What's the difference between strengthen and pseudo sufficient assumption questions? Forum

[JCDante]

I'm a little bit confused - when I see a question stem "most helps to justify", I'm thinking I need to strengthen in the sense that you do with "which one of the following offers the most support", but 7sage identifies these questions as "PSA" instead. it would certainly help if I thought of them more like sufficient assumption questions, because the near-tight straighten of the answer choices often catches me off-guard (real strengthen answers usually feel a bit weaker).

[zeglo]

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[appind]

technically there is no difference.

but usually "helps to justify" q stem is often used for arguments with conditional reasoning where the credited choice would provide one missing link that can help to justify the argument.

[Blueprint Mithun]

I'm a little bit confused - when I see a question stem "most helps to justify", I'm thinking I need to strengthen in the sense that you do with "which one of the following offers the most support", but 7sage identifies these questions as "PSA" instead. it would certainly help if I thought of them more like sufficient assumption questions, because the near-tight straighten of the answer choices often catches me off-guard (real strengthen answers usually feel a bit weaker).

As zeglo said above, these "pseudo" sufficient assumption questions are essentially the same as Strengthen questions. The question prompt is phrased that way because the correct answer won't make the argument foolproof, i.e. it won't guarantee the conclusion 100%.

You should approach these by first analyzing the argument and identifying the conclusion and premises. Consider the gap between the two - what is missing from the premises that would bridge them with the conclusion? Anticipating this missing link might lead you to the answer, and at the very least, it will set you up to focus on the most important part of the argument.

The burden of proof is lower than with a true Sufficient question, but the approach is really quite similar. Just remember that you're looking for the best answer, rather than a perfect one. Hope that helps!