LSAT Loophole in Logic Reasoning Answer Choices

Red Flag Answers

Dormant Conditionals

Comparatives & Absolutes

Alllllmost

Grouped Extreme

Important

Crazy Nonsense

Best Way

Opposite Claim (usually)

Grouped Opposite (sometimes)

Strong Answers

Powerful Conditionals

Stepladder Answers

Strong Answers

Provable Answers

Provable Conditionals

Weak Answers

Best Way answers

RED FLAG!

It uses the words "best way" or a Best Way keyword to indicate that something is the best way to do something.

Not powerful (we don't know why it's the best).

Not provable. (It claims something is superior to literally every option; something that is really hard to prove)

Keywords: Most effective

Most efficient

Least harmful

Least damaging

When is a "Best Way" answer okay?

When the stimulus is LITERALLY about the best way to do something

Important Answers

RED FLAG!

These identify something as "important" or an important keyword.

Not powerful (Calling something important isn't powerful; we need the FACTS for why it is).

Not provable (It's too vague to be provable! No actual definition)

Important keywords

Primary

Paramount

Imparative

Primarily

Foremost

Significant

Crucial

Pressing

Critical

Vital

When is an "Important" answer okay?

When the stimulus explicitly mentions that something IS important.

Crazy Nonsense answers

RED FLAG!

These answers have NOTHING to do with the stimulus.

They bring up something that doesn't make sense at first glance.

REMEMBER: The answer choices work for me; I do not work for them.

When could crazy nonsense be okay?

-You've gotten rid of every answer choice (consider a reset)

-It could be a weird loophole in the argument

-It could be an Omitted Option

-It's a specific example of a category from the stimulus

Grouped Extreme answers

RED FLAG!

-These focus on the most extreme part of the group discussed in the stimulus. (think "fewest", "most", "best", "most advanced")

Not powerful (Assigning a characteristic to an outlier doesn't effect the whole group)

Not provable (Provable answers find direct support in the stimulus itself)

When is grouped extreme an okay answer choice?

-When the stimulus hinges on what's mentioned in the Grouped Extreme

Alllllllmost

RED FLAG

-It's when the answer is totally right except for ONE word or phrase that derails it (think a change in identifiers like "all" to "most")

Not powerful (That one word neutralizes its power)

Not provable (It's impossible to prove that wrong word)

CHOOSE SOMETHING MEDIOCRE OVER THAT ALMOST ANSWER

Opposite Claim

RED FLAG! (...sometimes)

-It's about the opposite claim of the argument's conclusion. It negatives the stimulus' conclusion and characterizes the negation.

(ex. "The land baron should be fined" vs "Land barons should NOT be fined for mistreating their underlings")

-It's not provable (You don't have information about the world where the opposition of the conclusion is true)

-It's usually not powerful... except it CAN be on Weaken and Counter

Why can Opposite Claim answers be powerful on Weaken and Counter questions?

Opposite Claims can say that the premises lead to the opposite of the conclusion. This is helpful on Weaken and Counter questions, where we want answers that doubt the validity of the conclusion.

Dormant Conditionals

RED FLAG!

-These are answers whose conditionality is just never activated in the stimulus

Conditionals are only powerful/provable when their sufficient condition (or its contrapositive) is activated by facts in the stimulus.

These WILL NOT be right.

Comparatives & Absolutes

RED FLAG!

-Comparatives state a relative relationship between two things (X is more than Y)

-Absolutes attach an adjective to a thing (Like X is great. No mention of Y)

The red flag itself is MISMATCHING the two. Using a comparative vs an absolute (usually) or an absolute vs a comparative is just no.

They depend too much on an unknown method of comparison.

When could a Comparative Answer be powerful against an absolute stimulus?

When it's not actually an absolute as much as an implicit comparative relationship!

Strong Answers type

POWERFUL!

-Contain bold language and Certainty Power Players

They're powerful. They ask you to do BIG THINGS to the stimulus.

They ain't provable. They require a right answer to meet a burden of proof.

Strong answer key words

All

Every (time)

None

Never

Always

Only

Required

When can strong answers work on provable questions?

Necessary Assumptions answers CAN sound like strong answers... but they're just ruling out loopholes!

Stepladder answers

POWERFUL

-They outline a directly proportional relationship between two things (these boyos are powerful af)

They're very powerful. They connect two things.

They're not provable. They collapse at their endpoints (meaning their logical extremes)

Powerful conditionals

POWERFUL

-They connect premises to the conclusion or to other premises

CHOOSE THEM WHEN YOU CAN. THEY ARE GOOD.

Two ways to 'build a bridge' between the gap in the stimulus

1. Link a premise to another premise (premise 1 --> premise 2 / ~premise 2 --> ~premise 1)

2. Link a premise to the conclusion (premise --> conclusion / ~conclusion --> ~premise)

Grouped Opposite

POWERFUL

About the opposite of the group discussed in the stimulus.

They can be powerful, but mostly with CAUSAL stimuli.

They can't be provable... except with stupid simple conditionals (like "only cyprus trees have leaves" and taking the contrapositive)

Weak Answers

PROVABLE!

They contain flexible language and Possibility Power Players.

They're cautious and use words directly from the stimulus to rule out an edge case or state possibilities.

They're provable and safe. Not powerful.

Weak Answer Keywords

Could

Can

(At least) Some

(At least) One

Tend To

Not All

Varies

Usually

Possible/Possibly

Not Necessarily

Sometimes

May

Does Not Depend On

A Chance

Provable Conditionals

They read the conditional chain from the stimulus or state a necessary assumption.

Two ways to restate the stimulus in Provable Conditionals

1. Read your chain (diagram the conditional chain and the correct answer is any reading of said chain or the contrapositive)

2. State a necessary assumption (SA --> Conclusion True --> NA!)