Can anyone give me some tips on improving at weakening questions?

lilymdileo

I keep getting these questions wrong almost every time I am confronted with one. SOS.

Butterflies and Lady Birds

Focus on conclusion and find an answer choice that will weaken it, by stating that it is not the case that X is Y. Not attacking the conclusion itself but attacking the support. Like introducing something new or emphasizing some point that will make the conclusion not as sound as it does. Hope this helps.

studyingandrestudying

Many of the arguments we see have flaws. It's good to put as much as possible in your own words. You may find the Thinking LSAT podcast helpful. They have some episodes on this question type, I think.

lilymdileo

@lsatplaylist said:
Many of the arguments we see have flaws. It's good to put as much as possible in your own words. You may find the Thinking LSAT podcast helpful. They have some episodes on this question type, I think.

Thank you!! Will check that out.

lilymdileo

@Maka_Ogn said:
Focus on conclusion and find an answer choice that will weaken it, by stating that it is not the case that X is Y. Not attacking the conclusion itself but attacking the support. Like introducing something new or emphasizing some point that will make the conclusion not as sound as it does. Hope this helps.

Thank you! My main problem is that I fall into the trap answers that sound like a good alternate cause but turns out to be a Shell game type of answer choice.

Butterflies and Lady Birds

I would analyse the incorrect answers you picked and compare/contrast it with the correct one while looking at the whole argument. Write down couple of those questions and see if you can find a pattern, the way authors came to the right answer. What do they emphasize in the argument when they came to the conclusion, what is the argument mainly about, what do they offer as a support and how can you hit it and destroy it or make a proposition that it is not the case that whatever an author claims.

I found it helpful to zoom in on certain things in the argument when reading. For Example when I read about survey where argument concludes that X is Y because of a survey, I try to find a flaw in that survey to show that it's not the case.
Or when I read Causal Weakening: X because of Y (schools are better today because of better attitude) I try to find an example that will state that there could be other things causing better schools. (Good economy, better funding and etc)
Go over Causation and Phenomenon-Hypothesis Questions and Flaw-Descriptive Weakening Questions in core curriculum. Write down every flaw JY mention in his explanation just a sentence or two and you will notice that LSAT uses the same pattern in the new questions.
Hope this helps.