Most Strengthen/Weaken: any answer that strengthens/weakens more than another? Forum

[JCDante]

Looking through Manhattan LR and the LSAT Trainer, both books dismiss a question that could possibly have multiple answers that strengthen/weaken - with the right answer depending on which one does it MOST.

But the SuperPrep book, designed by LSAC, implicitly states that one answer could theoretically strengthen/weaken more than another.

Is there a question out there that has done this? So far, I've noticed that questions usually come down to a few that do the opposite, one that doesn't relate to the question, and the correct answer that addresses what the question stem asks.

[ChillTomG]

LSAC is incredibly careful with how they word question stems. For strengthen/weaken question, they always use the superlative "most" (ie: which of the following statements, if true, MOST strengthens the argument..) because otherwise, if you could argue that in a very convoluted way, one (otherwise incorrect) answer strengthens the argument by a tiny smidge, it could be considered correct.

In practice, you see that for strengthen/weaken questions, four answer choices do (essentially) nothing to strengthen/weaken the argument while the correct answer choice does strengthen/weaken the answer choice.

I can't think of any examples off the top of my head that fit this, but if you can, feel free to share. I am sure that it would indicate that you are reading too much into the answer choices (seriously).

[appind]

Looking through Manhattan LR and the LSAT Trainer, both books dismiss a question that could possibly have multiple answers that strengthen/weaken - with the right answer depending on which one does it MOST.

But the SuperPrep book, designed by LSAC, implicitly states that one answer could theoretically strengthen/weaken more than another.

Is there a question out there that has done this? So far, I've noticed that questions usually come down to a few that do the opposite, one that doesn't relate to the question, and the correct answer that addresses what the question stem asks.

can you cite the superprep question? there is only one choice that weakens to any extent on a weaken question and strengthens to any extent on a strengthen question.

even though LSAT instructions and question stem ask you to pick the answer that is most suitable, it is only done to be extra careful so the test makers can justify the credited choice in case of dispute. but the test is designed so that there is only one choice that is suitable and the rest four are incorrect.

In practice, you see that for strengthen/weaken questions, four answer choices do (essentially) nothing to strengthen/weaken the argument while the correct answer choice does strengthen/weaken the answer choice.

[BlueprintJason]

I agree with the above posters, with a slight wrinkle. It's true for "almost all" strengthen/weaken questions that there are four answers that don't affect the support the premise/conclusion relationship (or do the opposite of what they're asking), and one that does--the correct one.

That said, I have seen one or two questions (can't remember which, but I will try to locate them if I can) where I see that one of the wrong answers ever so slightly strengthen or weakens in some crazy outlandish way. But this is a miniscule minority of these questions. For the ones I'm thinking of that fit this tiny exceptional category, it was clear that one is a massive strengthened/weakener that matched the most reasonable prediction--the credited response--and the miniscule incorrect response one did such little work on the premise/conclusion relationship to where it was not a real contender. Again though, these are some very exceptional rare birds--you should go into every one of these questions looking for one answer that does some strengthening/weakening and looking to eliminate 4 answer choices that don't affect the link between pre/con or that do the opposite of what they are asking.

Like it was stated above by other poster(s), LSAC phrases these with "most" just to cover their bases in case you find one of those one or two exceptional cases out there that breaks the mold. If they wrote, "THE answer that strengthens," then students would write to them with convoluted hypotheticals that show that an answer choice could in fact do some work on the stimulus in a parallel universe or something--these are future lawyers, no less.

That being said, if you find yourself with a situation where you feel like there are two answers that either strengthen/weaken in your prep, make sure to review them and really see why the wrong answer doesn't affect the support/conclusion relationship. These ones are THE MOST important to study. Master these, and you'll own this question type come test day.

The common error that I've seen students make with these is getting hung up on an AC that massively strengthens a premise or conclusion in isolation, but doesn't strengthen the GAP BETWEEN the two. Watch this, because the help or damage needs to be whether the answer choice being true makes it more or less likely that the premise WILL LEAD TO the conclusion.

Another common confusion is with cause/effect arguments. There are often dirty trap answer choices in str/wk with casual conclusions. If the conclusion is casual, the answer choice will typically introduce(wk) or eliminate (str) a possible (generally plausible) alternative cause or make it seem like the C/E relationship can be reversed; show that the cause occurs and the effect does not--or vice versa--in a similar case (wk); or that both the C and E occur in similar case or both DON'T occur in a similar case (str). These questions are sometimes not as intuitive as non-casual str/wk questions, so it helps to learn this pattern and may help you avoid the traps in your PTing.

Good luck!

If you see any of these where you are struggling to eliminate a trap str/wk or think there are possibly two correct answers, then feel free to come post it over in the Blueprint Extravaganza thread and I'll be happy to work through the problem for you!

HTH!

[ChillTomG]

I'd also like to point out that very occasionally, LSAC winds up "removing items from scoring" for reasons that we cannot know (because the questions are never released, even to the test takers), but it would make sense that they occasionally have more than one "correct" answer.

[JCDante]

Thanks Jason! That was very informative.

Looking through Manhattan LR and the LSAT Trainer, both books dismiss a question that could possibly have multiple answers that strengthen/weaken - with the right answer depending on which one does it MOST.

But the SuperPrep book, designed by LSAC, implicitly states that one answer could theoretically strengthen/weaken more than another.

Is there a question out there that has done this? So far, I've noticed that questions usually come down to a few that do the opposite, one that doesn't relate to the question, and the correct answer that addresses what the question stem asks.

can you cite the superprep question? there is only one choice that weakens to any extent on a weaken question and strengthens to any extent on a strengthen question.

even though LSAT instructions and question stem ask you to pick the answer that is most suitable, it is only done to be extra careful so the test makers can justify the credited choice in case of dispute. but the test is designed so that there is only one choice that is suitable and the rest four are incorrect.

In practice, you see that for strengthen/weaken questions, four answer choices do (essentially) nothing to strengthen/weaken the argument while the correct answer choice does strengthen/weaken the answer choice.

It wasn't a question in the SuperPrep books. It was just part of the informational section where LSAC explains the test in general.