stregnthen vs weaken Forum

[northwood]

so after going through my second timed pt, I found that I am really getting stuck on stregnthen and weaken questions. I find the conclusion and the premesises for both, and can narrow the choices down to 2, but I find myself picking the wrong answer? Can anyone please offer constructive advice?

thanks

[CurbYourEnthusiasm]

This is going to sound kind of weird, and people who have had more experience studying for the LSATs can correct me if I'm wrong, but when your down to 2, look to see which one ACTUALLY weakens/strengthens the conclusion. I like what the LR bible said. The LSAT authors can't have two weaken/strengthen answers in the answer choices, because you are then at odds of which one actually has a better effect. People could argue all day over a conundrum like that. Most likely when your down to two, one of those choices is irrelevant (and maybe your just not seeing it), or it has no effect on the argument (maybe your assuming too much).

[jwaters]

Usually when you are down to two answer choices that you really believe are correct, you are overlooking a key word that's making one of them wrong. Pay attention to qualifiers such as always, many, some, never, etc..

[yzero1]

One thing that I do when I'm down to 2 choices is re-read the stimulus closely with the goal of eliminating one answer as wrong, and then repeating for the other answer in case it doesn't work for the first. This will increase your chances of correctly identifying the key words that make the answer choices wrong while ensuring that you're not missing something important from the stimulus.