Necessary assumptions

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• 4 Likes

  E.T.90066-1 Alum Member

  April 2014 377 karma

  First, understand that you are not trying to "attack" necessary assumptions. Rather we are trying to find an answer that if true would allow the argument to continue "living". Without that answer choice being true, our premises are no longer enough to make our conclusion true. Example: I am the smart because I read the economist. Premise: I read the economist. Conclusion: I am smart. If I wish for my argument to continue "living" I has to be true that only smart people read that economist. If I say not only smart people read the economist, your argument could potentially die because now(under the assumption we just made) there could be dumb people who read the economist too. Get it?
• NellysLSAT Alum Member

  April 2014 edited April 2014 186 karma

  no not yet, it hasn't clicked.
  I appreciate your explanation.
• 5 Likes

  Will Edwards Alum Member Inactive Sage

  April 2014 175 karma

  To get the NA questions, you have to make like Bruce Lee and "be like water." You can't anticipate the right answer choice, so clear your mind, read the choices and think about each one. Does it support the conclusion at all? If not, get rid of it. Does it support the conclusion just a little bit? Yes? Then that is your top choice, keep it on the short list. After eliminating the ones that don't support the conclusion at all, negate the other ones. Is the argument wrecked? Are you sure? There is really no world where the argument and the answer choice could co-exist? No? Then that is the right answer. Now just good at doing that really fast. Like Bruce Lee.
• 1 Like

  Sandraaa Alum Member

  May 2014 16 karma

  NA Questions have also been kicking my butt. Here are a few things I did to get a little better at them:
  1. I reviewed all of the lectures on NA Questions again and went through each example listed to have a clearer picture of the different kinds of questions and inferences I should be making.
  2. I repeatedly worked on the two available problem sets on NA Questions and listened to JYs explanations on the correct answer choices and the reasons why the incorrect answer choices are wrong.
  
  A couple of things I noticed as I was studying/reviewing:
  In terms of eliminating WRONG answer choices:
  - The correct answer choice tends to contain more general language (typically, avoid any answer choice that sounds too specific because they are more likely to not be CRUCIAL aka necessary for the stimulus to make sense.)
  - There are usually a couple of answer choices that are completely wrong because they tend to bring in outside information that is not relevant to the stimulus. For the question stems I have been encountering, these answer choices usually end up being a sufficient assumption or superfluous information that is annoying and wastes time
  
  I think I have more trouble with these NA questions because it requires me to not only read the answer choice, but also to negate it and see if that destroys the argument. It's a two-step process that happens five times (for each answer choice) and tires my brain out (lol). Unfortunately, it's the only way to do it.
  
  I can usually eliminate 3 out of the 5 choices pretty quickly and are torn between the remaining two. Does anyone have any further advice on how to get better at these??
• 2 Likes

  A_Iheduru23 Alum Member

  May 2014 edited May 2014 64 karma

  Not to be biased or redirect you, but reading the LSAT Trainer by Mike Kim (JY has vouched for him on this site) cleared up a lot concerning this question type.
  
  The problem with NA is that you're not strengthening or weakening it, and also....a LOT of NA Arguments are really really dang close to valid (and in real world terms they seem perfect).....They are definitely pretty much all hard, no matter what number or how early they appear. So the most important thing is the five step thing that the Trainer teaches you...
  
  1) Understand your Job (in this case find out what is wrong with the argument and find an AC true for the argument)
  2) Finding the main point/Conclusion of the question
  3) finding the support
  4) Thinking about possible flaws!!! (this is huge, and it lead me from getting -11 on LR to -5 on a section, and ongoing)
  4) Eliminating answer choices that aren't required (small hint, choices like Most, All, Some, Many, Few, usually aren't required)
• NellysLSAT Alum Member

  May 2014 edited May 2014 186 karma

  I will try both suggestions. thank you guys!!!
  oh I have the trainer- ill take another look at it.
• A_Iheduru23 Alum Member

  May 2014 64 karma

  I hope they do and quick though...if 7sage doesn't communicate something clear , just look at the Trainer.... it really does help in providing text based help, which is the only drawback of online learning
• NellysLSAT Alum Member

  May 2014 186 karma

  that is true
  
• 6 Likes

  thelocal711 Free Trial Member

  May 2014 72 karma

  Sandraaaa, the negation test is not supposed to be used on ALL 5 answer choices. It's better served to confirm the right AC after initial answer choice eliminations. there's typically 6 steps I go through on most question types including NA types (per the LSATTrainer):
  1. ID task
  2. ID conclusion
  3. ID support
  4. ID gap (if you don't ID immediately then move straight in to the AC's as long as you have 2 and 3 correct)
  5. FIRST round eliminations
  Work wrong to right and use process of elimination.
  at least 2 (if not 4) AC's will fall out at this step. These questions will have NO bearing on the logical flow of the argument. These answers are usually ones that are too strong (Most, always, everyone...), are simply observational (Most X who live in other city also have Y) or explain something that is not the focus of the conclusion (People with X choose Y BECAUSE...)
  6. SECOND round eliminations & Confirm right AC
  This is the step that you apply the negation test at with any remaining choices (generally should NOT be more than 2 choices). Once negated, confirm with the stimulus.
  
  If you have 5 NA questions in 1 section and it takes you 5 seconds to negate each AC, then you could potentially save 1:15 seconds worth of time per LR section by only negating 2 AC's per question... That's crucial for picking up more points or locking in the points you already have.
  
  
  TL;DR
  Underline the support, bracket the conclusion and look specifically for AC's that have no bearing (scope, irrelevant, observational) to the core of the argument (Support + Conclusion). That should be 2-4 ACs eliminated easy. Then scan modifiers and see which sound too strong and eliminate if there is a problem with degree. Then with the remaining 1-2 ACs, negate and confirm the right AC.
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  
• Sandraaa Alum Member

  May 2014 16 karma

  @thelocal711 I think I was half doing the things you said already (ie. getting rid of blatantly wrong answer choices and then applying the negation to see if it checks out) But seeing the steps visually and consciously processing the steps as I do them is definitely helping. Also, I think I'm going to have to invest in the LSAT Trainer.. Thanks so much!
• laestelle2009 Alum Member

  May 2014 96 karma

  i am having so much trouble with these questions too! I'm about to start panicking because there isn't much time left before the June Test!
  
  i started looking at the AC's as which one defends the argument or which one fills in the gap for the argument the best, i then, negate and do the MBT test but i still end up choosing the wrong answer, whenever JY explains the AC's i understand but i am still getting the questions wrong. NA has not clicked for me! maybe my problem is that i do not see the gap that JY and the LSAT see?
• ONuellaO Alum Member

  May 2014 210 karma

  It is very difficult to predict the gap for these questions, very very difficult bc most of the time they are very subtle. The secret is to have a very strong grip on the argument that is being made (conclusion and support) and go into the answer choices. That way, you eliminate the obviously out of scope questions quickly. Then, you can negate the rest and the right answer choice. I find that a lot of the time, the trap answer choices don’t fully shatter the argument and in order to be able to recognize these you have to have a strong grip on the argument being made.
  No matter what you do, do NOT panic, it will definitely affect you. 5 weeks is a very very long time to master this question type. Just get the bundle from Cambridge (Where i got mine) and drill into them with blind review. You’ll start to see patterns and before you know it, it will be your best type of question.
  Make sure you don’t get discouraged.
• 1 Like

  wendelsr-1 Alum Member

  May 2014 111 karma

  I just found this gem on Cambridge's site last night (sorry 7sage.) They've compiled and grouped LR sections by TYPE from the first 38 PT. I have been using it to target specific areas I need work on, including NA. They aren't free, but I think $3-$12 isn't outrageous. I think they bulk them for like $80 if you want all of them. Hope they help!
  
  http://www.cambridgelsat.com/problem-sets/logical-reasoning/