I don't understand how to do evaluate questions

sarah.m.

How is the answer to PT 7 S4 Q8 E?

BinghamtonDave

"Evaluate" questions are combination weaken and strengthen questions. In order for something to in one sense weaken and in another sense strengthen, it must address an assumption of the argument and more than likely the key assumption of the argument. This makes sense because the key assumption of the argument is what the argument is almost predicated entirely on. Many times in weakening or strengthening questions we are either affirming or denying that assumption in a variety of ways: think phenomena/hypothesis questions where we deny the possibility of an alternative hypothesis (B does not cause A) in order to strengthen or introduce the possibility of another hypothesis (in order to weaken.) So what the answer choice will more than likely do is a ask a question that if answered in a certain way allows us to interpret the assumption in a way that takes away from the argument or if answered in another way allows us to boost that assumption in a variety of ways (think here of possibly making the premise more relevant to the conclusion.)

This is a ton of work to do in timed conditions so this is what I do to help me get my footing on these problems:
-find premise/conclusion
-find a way to state the assumption
-ask myself how I would weaken that (I'm more comfortable weakening reasoning for some reason rather than strengthening it)
-find an answer choice that could be interpreted as weakening that assumption
-try to see how that answer choice could be interpreted to strengthen the reasoning.
-the last step for review is to ask myself how far away from my original anticipation the answer choice actually is. This will help us in trying to get a feel for the range in which the LSAT can form an answer choice.

Take for instance 36-1-24:
my anticipation for this argument's assumption is: what does it mean to be second place in this poll? I mean second place in a wrestling tournament with 64 other people means something different from second place in a wrestling tournament with 2 people. So I am asking in the positive: how many votes is second place? The answer choice actually states this in the negative or as I like to look at it: the other side of the same coin.