The word "often"

TheLSAT

My brothers and sisters of the LSAT (sounds so corny lol),
I understand that many of you are anxiously awaiting your LSAT score; however, I have a question for you. Hopefully, it'll divert you from anxiety for a few minutes haha. On average, how do you interpret the word "OFTEN" in a logical reasoning stimulus?
Would you say if falls within the realm of "many" or "most"?
Thank you all.

desire2learn

Ambiguous. LSAC wants you to fall into the trap where you project. I would take it to mean anywhere from just about nil to just about every time. When you see it would want to be ready to keep it or eliminate it based on whether other ACs give stronger answers (I feel like they use this sort of thing most in strengthen/weaken type ambiguity).

TheLSAT

You are correct in saying that it depends. I have seen both variations. One in which it is interpreted as most, and another in which it is interpreted as many. However, my question was on average, what is it interpreted as? I feel like there has to be a starting point in relation to the dictionary definition, otherwise the word could be interpreted as you wish. What do you think? @desire2learn

TheLSAT

Even if we take the dictionary definition, it is still ambiguous like you said because the dictionary defines it as "many times." How many is many times though? More than half? Or less than half? Or half?
It is confusing.

desire2learn

I think my default would be less than half just to be on the safe side because my personal natural inclination would be to skew toward more than half. That way it helps me keep both possibilities in mind.
I would stay away from a default setting that could be used against you. If I already am thinking more than half and it is being used as less than half I would be screwed. Basically, any time you read it an alarm should go off in your head to proceed carefully.

Cant Get Right

It's one of those words you can make mean what you want. It's totally relative and subjective.

combsni

Listen to the Weeknd lol.. I think he covered every meaning

Sami

The only thing I remember about the word "often" is from Powerscore and it says don't take "often" to mean "frequently".