How do I improve on Sufficient Assumption questions?

Mihael K.

In LR, my worst question type by far is Sufficient Assumption questions. I know about the translations and the formulizing we need to do for that question type (as 7Sage/JY teaches us in the CC), but actually applying that while doing a convoluted question is very hard and it also takes up a ton of time, in that by the time I've selected the answer minutes have gone by. Sometimes I get confused while doing the translations and formula in my head as well.

As a result of all this, I end up getting a lot of the harder SA questions wrong. I can generally get the easier ones (1-3 dots on the difficulty bar) correct, but anything past that I almost always have trouble.

What can I do to improve on SA questions?

99thPercentileOrDieTryin

Remember, with SA questions, the correct answer is going to be a new premise to the argument that makes the conclusion definitely true. You're looking for the gap in the argument and the sufficient assumption fills the gap without leaving any logical wiggle room.

Example: John bites into an apple, therefore, John is happy.

This argument, like all SA arguments, is incomplete. It's lacking something that makes it logically sensible.

What would a correct SA answer to this argument look like?

"John is always happy every time he bites into an apple."

A misleading answer might have a modifier that leaves wiggle room like:

"John is sometimes happy to eat apples."

That "sometimes" modifier is insufficient because it leaves room to invalidate the conclusion.
The challenge with complicated SA stimuli is that they tend to add a lot of filler information along with a general disorganization of the logic. Learning to translate and reassemble the argument is the skill you need to be honing in your studies. Once you can unravel the logical spaghetti, the task of finding the right answer is easier.

I hope this helps. SA's were tough for me too!