Powerscore and Cause/Effect on LSAT? Forum

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ZombiesAhead

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Powerscore and Cause/Effect on LSAT?

Post by ZombiesAhead » Tue May 18, 2010 6:19 pm

What do you guys think about the discussion of cause/effect in the Powerscore LRB? Is this helpful? It seems to me that their "central assumption of causal conclusions" confuses their own theory about the separation between cause/effect reasoning and conditional reasoning. I don't understand why we have to draw such a stark division between the two.

I've studied this so much and I'm wondering if it just confusing things at any applied level beyond a very broad conceptual learning tool... Any other test prep companies do anything like this? Is it essential or extra complication?

"...in every argument with a causal conclusion that appears on the LSAT, the speaker believes that the stated cause is in fact the only cause and all other theoretically possible causes are not, in fact, actual causes...[AC's] that otherwise appear irrelevant will suddenly be obviously correct when you understand [this] central causal assumption."

-LRB, p. 204

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suspicious android

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Re: Powerscore and Cause/Effect on LSAT?

Post by suspicious android » Tue May 18, 2010 11:12 pm

I don't have much to add, but I remember that when I was reviewing the LRB. I don't see how it's necessary to think this, it was one of a few spots in which I thought the LRB wasn't that great. I don't think of C&E arguments this way, and I usually get all LR questions right. I guess it might be a useful trick to think of it this way, but I'm not sure what the point is. However, I haven't even looked at the LRB for more than a year, so I might be remembering wrong.

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