC's because lots of time the SA AC in a NA question is wrong, BUT there have been times in which a SA AC in a NA question is both Sufficient and Necessary. So keep caution with them but don't ignore them completely thinking they're automatically wrong until you prove it out or POE your way to it.