Weakening Questions Help

Ari_Gold180

I just completed the Causation and Phenomenon-Hypothesis Question section in the CC and have a few questions regards the content in there before I move on to Strengthening Questions. I'm first of all curious as to if those who have completed the problem sets did so in a timed manner (1:24) or if you took time on each question within each of the 15 sets to try and find the answer? Any additional info/different perspectives would be greatly appreciated!

Sami

@Ari_Gold180 said:
I just completed the Causation and Phenomenon-Hypothesis Question section in the CC and have a few questions regards the content in there before I move on to Strengthening Questions. I'm first of all curious as to if those who have completed the problem sets did so in a timed manner (1:24) or if you took time on each question within each of the 15 sets to try and find the answer?

At this moment in your prep I would recommend to just focus on really understanding and not about time. Being effective in time will come from having good understanding of the stimulus.

Next, can someone please try to give a detailed answer of how to differentiate between the different choices under Causation Strategy when coming across weakening question types? Any additional info/different perspectives would be greatly appreciated!

I am not completely sure about what you are asking here. For any weakening questions or argument type including causation there are multiple ways the LSAT writers can phrase their answer. For example, Causation argument usually goes from correlation in premises to causation in conclusion.

Last month I gained 5 pounds and the only change in my diet was that I started eating ice cream regularly (correlation), therefore ice cream causes weight gain.
LSAT writers can have the an answer choices that can weaken this multiple ways:
1. I was stressed last month because I lost my job and stress causes weight gain and leads me to eat ice cream (C causing both A and .
2. I ate ice cream because I didn't feel pretty as I started not fitting into my clothes (reverse causation).
3. The particular ice cream I was eating had an allergen that my body is sensitive to and was the cause of weight gain. (alternative cause)

westher008

I was told in a course that all weakening questions target the evidence. So that would be your focus.

FlashLSAT

I highly suggest completing problem sets without timing yourself. Its important to develop the correct habits when practicing each question type.

One thing that really helped me with Weakening questions was maintaining an open-mind when going through answer choices. Weakening questions answer choices are not easy to prephrase so they can come from anywhere. Also most correct answer choices tend to attack the support relationship between the premise and the conclusion without destroying both. In order to see this more clearly you need to take time familiarizing yourself with common correct and incorrect answer choices. One way you can do this is by writing out explanations for correct and incorrect answer choices. Knowing why an answer is right and why it is wrong is the key to weakening questions because the majority of them share similarities. So if you can train your mind to see these similarities you can move much faster come test day.