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How do I know I'm making a reasonable assumption on strengthen/weaken questions?

legallyconfusionlegallyconfusion Core Member
in Logical Reasoning 56 karma

Hiii,

I've gone through the CC and taken a few PTs, and I notice that my main problem in LR is that I tend to make unreasonable assumptions. Especially for weaken and strengthen questions––I always end up getting stuck between the right and wrong answer choice, and I tend to choose the wrong one based on my own assumptions. In the moment, I feel like my assumption works and it's valid, but after watching JY's videos, I understand why the other AC was correct, yet I continue to face this problem. I guess my main question is: how do I know that the assumption I'm making is unreasonable or reasonable?

Not sure if I'm making any sense, but any guidance/advice/tips would be appreciated!

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  • Serena13Serena13 Core Member
    128 karma

    Hi there. So I also have this issue. In fact I'm drilling weakening and strengthening QT to get stronger on them. A few tips I'd offer is review the questions you got wrong. There's a pattern you just gotta find it. I often found that I was misunderstanding the stimulus and AC, so, I would break down the stimulus, note key words, label parts of the stimulus. Then I would find the assumption, often times (or that I've noticed) it's in the conclusion but the premises support it. Its this assumption that you either strengthen or weaken. For a weakening QT, you'll negate the assumption found. For a strengthening QT
    you'll expose and affirm the assumption made. Each QT can be as simple as finding the assumption, or have a causation/correlation, argument by analogy, phenomenon/hypothesis reason for it to be correct. Often times for a AC to be wrong they will be ineffectual/irrelevant/ or weaken/strengthen depending on the QT. The stimulus is your best friend when it comes to answering the question. Try very hard not to bring outside information. Also, if you find yourself really trying to make the answer work, as in sculpt it to answer it, it just may be wrong (at least it is for me it was). There will be AC that will lead you to make more assumptions unnecessarily, which also makes them wrong. I would recommend reviewing all of your wrong answers and read through them and finding that pattern. I would also go through the problem sets within the CC as review. Start with the easy ones and work your way up. With practice and review you'll start to see the assumption. I hope this helps. :smile:

  • clear227clear227 Core Member
    350 karma

    Are you consistently identifying the conclusion? Revisit the conclusion to make sure you are seeing it for what it is rather than misreading or misremembering. The LSAT makers will craft the answer choices to be misleading/almost plausible for someone who isn't paying attention.

    I took a practice test the other day, and the conclusion of one argument was "the government should be required to inform people of all known drug interactions." It was a weaken, and one of the attractor answer choices was "it isn't possible to know about all drug interactions."

    A person who pays attention to the conclusion will know that this is wrong. The conclusion says "all known drug interactions". A person who doesn't refer back to the conclusion might misremember it as "the government needs to inform people of all drug interactions." It can help to privately "rephrase" the conclusion to yourself as well, to boost memory.

  • ledkarlyledkarly Member
    483 karma

    wow!!

    I even fell for this. Really have to read the stimulus correctly.

    @clear227 said:
    Are you consistently identifying the conclusion? Revisit the conclusion to make sure you are seeing it for what it is rather than misreading or misremembering. The LSAT makers will craft the answer choices to be misleading/almost plausible for someone who isn't paying attention.

    I took a practice test the other day, and the conclusion of one argument was "the government should be required to inform people of all known drug interactions." It was a weaken, and one of the attractor answer choices was "it isn't possible to know about all drug interactions."

    A person who pays attention to the conclusion will know that this is wrong. The conclusion says "all known drug interactions". A person who doesn't refer back to the conclusion might misremember it as "the government needs to inform people of all drug interactions." It can help to privately "rephrase" the conclusion to yourself as well, to boost memory.

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