When you make an LSAT assumption…

The people have spoken! Y'all really don’t like sufficient assumption questions. Like, at all. I get it - they can be confusing. So today we’ll tackle these questions head on. How are we going to do that? Well, I’ve found the best way to make something you don’t like better is by adding in something you do like. In this case, I like pizza. And I’m willing to bet you do too! Now, I do not want to get into the whole “pineapple on pizza” debate, so we’re going to focus on the most popular topping of them all: pepperoni.

If you had an argument containing: Evidence: A—> B Conclusion C —> B A sufficient assumption that could close that gap is C —> A This is because if all C’s are A’s, (As we suggested) and all A’s are B’s , then all C’s must be B’s which is the conclusion from the evidence. Letters can be confusing, so let’s go back to the pizza. A lot of people want to know why A—> C doesn’t work, because it looks like it should. IF that were true we’d have A —> B (from the original evidence) A —> C (from our proposed answer) And they don’t combine to prove that C -> B! They just say that if something’s A, then it could be both B and C. Let’s use a real example: And let’s say A is “pepperoni”, B is “pizza topping” and C is “Food.” If it’s pepperoni, then it’s a pizza topping, or A —> B (evidence) And we want to prove any food could be a pizza topping or C -> B (conclusion) If we learned that all food is pepperoni, or C —> A, that sufficient assumption would prove the conclusion true after combining it with the evidence statement. (C -> A -> B) Obviously not true in real life, but we have to suspend real-world knowledge for the LSAT. Remember? And we’re lucky that’s not really true, because even tasty things like pepperoni might get a bit boring (and salty) after a while! -LSAT Steve P.S. Want some extra practice? You can follow along with some actual PrepTest questions I broke down here ------> P.P.S. Any particular LR topics you want me to cover in the future? Reach out and let me know! 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.

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