Summary
The content provides a comprehensive guide on identifying and understanding necessary assumption questions in the GRE, distinguishing them from sufficient assumption questions, and employing techniques to effectively tackle these questions.
- Necessary assumption questions require identifying something that must be true for an argument to work, unlike sufficient assumption questions which look for something that, if true, guarantees the conclusion.
- A necessary assumption is a statement that the author implicitly believes to be true but does not state explicitly, which is crucial for the argument's conclusion to logically follow from its premises.
- Two types of necessary assumptions are identified: those that bridge a gap between the premise and the conclusion, and those that block potential objections to the argument.
- The 'negation technique' is introduced as a powerful tool for determining whether a statement is a necessary assumption by considering the argument's validity if the statement were false.
- A strategic approach to tackling necessary assumption questions involves identifying the conclusion and premises, prephrasing to anticipate the assumption, and evaluating answer choices through negation.
FAQs
Necessary assumption questions require identifying something that must be true for an argument to work, unlike sufficient assumption questions which look for something that, if true, guarantees the conclusion.
What are the necessary assumption questions? ›
Necessary assumption questions ask you to determine what has to be true—but was never explicitly stated—in order for an argument to work. Stated differently, if a necessary assumption were discovered to be false, the argument would fall apart—the conclusion would not follow logically from its premises.
How to do assumption questions in LSAT? ›
So, if an answer choice just restates part of the information given, rule it out immediately. LSAT assumption questions require you to fill in the blank with something unsaid. So if you see information from the passage just stated again in an answer, you can quickly eliminate it as an answer choice.
How to solve assumption questions? ›
Some of the tips to solve statement and assumptions problems are:
- One thing to consider is that the assumption is something that the author believes is true. Therefore, keep this idea in mind while choosing the right option.
- Don't make the statement too logical.
- Don't make the statement too complicated.
- The Four Basic Assumptions.
- There is No Absolute Truth.
- All of Us Are Doing the Best We Can.
- All of Us Can Do Better, Try Harder.
- Interpret Situations In the Most Benign Way Possible.
Solving for Necessary Assumption
If this were a necessary assumption question, the question stem would include words like “relies,” “depends,” “requires,” etc., indicating that the answer choice MUST BE THERE for the author to draw a conclusion.
What is the most common question type on the LSAT? ›
The numbers show that the vast majority of LSAT Logical Reasoning question types are either Assumption, Flaw, or Inference questions. Those three types combined historically represent about 40% of all LR questions.
What is the flaw in the LSAT reasoning? ›
The flaws you'll see on the LSAT include unstated assumptions, logical errors, overly-confident deductions based on insufficient empirical evidence, and rhetorical tricks that masquerade as arguments.
Is every LSAT question worth the same? ›
Your LSAT (or LSAT-Flex) score is based on the number of questions you answered correctly — your “raw score.” All test questions are weighted exactly the same. The total number of questions you get right is what matters for your score, not which particular questions you get right or wrong.
What is an example of questioning assumptions? ›
For example, you might assume that someone is untrustworthy based on their appearance or accent, but by questioning that assumption and looking for evidence to support or refute it, you might find that your bias was unfounded.
Statement and Assumption Rules
- Assumption is always ambiguous and inherently encouraging.
- If there are words like only, all, why, what, these, but, definitely, then the assumption is always explicit or false.
- If there are notices, complaints, and advertising messages, that assumption is always accurate or implied.
The negation test is often used in Necessary Assumption questions to check answers. You can negate all the answer choices, and check them against the argument. If the argument falls apart when the negated answer is assumed, then the original answer is the necessary assumption.
What is an assumption based question? ›
Assumption questions ask you to find the unstated link between a question's premise and its conclusion.
What does it mean to make necessary assumptions? ›
Necessary assumptions can wreck an argument. First, let's understand what a necessary assumption is. It's an assumption (definition: unstated premise) that is necessary for the argument. “Necessary” here means the same thing it does when we talk about a “necessary condition” (as opposed to a “sufficient condition”).
What assumptions are needed for at test? ›
The common assumptions made when doing a t-test include those regarding the scale of measurement, random sampling, normality of data distribution, adequacy of sample size, and equality of variance in standard deviation.
