Logical Reasoning - Overview Flashcards
Define the General Approach to Logical Reasoning
- Identify the Question Type (i.e. skim the question stem)
- Read the Stimulus CAREFULLY
- Identify the author’s conclusion and premises OR connect information / identify the discrepancy
3.5. Identify assumptions - Anticipate the shape of the correct answer (or not) based on the stimulus and question stem.
- Hunt mode OR process of elimination
How many potential answers may appear on the LSAT?
ONE AND ONLY ONE. THERE should NOT be any confusion between 2 or more answer choices.
However, keep in mind that SOMETIMES the RIGHT answer choice is not the MOST IDEAL answer choice.
The conclusion can be short, containing a referential that points to something in the context.
Define the approach for Main Conclusion (MC) (i.e. Main Point (MP)) questions.
Step 1: Read the question stem and identify it as an MC question
Step 2: Read stimulus
Step 3: Identify context, premises, conclusion
Step 4: Hunt for conclusion paraphrasing in answer choices. The correct answer will likely utilize referential phrasing.
Step 4 Fallback: Process of Elimination
What are some common Incorrect practices/ answers when answering a Main Conclusion (MC) / Main Point (MP) question?
Patterns in wrong answers
1. Stating a premise or context or other people’s position
2. Stating assumptions of the argument
3. Stating the sub-conclusion / major-premise
4. Leveraging various potential grammar or logical confusions (modifier, comparatives, sets and subsets, descriptive v. prescriptive, nesting, etc.) to create statements that sound like statements made in the stimulus.
MUST BE TRUE - - TYPICAL QUESTION STEM - If all of the statements above are true, which of the following can be properly inferred?
Correct Answer Criteria: 100% proven by the information in the stimulus. The correct answer should not require any assumptions in order to be proven by the stimulus.
MUST BE TRUE - List the Typical Approach to solving these.
1) Take statements in the stimulus a true.
2) There is no need to identify conclusions and premises.
3) If there are any statements that can be connected to each other, try to connect them.
MUST BE TRUE - List the Answer Choice Tendencies
1) Be Careful about picking extreme answers (eg: “All…” “Every…” “Always”)
2) Although strong answers can be OK, particularly if the stimulus is conditional-based, you should double-check to make sure they are truly supported.
3) Weak answers (ex. “Sometimes…” “Possibly” “Not Always) are MORE LIKELY to be correct than strong answers, since they are easier to support.
4) Answers introducing concepts not discussed the stimulus are highly unlikely to be correct.
MOST STRONGLY SUPPORTED - TYPICAL QUESTION STEM - Which one of the following is most strongly supported by the information above?
Correct Answer Criteria: Very strongly supported by the information in the stimulus - it might not be 100% proven, but you have good reasons from the stimulus to believe that the answer is true.
MOST STRONGLY SUPPORTED - List the Typical Approach
1) Take statements in the stimulus as true.
2) There is no need to identify conclusions and premises. If the stimulus does have an argument, it can be helpful to identify any assumptions made by the argument.
3) If there are any statements that can be connected to each other, try to connect them.
MOST STRONGLY SUPPORTED - List the Answer choice tendencies
1) Be careful about picking extreme answers (Ex. “All…” “Every…” “Always”)
2) Although strong answers can be OK, particularly if the stimulus is conditional-based, you should double-check to make sure they are truly supported.
3) Weak answers (Ex. “Sometimes…” “Possibly” Not Always”) are more likely to be correct than strong answers, since they are easier to support.
4) Answers introducing concepts not discussed in the stimulus are highly unlikely to be correct.
MAIN CONCLUSION - TYPICAL QUESTION STEM - Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main conclusion drawn in the argument?
Correct Answer Criteria: Restatement or paraphrase of the main conclusion of the argument.
MAIN CONCLUSION - List the Typical Approach.
1) Read the stimulus carefully and identify the main conclusion of the argument.
2) Usually you can tell what the main conclusion is by looking for an expression of opinion that is supported by other statements.
3) Often the conclusion will be phrased as a rejection of something else “That belief is false.” If so, make sure to translate that statement into a full idea - what does the author mean by “that belief is false”?
4) If stuck between two answers, ask which one supports the other? The one that is supported is more likely to be the correct answer.
MAIN CONCLUSION - List the Answer Choice Tendencies
1) Correct answer will be a restatement of the main conclusion, although it may not be worded in exactly the same way.
2) Wrong answers will often take the conclusion too far, describe a premise or assumption, or describe an inference we can make from the stimulus.
ARGUMENT PART - TYPICAL QUESTION STEM - Which one of the following most accurately state the role played by the Statement?
CORRECT ANSWER CRITERIA - Accurate description of the role played by the statement we’re asked about.
ARGUMENT PART - List the Typical Approach.
1) Read the stimulus and identify the conclusion and the premises. Don’t pay attention to the statement that you’re asked about until you’ve broken down the argument first.
2) After breaking down the argument, think about the role of the statement you’re asked about.
3) Is it part of the author’s argument? If so, is it premise, intermediate conclusion, or main conclusion?
4) If it’s not part of the author’s argument, is it part of someone else’s argument? Is it a point of concession? Something else?
ARGUMENT PART - List the Answer Choice Tendencies
1) Be careful about answers that are extreme or twist what the argument actually says - often wrong answers will just misdescribe the conclusion.
2) Wrong answers often describe other parts of the stimulus that aren’t the statement we’re asked about.
3) Be ready to go slow on the answers - they are often abstract and you need some time to break them down.
METHOD OF REASONING - TYPICAL QUESTION STEM - Which of the following most accurately describes a technique of reasoning used in the argument above?
CORRECT ANSWER CRITERIA - Accurate description of the way the argument goes from premise to conclusion.
METHOD OF REASONING - List the typical approach.
1) Read the stimulus and identify the conclusion and the premises.
2) Can you recognize a common form of reasoning? (Rule-application, phenomenon-hypothesis, generalization, analogy, cost/benefit, etc)
3) If you can’t, that’s OK; not every argument uses an easy-to-describe form of reasoning.
METHOD OF REASONING - List the Answer Choice Tendencies
1) Be careful about answers that are extreme - wrong answers will often go beyond what the argument actually said (ex. The second speaker said the first speaker’s conclusion was “unjustified,” but a wrong answer says the second speaker called the first speaker’s conclusion “false.”)
2) be prepared for abstract answers - you may need to take time to match different parts of the correct answer to the stimulus. If you can’t match part of the answer to the stimulus, it’s wrong.
FLAW - TYPICAL QUESTION STEM - The argument is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that it ___
CORRECT ANSWER CRITERIA - Accurate description of why the argument’s reasoning is flawed.
The answer could be phrased in the following ways:
1) Abstract description of the bad reasoning.
2) What the argument overlooks
3) What the argument assumes
FLAW - List the Typical Approach
1) Identify the conclusion and the premises
2) Think about why the conclusion doesn’t have to be true even if the premises are true.
3) Sometimes you’ll be able to recognize a common form of flaw (confusing sufficient and necessary conditions, correlation to cause, etc)
FLAW - List the Answer Choice Tendencies
1) Be careful about answers that misdescribe the conclusion.
2) Correct answers must be (1) Descriptively accurate, and (2) Constitute bad reasoning.
3) Answers phrased in the form of what the argument overlooks can be analyzed just like Weaken Answers. (So the tendencies that apply to Weaken answer apply to these answers, too!)
4) Answers phrased in the form of what the argument assumes can be analyzed just like Necessary Assumption answers. (So the tendencies that apply to Necessary Assumption answers apply to these answers, too!)
NECESSARY ASSUMPTION - TYPICAL QUESTION STEM - Which one of the following is an assumption that the argument above requires?
CORRECT ANSWER CRITERIA - Something that must be true in order for the argument’s conclusion to possibly follow from the premises.
NECESSARY ASSUMPTION - List the typical approach.
1) Identify the conclusion and the premises.
2) Think about why the conclusion doesn’t have to be true even if the premises are true.
3) Pay attention to not new concepts brought up on the conclusion but not mentioned in the stimulus. The argument has to make some kind of assumption about those new ideas.
4) Be open-minded; sometimes an argument can have many different necessary assumptions and it’s hard to predict what the correct answer will be about.
5) If you’re uncertain about an answer, apply the negation test. Does the negation of the answer make it impossible for the conclusion to follow logically from the premises? If yes, then this answer is necessary and is correct.
NECESSARY ASSUMPTION - List the answer choice tendencies.
1) Be careful about extreme answers, since they often go beyond what the argument needs to make sense. Strongly worded answers can be correct, but be careful about them.
2) Weak answers (Ex. “Some” “sometimes” “Not always”) are more likely to be correct than strong answers. When using the negation test, negating a weak statement (“som”) always produces a strong statement (“none”), and strong statements are more likely to damage the conclusion.
SUFFICIENT ASSUMPTION - TYPICAL QUESTION STEM - The conclusion of the argument follows logically if which one of the following is assumed?
CORRECT ANSWER CRITERIA - Something that, if added to the premises, would 100% guarantee the truth of the conclusion.
SUFFICIENT ASSUMPTION - List the typical approach
1) Identify the conclusion and the premises.
2) Think about why the conclusion doesn’t have to be true even if the premises are true.
3) Pay attention to new concepts brought up in the conclusion but not mentioned in the stimulus. The argument has to make some kind of assumption about those new ideas.
4) Be ready for conditional logic in the premises or conclusion. Sufficient assumption questions often involve identifying missing links between different conditional relationships.
5) If you’re stuck on an answer, ask whether that answer, combined with the premises, 100% proves the conclusion. If it doesn’t, it’s not correct.
SUFFICIENT ASSUMPTION - List the Answer Choice Tendencies
1) Be careful about picking weak answers. It’s difficult for a weakly worded answer to guarantee the truth of the conclusion.
2) Be ready to think about contrapositives - sometimes you may know what you’re looking for but the correct answer is presented in the contrapositive form.
STRENGTHEN - TYPICAL QUESTION STEM - The conclusion of the argument is strongly supported if which one of the following is assumed?
CORRECT ANSWER CRITERIA - Something that, if true, would make the conclusion more likely to follow from the premises.
STRENGTHEN - List the Typical Approach
1) Identify the conclusion and the premises.
2) Think about why the conclusion doesn’t have to be true even if the premises are true.
3) Pay attention to not new concepts brought up on the conclusion but not mentioned in the stimulus. The argument has to make some kind of assumption about those new ideas.
4) Be ready for arguments where the author tries to provide a hypothesis (causal explanation) from some phenomenon. If you see this structure, think about the alternate hypothesis.
5) Be open-minded. It’s hard to predict exactly what the correct answer will involve.
STRENGTHEN - List the Answer Choice Tendencies
1) The correct answer doesn’t need to 100% prove the conclusion. Even if it just makes the conclusion slightly more likely to follow from the premises, it can still be considered a strengthen answer. If multiple answers appear to strengthen, choose the answer that most strengths (the answer that requires the fewest, and most reasonable assumptions).
2) If the argument involves correlation to cause or explanations for a phenomenon, be ready for a correct answer that is about eliminating an alternate explanation. This isn’t always the correct answer, but it’s common on this kind of argument.
PSUEDO-SUFFICIENT ASSUMPTION - RULE. TYPICAL QUESTION STEM - Which one of the following principles, if valid, would most help to justify the argument?
CORRECT ANSWER CRITERIA - Something that, if true, would make the conclusion more likely to follow from the premises.
PSUEDO-SUFFICIENT ASSUMPTION - RULE. List the Typical Approach.
1) Identify the conclusion and the premises.
2) Identify a “premise => conclusion” bridge
PSUEDO-SUFFICIENT ASSUMPTION. List the Answer Choice Tendencies
1) The correct answer doesn’t need to 100% prove the conclusion. It just needs to provide a principle that would make the conclusion more likely to follow from the premises.
2) Be ready to think about contrapositives - the correct answer is often presented in this form.
WEAKEN - TYPICAL QUESTION STEM - Which of the following, if true, most weakens the argument?
CORRECT ANSWER CRITERIA - Something that, if true, would make the conclusion less likely to follow from the premises.
WEAKEN - List the Typical Approach.
1) Identify the conclusion and the premises
2) Think about why the conclusion doesn’t have to be true even if the premises are true.
3) Pay attention to new concepts brought up on the conclusion but not mentioned in the stimulus. The argument has to make some kind of assumption about those new ideas.
4) Be ready for arguments where the author tries to provide a hypothesis (Causal explanation) for some phenomenon. If you see this structure, think about alternate hypothesis.
5) Be open-minded. It’s hard to predict exactly hat the correct answer will involve.
WEAKEN - List the Answer Choice Tendencies
1) The correct answer doesn’t need to falsify the conclusion - even if it just makes the conclusion slightly less likely to follow from the premises, it can still be correct. If multiple answers appear to weaken, choose the answer that most weakens (the answer that requires the fewest, and most reasonable assumptions).
2) If the argument involves correlation to cause or explanations for a phenomenon, be ready for a correct answer that is about providing an alternate explanation. This isn’t always the correct answer, but it’s common on this kind of argument.
EVALUATE - TYPICAL QUESTION STEM - The answer to which one of the following questions most helps in evaluating the argument?
CORRECT ANSWER CRITERIA - A questions that, depending on how it’s answered, would either strengthen or weaken the argument.
EVALUATE - List the Typical Approach
1) Follow the same approach as for strengthen/weaken questions.
EVALUATE - List the Answer Choice Tendencies
1) The answers are usually phrased in the form of a question (Ex. “How often did the mayor meet with the contractor?”)
2) Think about what would happen to the argument if you answered the question in the most extreme way in one direction, and then the most extreme way in the opposite direction. (Ex. If the mayor met with the contractor extremely often … and if the mayor never met with the contractor?)
RESOLVE/RECONCILE/EXPLAIN - TYPICAL QUESTION STEM - Which one of the following, if true, most helps to solve the apparent discrepancy in the information above/
CORRECT ANSWER CRITERIA - Something that, if true, would help explain the apparently conflicting facts in the stimulus.
RESOLVE/RECONCILE/EXPLAIN - List the Typical Approach
1) Usually the stimulus involves an apparent contradiction or conflict.
2) Try to identify the two things that seem to conflict - why don’t these seem to go together?
RESOLVE/RECONCILE/EXPLAIN - List the Answer Choice Tendencies
1) The correct answer just needs to help provide a potential explanation that resolves the discrepancy. It’s OK for the correct answer to require a small, reasonable assumption.
2) Wrong answers will either be irrelevant or make the discrepancy more difficult to explain.
PARALLEL - TYPICAL QUESTION STEM - The reasoning in the argument above is most similar to the reasoning in which one of the following arguments?
CORRECT ANSWER CRITERIA - An argument that most closely matches the key elements of reasoning in the argument in the stimulus.
PARALLEL - List the Typical Approach
1) Identify the conclusion and premises.
2) Try to summarize the key elements of the premises and conclusion that you’re looking to match in the correct answer.
3) Be ready for conditional logic, which is common on these questions.
4) Pay attention to the strength of language in the conclusion.
PARALLEL - List the Answer Choice Tendencies
1) If you’re stuck on an answers, make sure to check whether the strength of the conclusion matches what’re looking for. (Ex. If the answer choice conclusion says “X will probably occur” but the stimulus conclusion said “X will occur” then this doesn’t matcha nd the answer is unlikely to be correct).
2) Make sure to evaluate the answers sentence by sentence. Often you don’t need to read the whole answer to see that there are parts of it that don’t match.
PARALLEL FLAW - TYPICAL QUESTION STEM - The flawed reasoning in which one of the following is most closely parallel to the flawed reasoning in the argument above?
CORRECT ANSWER CRITERIA - An argument that most closely matches the flawed reasoning in the argument in the stimulus.
PARALLEL FLAW - List the Typical Approach
1) Identify the conclusion and premises.
2) Try to identify why the argument is flawed - why doesn’t the conclusion follow from the premises?
3) Try to summarize the key elements of the premise and conclusion that you’re looking to match in the correct answer.
4) Be ready for conditional logic, which is common on these questions.
5) Pay attention to the strength of language in the conclusion.
PARALLEL FLAW - List the Answer Choice Tendencies
1) Remember that the correct answer is supposed to have the same flaw. So if the answer’s argument is valid, it’s not going to be correct.
2) If you’re stuck on an answer, make sure to check whether the strength of the conclusion matches what we’re looking for. (Ex. If the answer choice conclusion says “X will probably occur” but the stimulus conclusion said “X will occur” then this doesn’t match and the answer is unlikely to be correct.) There are notable exceptions to this for Parallel Flaw questions, but elimination based on strength of conclusion is still a good general rule of thumb.
PSUEDO-SUFFICIENT ASSUMPTION - APPLICATION. TYPICAL QUESTION STEM - Which one of the following judgments most closely conforms to the principle above?
CORRECT ANSWER CRITERIA - An argument or situation that matches one of the principles in the stimulus.
PSUEDO-SUFFICIENT ASSUMPTION - APPLICATION. List the Typical Approach
1) Understand the principle in the stimulus.
2) Often the principle will involve conditional logic. Be ready to break down the principle int “if” and “Then”
3) You may need to think about the contrapositive of the principle.
PSUEDO-SUFFICIENT ASSUMPTION - APPLICATION. List the Answer Choice Tendencies
1) Common wrong answers will involve a reversal of the conditional logic.
2) If your’e stuck, make sure to identify the answer’s conclusion and premises, and then see whether each part of the argument fits the principle. The conclusion should match up to the “then” part and the premises should match up to the “If” part.
POINT AT ISSUE - DISAGREE. TYPICAL QUESTION STEM - These statements commit Robin and Kendall to disagreeing over whether ______
CORRECT ANSWER CRITERIA - A statement that one speaker would say “Yes” to and the other speak would say “No” to.
POINT AT ISSUE - DISAGREE. List the Typical Approach
1) Break down the first person’s statement.
2) Then, break down the second person’s.
3) Think about whether they disagree about a conclusion, premise, assumption, or something else.
POINT AT ISSUE - DISAGREE. List the Answer Choice Tendencies
1) Does each person have an opinion on the answer? If not, or you don’t know, then it’s wrong.
2) The correct answer is one for which each speaker has an opinion and those opinions conflict. One person says “Yes” to the answer and the other person says “No.”
