Weaken questions

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• 5 Likes

  s_jricke Alum Member

  June 2018 360 karma

  @ny565 said:
  Hi guys,

  One question ! I am actually not understanding how I should approach Weakening questions. I understand that you have to identify the premise (s) and conclusion of the stimulus, but from there I blank out as soon as I see the answer choices. Any advices ? Also, JY says that we should not attack the premise and conclusion of a stimulus, but when studying off of Power Score the book said to weaken an argument by attacking a premise or conclusion. I am very confused. Please help ! Thanks .

  Does Power Score really say that because that seems like really dumb advice? You can't really attack the argument by attacking a premise or conclusion. The premises and conclusion independently don't constitute an argument. The way the premise attempts to support a conclusion is the whole crux of what defines an argument.

  If an argument has a conclusion of "X" because of "Y," you don't negate "X" or "Y." You negate the relationship between "X" and "Y." For instance, if I say, Alice must have gone swimming because she is wet, I wouldn't try to wreck the argument by saying "she didn't go swimming" or "she's not wet." What I would do is say something like, "She's wet because she walked home in the rain," which concedes the premise but calls out the assumption that being wet equals having gone swimming. So, don't say Alice isn't wet, but use your imagination and try to think of other explanations for why she might be wet that don't involve swimming.

  To be sure, Alice still could have gone swimming because it could be true that she was in the rain and then went swimming, but you can no longer say Alice must have gone swimming BECAUSE she is wet.

  Hope that makes sense.
• 3 Likes

  s_jricke Alum Member

  June 2018 360 karma

  Also, just wanted to add that almost the entire test (besides argument part type questions) is trying to get you to call out those types of assumptions regardless of whether it is a weaken, strengthen, sufficient assumption, necessary assumption or whatever. Don't think of weaken questions as anything unique about the test. JUST CALL OUT THE ASSUMPTIONS.
• 1 Like

  Hope2018 Yearly Member

  June 2018 76 karma

  Thank you so much for the help !
• 5 Likes

  FlashLSAT Alum Member

  June 2018 293 karma

  Weakening questions can be very difficult especially if you do not have an approach when coming in contact with them. Identifying the premise and the conclusion is indeed a key step but you have to also notice the jump that is being made from the PREMISE to the CONCLUSION. To kind of restate what was already said in this discussion your aim is not to destroy the premise or conclusion but weaken the support that the premise is giving to the conclusion by REVEALING A HIDDEN ASSUMPTION(i would take time to truly understand what this means). JY provides great examples of this in his lesson on goku and weakening his attack beam.

  Here is a couple of key things that really helped me understand weakening questions.
  1. Become familiar with argument types: All weakening arguments fall under three categories and I would be sure to get familiar with them.
  A. Causation/ Correlation - These arguments claim that A caused B because they are correlated in order to weaken these argument types you are simply looking for AN ALTERNATIVE CAUSE so instead of A caused B you are looking for something along the lines of C caused A and B
  B. Argument by analogy - these arguments are analogous in nature so they are using analogies to prove points. Your job in weakening these argument types is to SHOW AND UNCOVER DISSIMILARITIES between what is being compared.
  C. Phenomenon Hypothesis - These argument types are providing a hypothesis for a phenomenon. Your job is to choose an answer choice that has an ALTERNATIVE HYPOTHESIS FOR THE PHENOMENON ( most weakening questions fall under this category)

  The key to Phenomenon hypothesis argument correct answer choices is to keep a very OPEN-MIND when looking for the correct answer choice. So first identify the premise and conclusion and understand the gaps/assumptions that the author is making. It may be difficult to see the assumption initially but take your time while practicing to look for possible gaps/assumptions.

  1. Write out explanations for Weaken Questions that you got wrong.
     A. take time to really understand why answer choices are correct and why they are wrong. The reason why this is important is because for every weaken Question they give the same type of WRONG ANSWER CHOICES. If you familiarize yourself with these you will eliminate wrong answers very quickly which is very handy skill to have. A major part of comprehending this question type is striking down wrong thought patterns/habits that you have. it will take time to really develop the right perspective and approach.
• 1 Like

  AshleighK Alum Member

  June 2018 786 karma

  @FlashLSAT said:
  Weakening questions can be very difficult especially if you do not have an approach when coming in contact with them. Identifying the premise and the conclusion is indeed a key step but you have to also notice the jump that is being made from the PREMISE to the CONCLUSION. To kind of restate what was already said in this discussion your aim is not to destroy the premise or conclusion but weaken the support that the premise is giving to the conclusion by REVEALING A HIDDEN ASSUMPTION(i would take time to truly understand what this means). JY provides great examples of this in his lesson on goku and weakening his attack beam.

  Here is a couple of key things that really helped me understand weakening questions.
  1. Become familiar with argument types: All weakening arguments fall under three categories and I would be sure to get familiar with them.
  A. Causation/ Correlation - These arguments claim that A caused B because they are correlated in order to weaken these argument types you are simply looking for AN ALTERNATIVE CAUSE so instead of A caused B you are looking for something along the lines of C caused A and B
  B. Argument by analogy - these arguments are analogous in nature so they are using analogies to prove points. Your job in weakening these argument types is to SHOW AND UNCOVER DISSIMILARITIES between what is being compared.
  C. Phenomenon Hypothesis - These argument types are providing a hypothesis for a phenomenon. Your job is to choose an answer choice that has an ALTERNATIVE HYPOTHESIS FOR THE PHENOMENON ( most weakening questions fall under this category)

  The key to Phenomenon hypothesis argument correct answer choices is to keep a very OPEN-MIND when looking for the correct answer choice. So first identify the premise and conclusion and understand the gaps/assumptions that the author is making. It may be difficult to see the assumption initially but take your time while practicing to look for possible gaps/assumptions.

  1. Write out explanations for Weaken Questions that you got wrong.
     A. take time to really understand why answer choices are correct and why they are wrong. The reason why this is important is because for every weaken Question they give the same type of WRONG ANSWER CHOICES. If you familiarize yourself with these you will eliminate wrong answers very quickly which is very handy skill to have. A major part of comprehending this question type is striking down wrong thought patterns/habits that you have. it will take time to really develop the right perspective and approach.

  Going off of this, what has really helped me with weaken questions is recognizing the assumption. I ask myself "Ok.. why should I believe this argument? What are they assuming?" If I'm doing BR I'll write out 3 little bullet points of possible things the argument is assuming or if I'm in a timed section I'll think of it in my head. This has really helped me improve on Weaken questions because almost always, one of the bullet points is used in the correct AC. And also remember the correct AC doesn't necessarily destroy the argument. It just hones in on the assumption being made or it can do nothing to the argument. In other words, it could be irrelevant and still makes this answer choice correct (if nothing else really jumps out).
• 1 Like

  Hope2018 Yearly Member

  July 2018 76 karma

  Thank you everyone ! The process definitely got a bit better while I practiced, however I am getting literally all of level 5 questions, and most of level 4 questions wrong. How do you guys go around doing these questions? I understand the stimulus in the questions, but due to the difficult nature of the passages I don’t grasp the assumption being made. Then I get more confused when I see the convoluted AC’s. Please help... I really lost so much confidence.
• 1 Like

  ElleWoods77 Alum Member

  July 2018 1184 karma

  @ny565 said:
  Thank you everyone ! The process definitely got a bit better while I practiced, however I am getting literally all of level 5 questions, and most of level 4 questions wrong. How do you guys go around doing these questions? I understand the stimulus in the questions, but due to the difficult nature of the passages I don’t grasp the assumption being made. Then I get more confused when I see the convoluted AC’s. Please help... I really lost so much confidence.

  1) I would go over the weakening curriculum again. If you are constantly missing questions some fundamentals are not quite strong yet.
  2) Drill several 4 and 5 star questions . Practice is the key because you will notice certain patterns in the questions over and over again.
  3) Really go in depth with blind review and try to scartch the surface . If you don’t understand the question write out the stimulus in ways you can understand and attempt to see the assumption then. Write out why each answer is wrong and why the right answer is right and do not move on until you can write such explanations . Repeat this process throughout the drilling process. It is long and hard but it has effective with my weakenesses.
  Also I know we are not to critique other companies but the idea to attack the premise is terrible advice . Per the curriculum attacking the premise literally does nothing to the argument. We are to weaken the support and the support only . I think it is rare to find questions that attack the premise. This is why being able to identify the assumption will save you from trap answer choices that will attack the premise .
• 1 Like

  jhbm_nyc Alum Member

  July 2018 568 karma

  For weaken Q's, I identify the premises and conclusion, then try to understand the gap in reasoning or assumptions made. I think, how could the premises be true, but the conclusion NOT true?

  To weaken a causation or phenom/hypothesis argument, (1) introduce an alternative explanation or hypothesis or (2) look for factors that make the author's explanation less plausible. To weaken an argument by analogy, look for a relevant factor about one of the things being analogized that does not apply to the other.

  Going into the answer choices, don't anticipate anything and just try to keep an open mind. Be careful not to dismiss an answer choice just because it has new info. Instead, figure out how the new info affects the argument.

  Eliminate answer choices that are irrelevant, neither strengthens nor weakens, or where you can't determine one way or the other. Confirm the correct answer choice by making sure that it grants the premises to be true, but makes the conclusion a lot less likely to be true.
• 2 Likes

  FlashLSAT Alum Member

  July 2018 293 karma

  We can all do a skyoe study session or gomeeting if everyone is free and you want to
• 1 Like

  Ortiz_44 Member

  July 2018 90 karma

  I'd be down> @FlashLSAT said:

  We can all do a skyoe study session or gomeeting if everyone is free and you want to
• KeepCalm Alum Member

  July 2018 807 karma

  @FlashLSAT said:
  We can all do a skyoe study session or gomeeting if everyone is free and you want to

  Yes!
• FlashLSAT Alum Member

  July 2018 293 karma

  im ready whenever you guys are!