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Mostly Strongly Supported

shegotitshegotit Member
in Logical Reasoning 211 karma

I am still in the process of going through these lessons so I might be ahead of myself but is there a formula for tackling most strongly support questions. I understand that the stimulus is the premise and I have to piece together statements to make an inference of the conclusion but I find myself re-reading the stimulus over and over again then staring at the screen.

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  • OhnoeshalpmeOhnoeshalpme Alum Member ⭐
    2531 karma

    I think that having to reread the stimulus is different from the strategy for a given question type. It just sounds like you need to devote more time to the LR section. Once you get more exposure you’ll be able to see patterns in LR and it will make it easier for you to internalize the stimulus.

  • LCMama2017LCMama2017 Alum Member
    2134 karma

    When you read the stimulus you need to read critically and internalize what the sentence is saying. When you read the very first sentence, stop and internalize it. What's it saying? Do you understand it? What is the subject and predicate? Can you correctly spot any referential phrasing? Once you have done this, go on to the second sentence and do the same thing. The point is to be able to understand what you are reading and by doing this over and over again you will get better at it. Eventually you won't be staring at the stimulus wondering what the hell you just read. You need to take baby steps before you can approach the remainder of the lessons. This is time consuming, yes, I know because I've done it. My wonderful tutor taught me all of this and I still struggle sometimes but then I go back to her words - internalize, read critically, don't go on until you see how the stimulus fits.

    There is no formula or back door way. Well, there are some formulas I suppose, like for conditional logic, but it will not do you any good not to understand the fundamentals. Take it slow and take it easy and understand each video before you go on the next one. Everything builds - the time you spend now will pay off in the future - many of us here will tell you that.

  • FlashLSATFlashLSAT Alum Member
    293 karma

    MSS Question types can be fairly difficult at times but here are a few steps that I take in order to make sure im approaching that question type appropriately every time I see it. The first thing to understand with MSS that helps me is to realize that you are GIVEN LIMITED INFORMATION You are only drawing support from the information that is given to you not from logical assumptions or new information that you know nothing about.
    1. I read the stimulus thoroughly to ponder on how sentences interact with one another-. This is crucial because the correct answer choice could support one sentence or support all sentences as a whole.

    1. Apply rigorous Elimination tactics - there are a series of wrong answer choices that test takers like to place on all MSS question types. When I see them I eliminate then very quickly in order to only consider the right answer choice.
      Eliminate answer choices that discuss another topic
      Eliminate answer choices that present unwarranted comparisons
      Eliminate could be true answer choices - this may need further explanation. Usually the answer types that discuss a scenario that COULD BE TRUE tend to be wrong.

    2. After eliminating answer choices If I'm left with 2 or so answers I look for the key modifiers that makes an answer choice right or wrong. For example: words like ALL MOST SOME MANY ALWAYS ETC if the stimulus refers to some "xyz" the and answer choice says "all xyz" that answer choice is incorrect.

    3. The right answer choice tends to be a generalization at times of one part or combo of sentences in the stimulus.

    hope this was helpful! When your done with the MSS question types in the stimulus try to do one MSS question type every other day to keep concepts fresh in your mind!

  • shegotitshegotit Member
    211 karma

    Thank you guys so much for the feedback. I am really struggling with trying to grasp this concept. I think its a little harder when I cant print the stimulus as well but I am going to go back and watch the videos again and apply this new information. I cant move on if I cant grasp this concept.

  • Nabintou-1Nabintou-1 Alum Member
    edited June 2018 410 karma

    Read it (question type) as "only supported". The correct ans. choice will be the [only] answer choice that is supported by the stimulus. Other ans. choices may come close (as in, seem like they're supported), but they require an assumption of some sort.

  • akistotleakistotle Member ⭐ 🍌🍌
    9382 karma

    @shegotit said:
    I understand that the stimulus is the premise and I have to piece together statements to make an inference of the conclusion

    That's not necessarily true.

    Maybe you can ask specific questions about an MSS question you had troubles with! :)

  • keets993keets993 Alum Member ⭐ ⏰ 🍌
    6050 karma

    I understand that the stimulus is the premise and I have to piece together statements to make an inference of the conclusion but I find myself re-reading the stimulus over and over again then staring at the screen.

    When I first started doing MSS the idea that the stimulus is the premise and conclusion is the answer choice really threw me in for a loop. That's because it's not always the case. Sometimes, MSS answer choices are just a more generalized claim of what was stated in the stimulus. Other times, they can be an inference that is made when two statements are pushed together. The inference is not always the conclusion though, it can just be another premise. I think the problem with that idea is that, while it's helpful to have that kind of structure in the beginning, the conclusion is generally the main point of the argument. So people have a "forest" mentality when looking at the answer choices and their own pre-conceived notion of what the conclusion could/should be, instead of a "leaves" mentality. It could also be the grammar or referential phrasing that is confusing you.

    If you find that you are struggling with most of the most strongly supported questions covered in the syllabus, I would not recommend moving on just yet. I've found that really breaking down the stimulus, one statement at a time, and trying to understand exactly what is being told what isn't is beneficial. Feeling lost and just staring at the screen or paper is perfectly natural because It just means you're not quite processing what is being said.

    If you are struggling with a few of the questions covered then I would 'star' them and continue with the curriculum. It's okay to not feel 100% with all the questions covered when you are first learning them. You can revisit the question(s) after you learn more about the nature of support of in strengthen, weaken, and must be true questions. In fact, I found it helpful to revisit MSS after being exposed to must be true questions to remold my understanding of the nature of the support.

    You can also point us to a specific question or two that you particularly struggled with by linking to the lesson or telling us the PT number,section, and question number. Perhaps we will be able to provide different ways of reasoning or thinking that will better resonate with you :smile:

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