Finding Main Conclusion Faster

dguillen0926

Hi Everyone, I have a question on the main conclusion portion. I read the question and then the paragraph, I know they hide the conclusion, I just struggle to find the keywords. Any advice for me to get faster with these questions?

natemanwell1

They do not hide the conclusion. I've never seen that happen. If you don't see the conclusion, that means you don't understand the argument. No keywords are necessary to see the conclusion of the argument. I'm not sure what you mean you "struggle to find them." They're right there in the argument, but if you mean you don't know the keywords, look for transitional words or phrases "therefore," "as a result," "thus," etc. The conclusion is "what is supported by the rest of the argument." So you want to break the argument down into all its parts: irrelevant information, context, premise(s), intermediate conclusion(s), main conclusion.

SufferingfromSufficientCondition

Conclusion indicators can be useful, but (as a warning) they can also be used to trap you with a wrong AC, particularly on more difficult MC questions. It's important to practice understanding arguments, especially since finding the conclusion in arguments applies to a large portion of LSAT questions.

Like the above commenter said, understanding the parts of the argument should be your main focus. Ask yourself which parts of the argument are supporting which other part(s). Premise indicator words can clue you into this (since, because, etc).

Axelotl24

Main conclusions are statements that do not support anything else and are supported by everything in the stim outside of context.

As opposed to looking at indicators, I would look at definitive statements being made and to see if its supported by everything else in the passage and whether or not its an MC or intermediate conclusion. Whenever an author injects their opinion in the stim too thats also a sign it might be an MC.

"Critics say the recent movie X has subpar visuals, but this is not true."

Something like that for example. Conclusion would be the critics are wrong about what theyre saying.