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Can someone please explain to me what this answer choice means:

Treats a sufficient condition as a necessary condition.
For some reason I can never quite mentally break this one down and it stumps me.
EX: PT 61, S4, #11

A sufficient condition for the airport being built is that the residents think it would be a good idea. The stimulus then says that the residents don't like it, so it is unlikely to be built. The argument treats the sufficient condition as a necessary condition. Just because the people don't like it doesn't mean the mayor or whoever could be like, "I'm building it anyways, #yolo". People liking it is sufficient for it getting built, but they don't have to like it for it to get built. Hope that helps.

Let's say I wanted to get to my testing center quickly.

This time, I take a helicopter and get there super fast. From that, I conclude that the only way to get to the testing center fast is by taking a helicopter. That would be taking a condition that is sufficient for getting the job done (helicopter) and making it required or necessary to get it done.

In that particular question, it says that if everyone voted for it, that would be sufficient to get it built (or something like that), but does that mean the only way it's getting built is by having everyone vote for it? Not necessarily.

You both cleared that up so much thank you!
So that answer choice is basically saying that a person is confusing something that could make something happen for something that has to make it happen.

Yup, that's the gist of it.

Actually, just to be ABSOLUTELY precise here (the LSAT does that to you lol), it's confusing something that is capable of making something happen on its own from something that is required to make that thing happen.

okaygo wrote:You both cleared that up so much thank you!
So that answer choice is basically saying that a person is confusing something that could make something happen for something that has to make it happen.

Yup. That is exactly it. In my opinion, this is the most tested concept on the test.

It definitely is. And while I always could kind of conceptualize it, I couldn't verbalize it. Thanks y'all, you two probably gained me a point!