Strength and Weaken Questions

orangepower20

So I've seen A LOT of improvement on most of the question types. When I get to specific questions, I know exactly how to approach them and what to look for. I also can gage trap answer choices pretty well. However, It's like I'm completely blind on strength and weaken questions. Any advice on how to approach them? I've gone through the lessons a few times, but it hasn't helped much. These should be easy! You're just trying to strength and weaken, but some reason I can't do it!

tanes256

Are you focused on strengthening or weakening the reasoning or support? I was getting them wrong because I was focused on the conclusion instead.

orangepower20

That could be it. I think I miss the assumptions. It's my understanding the premises all make a tiny assumption that leads to the conclusion and the correct answer choice will strengthen or weaken that assumptio. It's strange thought because I do assumption questions well.

legally_chels

Hey there! I was having problems with these questions too at first. After I got through all the videos I finally understood them! So basically (for Weaken questions) you're looking for an answer choice that contradicts what the support/argument in the stimulus is saying. As for Strengthen questions you are looking to make the support for the argument a lot stronger. So basically you want the bond between the support and the answer choice to be tight. Take your time with these questions until you become more used to finding the answers for them. Trust me you will get the hang of them! I was getting most of them wrong at first and now i'm getting -0 most of the time and the occasional -1.

I hope I didn't confuse you! This is my understanding of Weaken/Strengthen questions. If i'm wrong, anyone can feel free to correct me. I am, afterall, just learning all of this as I go!

tanes256

@orangepower20 Yes to what @chelsea.bashi said. She posted before I could provide a more detailed response. Watch out for the cause and correlation questions as well. I breezed through that part of the course and of course I had to go back. I think these questions have a slight twist to them that makes answering them a little different from the basic strength and weaken questions. Do you have The Trainer as well, or are you just using 7Sage? 7Sage is definitely sufficient; however, if there is anything I'm not grasping I use The Trainer for clarification. Great investment if it's within your budget. I think I paid like $55 ish??? The flaw section is hands down the best thing about the book, imo!! Then there's the RC section. I'm digging it. I'm down to -4 now on the RC section! Are you sitting for October or December? If October and you don't reach your ideal score you should definitely think about picking up The Trainer.

orangepower20

I have the trainer. I liked it, and it was helpful. I might revisit it for these questions. Yeah strength and weaken are always the first lesson for every prep course so it's easy to forget haha. I went through the trainer the first time I took the LSAT (Feb 2015). I got a 153. However, I need/need a 160ish. I also had a tutor who wrote for the LSAT. The thing about tutors who wrote for the LSAT is they don't "don't believe in question types," so she kinda made me throw all that out the window. My biggest thing is time, and little errors ( missing things I shouldn't), and reading comp.I get -0 on games 98% of the time, so I got that going for me. I'm taking in in Oct and most likely Dec. If you have any other helpful advice feel free to share! Thank you!

legally_chels

I agree with @tanes256 about causation and correlation questions. Definitely review that section over until you have it memorized. It is tricky.

LoraxMan

I had some success improving my strengthening and weakening questions by separating out the causation questions from others. Once I see a causal indicator in a stem I can get a pretty good pre-phrase of answers by thinking along these lines:

Strengthen (causation, where A causes Answer Types
-A occurs and then B occurs (time and occurrence both relevant)
-A does not occur and B does not occur
-Relationship is not reversed (ie B does not cause A)
-Alternate cause ruled out
-Ruled out that relationship is coincidental or correlative

Weaken (causation, where A causes Answer Types
-A occurs and B does not occur
-A does not occur and B does occur
-B causes A (reversal)
-Alternate cause identified
-Relationship shown to be coincidental or merely correlative (could include B occurring before A)

This is by no means an exhaustive list - thoughts?

orangepower20

@LoraxMan That helps a lot! Honestly as I was working today I had a few weakening questions.I really isolated the premise and conclusions. I focused more on what the supporting was saying/doing, and I found the correct answer choice just weakened the support. The answer choice was closely related to the support. I think I was struggling because I wasn't looking close enough at the premise and conclusion and I was distracted by everything.