MSS - MP or Strengthen

dlstudy1dlstudy1 Alum Member
in Logical Reasoning 76 karma

I thought I understood the direction of argument lesson but I just took a timed section and found myself going back and forth when I saw MSS questions. I kept getting confused on whether or not I should look for the MP or a answer choice that strengthened the argument, can someone explain?

Comments

  • The Great White SharkThe Great White Shark Member
    1058 karma

    It’s important to first understand the stimulus by identifying premises and the conclusion if it has one. But then you should be looking for an answer choice that is supported by the stimulus. Don’t look for an AC that strengthens the stimulus, rather look for one that is provable based on what we know from the stimulus or is at least likely to be true.

  • dlstudy1dlstudy1 Alum Member
    edited March 2020 76 karma

    Based on my understanding of the Q Stems Quiz, if the stimulus direction flows up, you strengthen. If it flows down, you find the MP. For example, a question stem that says, "Which one of the following, if true adds the most support to the argument?" you would find the answer choice that strengthens the argument. You accept the argument as true and find the answer choice that strengthens the argument.

    For a question stem that says, "Which one of the following is best supported by the above?" Or "Which one of the following is most strongly supported by the info above?" You find the MP.

    I guess the "Which one of the following is most strongly supported by the info above?" confuses me. I don't see how this flows down.

    @Stellaluna

  • The Great White SharkThe Great White Shark Member
    1058 karma

    @dlstudy1 said:
    Based on my understanding of the Q Stems Quiz, if the stimulus direction flows up, you strengthen. If it flows down, you find the MP. For example, a question stem that says, "Which one of the following, if true adds the most support to the argument?" you would find the answer choice that strengthens the argument. You accept the argument as true and find the answer choice that strengthens the argument.

    For a question stem that says, "Which one of the following is best supported by the above?" Or "Which one of the following is most strongly supported by the info above?" You find the MP.

    I guess the "Which one of the following is most strongly supported by the info above?" confuses me. I don't see how this flows down.

    @Stellaluna

    Yes that is right. For strengthening questions the ACs are accepted as true since the Q stem says "if true". And the mission is to find the AC that would help the argument the most.

    For Most Strongly Supported the ACs are not assumed to be true. "Which one of the following is most strongly supported by the info above?" is a MSS. The mission is to find the AC that is likely to be true within the context of the stimulus. So you are using the information in the stimulus to guide you to the right AC. The flow of information would point downward because we are accepting the stimulus as the truth we know for that problem and the correct AC should be supported by that truth.

    Does that make sense?

  • jmarmaduke96jmarmaduke96 Member Sage ⭐
    2891 karma

    For true Most Strongly Supported questions the support is flowing down. Your task is to use the information given in the stimulus, and that information alone, to support one of the answer choices.

    Are you running into this confusion on the newer tests? or the older ones? I have noticed that on the newer tests LSAC is using the words "most strongly supports" but the questions are really strengthening questions. For example, if the stem asks "Which one of the following is most strongly supported?" then that is an MSS question. If the stem asks "Which one of the following most strongly supports the reasoning above?" then that is a strengthening question.

    All that is to say, if it is an MSS question, the support is always flowing down from the stimulus to the correct answer choice. However, just be sure that you are dealing with an MSS question and not a cleverly disguised strengthen question!

  • dlstudy1dlstudy1 Alum Member
    76 karma

    @jmarmaduke96 EXACTLY! I'm struggling to identify whether the question is MSS or strengthen. How did you differentiate between the two?

  • jmarmaduke96jmarmaduke96 Member Sage ⭐
    2891 karma

    It takes some careful reading, but you sound like you already have the framework down. For an MSS question, the information in the stimulus will flow downward to support one of the answer choices. That "flow" will be reflected in the question stem. For example, "On the basis of the statements above, which one of the following is most strongly supported?" or "The ecologist's argument most strongly supports which one of the following?" or just "Which one of the following is most strongly supported?" In terms of the last example, notice that if something is supported at all, it has to be supported on the basis of something. What else can the answer choice be supported on other than the stimulus? So, "Which one of the following is most strongly supported?" is the exact same as "Which one of the following is most strongly supported on the basis on the statements above?"

    In all of those examples you can see that they are asking you to look at the stimulus (regardless of whether they call it the "ecologist's argument" or "the statements above" or whatever) and support one of the answer choices.

    In contrast, when they are using the words "most strongly supported" to denote a strengthening question, the wording will be the reverse of the above. For example, "Which one of the following most strongly supports the reasoning above?" In that example, you are being asked to look at "the following," the answer choices, and find one that supports (or strengthens) the argument above.

    So you have the right idea, in MSS questions the support flows from the stimulus to the answer choices. In strengthening questions, the support flows from the answer choice up to the stimulus. It just takes a careful reading of the question stem to get a sense of exactly what they want you to do. It is more than worth the extra few seconds to read closely though, otherwise you don't have much of a chance of getting the question correct if you aren't sure what you are being asked to do.

    Alternatively, although it does not work all the time, there is another way to differentiate between strengthening and MSS questions even when they both use the words "most strongly supported." Sometimes, but not often, the stimulus will only be a set of statements with no argument present. In those cases, it is also a MSS question. If there is no argument, they can't ask you to strengthen an argument, and it is impossible to "strengthen" a set of facts in the sense that the LSAT means "strengthen." I hope this helps!

  • dlstudy1dlstudy1 Alum Member
    76 karma

    @jmarmaduke96 that was very helpful, thanks! That cleared up a lot for me. I'll keep this in mind. I appreciate it!!

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