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assumption question ex1

The document provides a detailed breakdown of LSAT assumption questions, focusing on the distinction between necessary and sufficient assumptions. It explains how to identify conclusions and evidence, and how to predict assumptions based on formal logic. The text emphasizes the importance of understanding these concepts to improve LSAT test-taking skills.

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Zhou Yi
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10 views

assumption question ex1

The document provides a detailed breakdown of LSAT assumption questions, focusing on the distinction between necessary and sufficient assumptions. It explains how to identify conclusions and evidence, and how to predict assumptions based on formal logic. The text emphasizes the importance of understanding these concepts to improve LSAT test-taking skills.

Uploaded by

Zhou Yi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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BREAKING DOWN LSAT ASSUMPTION

QUESTIONS
Let’s start by identifying the conclusion and evidence to the following faux-LSAT argument-based question, and
then predict the assumption.
Go ahead and take a moment to break this example down:

First, the breakdown:


Conclusion: I can watch the movie right
now.
Evidence: The movie is three hours long,
The Sound of Music is three hours long, and I’ve been and I saved it until I could watch the whole
saving it until I could watch the whole movie with no thing.
interruptions. Thus, it must be true that I can watch the Second, the assumption:
movie right now. Assumption: I have time to watch the whole
thing right now.

NECESSITY AND SUFFICIENCY

Now, if you’ve got this far, excellent. But there is something we can do on Test Day that we could not do in the
above sample argument because we don’t have a question stem, and that is to differentiate between two
different kinds of assumption questions: necessary and sufficient.
Each of type of LSAT assumption question operates using the same basic principles, but their execution is
slightly different—and realizing the difference will make you a much stronger LSAT test-takerby giving you direct
access to the test-maker’s point of view and how they put together the Logical Reasoning section as a whole. So,
let’s give this whole situation the LSAT expert eyeball, and remember to apply these methods all the time from
here on out.

SOLVING FOR NECESSARY ASSUMPTION

If this were a necessary assumption question, the question stem would include words like “relies,” “depends,”
“requires,” etc., indicating that the answer choice MUST BE THERE for the author to draw a conclusion.
Once we break apart the argument the way we did above, we need to figure out what the author requires to draw
the conclusion. Think of the necessary assumption like this:
If the conclusion is true –> the necessary assumption must be true.
Notice that the above if/then statement is formal logic; to really destroy the LSAT, you will need to be conversant
in formal logic. Conditional logic underpins a lot of the test, so check those skills out and know them inside and
out.
Now make a prediction about what you need—just the bare minimum of what is necessary. For instance, think
about how you would answer the following question for The Sound of Music argument:

All three of those answers speak to our


prediction because they give us enough time
to watch the show. But only one of them
MUST be true: A. The only thing that has to
Which of the following assumptions does the author’s be true to draw the conclusion is that at least
argument require? three hours are open right now.
A) I have at least three hours open right now. Answer Choices: As you can see above,
B) I have four hours to kill right now. tentative wording like “at least” or “some” is
C) I always have three hours free at this time of day. preferable to extreme wording like “always,”
“never,” “must,” “will,” etc., since we are only
looking for the minimum necessary
relationship, not everything
that could happen.
Necessary assumption questions are actually
similar to inference questions, since both of
them are asking us what must be true. The difference is that inference questions are asking us to draw a correct
conclusion from given information and necessary assumptions want us to bridge a gap between given evidence
and the author’s conclusion.

SOLVING FOR SUFFICIENT ASSUMPTION

Sufficient LSAT assumption questions often involve formal logic in the stimulus, so it’s no surprise that the
question stem is also often conditional: “The conclusion above follows logically if which one of the following is
assumed?” When we don’t see any necessary indicators in an assumption question stem, we are dealing with a
sufficient assumption.
Imagine that The Sound of Music question is a sufficient assumption type. First, we should untangle the
argument, the same way we did above. If your formal logic sensors have been buzzing, it’s because “sufficient
assumption” should already be pushing us to thinking:
If the sufficient assumption is true –> the conclusion is true.
So our task is to figure out which answer choice triggers the conclusion—which could be as small as the
necessary assumption or much broader, since an extreme answer choice still guarantees the conclusion.
If we examine the answer choices from the necessary assumption version of this question:

A) I have at least three hours open right now.


B) I have four hours to kill right now.
C) I always have three hours free at this time of day.

ALL of these answers would work for a sufficient assumption question. They all trigger the conclusion that I can
watch the movie right now.
To make a prediction, keep it broad and look out for chains of conditional formal logic. Often, we see a break
between the evidence-related formal logic and the conclusion-related formal logic that needs to be bridged. Keep
in mind how these work and know how extreme these answers can get.
Though they’re bad for necessary assumption questions, extreme answer choices are actually great for
sufficiency, so target them right away. Be wary of answers outside the scope of the question and answers that
mis-translate formal logic.
Understanding how to answer sufficiency LSAT assumption questions can help you on strengthen questions as
well, as these are essentially more specific forms of sufficient assumption. The correct answer choice to a
strengthen question should trigger the conclusion.

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