How to tell between LSAT Necessary vs Sufficient Assumption Qs

Today let's review some of the most feared question types in the LSAT world: Necessary & Sufficient Assumptions.

*Thunder Crash*

Don’t worry though, it doesn’t have to be so scary. If you’ve been following along, we recently talked about Sufficient vs. Necessary Conditions. If you don’t remember, here’s a quick refresher
.
Today, we’re going to focus on the difference between Sufficient & Necessary Assumptions.

While both of these questions have the word “assumption” in the question stem, they are actually asking for two completely different things.

It’s misleading and confusing to refer to both under the catch-all term of “assumption” questions. Thanks, big prep companies, for once again making things more difficult then they need to be.

Some people use the word “justify” when referring to assumption questions, but that can cause problems too.

A lot of test-takers mistakenly believe the question must contain the word “justify” to be a “Justify”, a.k.a. sufficient assumption question.

Actually, you’ll rarely see the word “justify” used in a sufficient assumption question.

Even more confusing, people think if they see the word “justify” in the question stem then it has to be a justify question. This doesn’t work either.
You’ll see it in a lot of “Strengthen” and “Strengthen Principle” questions. Like I said, confusing.

So how can you tell the difference between different types of “Assumption” questions? Well, sometimes, it’s a lot easier to show than tell. I have a ton of examples in this article I wrote - it goes through a range of questions you’re likely to see.

I could go through it all again here, but honestly, that would turn this into a book.

So, go ahead and check out that article.

Next time, we’ll hit this topic a littler harder and get into some techniques for “Assumption” questions.

Study like a pro!

Steve “The LSAT Destroyer” Schwartz


P.S. Need more help? Let me know! I’m here for you and I want every single piece of information I send to you to be useful. Let me know what you’re struggling with at the moment. I read every message myself.


Recommended Resources:
1. LSAT Courses
The best of my LSAT material with exclusive access to attend my Live Online LSAT Master Classes + Q&As, and on-demand video lessons you can watch anytime. Plus, LSAT study plans to keep you on track. Save hundreds of dollars with an LSAT course package.

2. Logical Reasoning Explanations
The explanations that should have come with the LSAT. These don't just fall back on "out of scope," but actually tell you why the wrong answers are wrong, why the right answers are right, and the easiest way to get the correct answer.

3. Logical Reasoning Cheat Sheet
Based on what I'd typically do in college: read what the professor emphasized and condense it all onto a single piece of paper. It gave me a quick reference, making things a lot less threatening and a lot more manageable.





No comments:

Post a Comment