HELP- Sufficient Assumption Questions

Namritakt

Does anybody have any tips for how to determine when to use conditional statements or rely on intuition to answer sufficient assumption questions? Or should we always be mapping out the stimulus using lawgic? I’m having trouble using this method efficiently, and would appreciate any advice you might have! Thank you in advance!

Platinum

My advice is to try basing your strategy on each SA question by assessing the question and identifying your premise(s) and conclusion and if there is conditional logic present. With your premise(s) and conclusion, and having identified your conclusion, you should focus on proving the conclusion 100% true by choosing the answer choice that does prove the conclusion 100% true.

If you have trouble within say the first 30-40 or less seconds while trying to use your intuition, and there are conditional statements and you can't map the conditions within your mind's eye, then definitely map it out. However, if you do have conditional statements and you do want to check your answer you can always double-check your answer if you have chosen via intuition by mapping out the conditional logic if it gives you peace of mind.

I heard JY say that mapping the lawgic is not mandatory if you can see it within your mind's eye because it does take a lot of time to map out. What I tend to do, is if I have a couple read throughs of the stimulus and I can't parse out in my mind's eye what the author is trying to tell me, even if I have identified the conclusion and there is conditional logic, I move on and come back to it to later because I will most likely have better focus and time to map out once I finish the more understandable and easier questions. I hope my response helps.

caffeine powered human

If you are early in the prep and usually can’t see the missing link right away after reading the stimulus, you might want to constantly translate to lawgic until you get comfortable. Do a bunch of just SA questions, one after another, where you are actively writing out the translations.
I found that constant translation during my drills helped me BUILD the intuition that I was not naturally gifted with. I definitely still translate some that I can’t immediately map out in my head, but the frequency of needing to do that is definitely smaller.