strengthen questions

[Deleted User]

I am really confused on strengthen LR questions (assumption family). So I learned that if you attack strengthen questions fhe same way as "must be true" questions it will screw you up. Makes sense, but sometimes the right answer to strengthen questions seem like a must be true. So I'm confused.
For example, February 1996 LR 1 Q. 11 about space stations correct answer seems to be a must be true even though it's a strengthen question type.

harrismegan

I don't know if I've ever heard that you should attack them like a MBT. I thought that was more for necessary assumptions (either MBT, or negation technique). I may be getting them confused though.
For both strengthening and weakening I follow the same method:

Identify the Conclusion.
Identify the Premise.

Find the answer choice that makes the conclusion more likely, or strengthens the relationship between the two. For me, I know if I tried to attempt it in a different way (like using the MBT), I might get confused as I went through the question set....

jdawg113

I have never hear anything about the same approach for MBT and strengthen... they are very different questions. You want to find something that strengthens the argument being made, it doesnt have to be something that MBT. A good test I like to use is negating the stem & AC (negate the AC and see if it weakens the argument)

ddakjiking

Yeah...the approach to MBT aren't even close to Strengthen. MBT/MSS/MBF are in their own family of questions.

mpits001

Yeah sometimes some of the answer choices walk blurred lines o.O... I think the best thing to understand (once I was able to grasp this), is the question stem. If you can figure out the context, premise, conclusion and etc. every LR question becomes easier. Of course, this is easier said than done.

After I grasped that concept 3 LR question types still got to me, SA, PF, and PSA.

[Deleted User]

@ddakjiking @jdawg113 @harrismegan
Hmm I never said that strengthen questions should be attacked the same way as MBT. I said, "I learned that if you attack strengthen questions the same way as 'must be true' questions it will screw you up. Makes sense..."

Screw you up meaning you shouldn't approach it like that because it will confuse/mess you up


Looks like some of you need to practice must be true and careful reading while I practice strengthen hahaha

@jdawg113 you cannot always use the negation technique on strengthen questions. Negation only works on necessary strengthen questions types, which I call 2N (N = negation). The question stem for N would be:

The argument assumes that
The assumption depends on
The assumption requires
The conclusion can validly be drawn only if

It's not exactly phrased like that but when determining if it's necessary or sufficient you're looking for important words in the stem like "requires, depends, only if, etc."

ddakjiking

I think we just got confused with your following sentence "Makes sense, but sometimes the right answer to strengthen questions seem like a must be true." lol.

It's been 2.5 weeks since looking at anything LSAT-related so maybe some of us are rusty. :P

jdawg113

1. all I said is I never heard of people doing that
2. Never said it was a perfect technique, just it is a good one. (also not sure if I have seen a strengthen that it didnt really work on)
3.

[Deleted User]

@ddakjiking hahaha its okay, I understand. The word "but" in the quote you used from my statement should have been an indication. Buy Manhatten LR if you haven't already LOL

[Deleted User]

@jdawg113

1) it's funny you mention people yet you wrote,
"I have never hear anything about the same approach for MBT and strengthen... they are very different questions."
Regardless of whether or not you said people in your original statment, you still said that you have never heard of anything about the same approach for MBT and strenghten questions, when in fact I never said anything about using MBT on strengthen questions

2) I never argued that you claimed it's a perfect technique. In fact, I never said anything about you claiming it's "good technique" or "perfect technique." All I said is that you cannot use the negation technique on all strengthen questions. Only necessary ones.

3)

harrismegan

"So I learned that if you attack strengthen questions fhe same way as "must be true" questions it will screw you up"

Oh sorry. Blame my 6/7AM brain for this misread!!!!

[Deleted User]

@harrismegan it's okay. It happens to me too lol

emli1000

Identity the Premise and Conclusion 1st then find the support between the P & C and try to make it better i.e, STRENGTHEN it. That's how I approach Strengthen questions.

[Deleted User]

@emli1000 I understand that's how you approach strengthen questions.

It seems like people are confused about my post. Let me clarify,
So for strengthen questions you do not approach it like a MBT ( I repeat, do not). However, it seems like sometimes the correct answer on Strengthen questions is a MBT.
For example, February 1996 LR 1 Q. 11 about space stations, the correct answer seems to be a must be true even though it's a strengthen question type.


Question: can that happen on strengthen questions or am I making some mistakes?

[Deleted User]

Yeah it sometimes happens @royaimani but as you said don't approach it like MBT

Allison M

Just as an FYI: the question you referred to (Feb 96, LR 1, Q 11) is a necessary assumption question, not strengthening. I suppose you could think of NA questions as a type of strengthening question, but the type of strengthening statement they ask for is very specific.

NA answers will always be true (if the argument in the stimulus is true), but not in the same way as an MBT. The difference is too much for me to explain in a quick post, so I would encourage you to refer to the specific 7Sage lessons on the two question types.

[Deleted User]

Necessary and Sufficient assumptions all fall in the Strengthening question types. The deleted user is my friend who I studied with and we both were tutored by Testmasters. Every company teaches it differently. FYI

Allison M

Fair enough. I think that distinction may have been where the confusion about strengthening/MBT overlap was coming from by the users above -- I imagine that I'm not alone in my unfamiliarity with Testmasters!