LSAT Logical Reasoning Question Types Flashcards

Vocabulary-style flashcards covering the recognition cues, core tasks, fast approaches, common traps, and key distinctions for LSAT Logical Reasoning Question Types.

Identify the conclusion

An LSAT question type where the task is to select the claim the author is ultimately trying to establish by separating support from what it supports. Recognition cues include 'conclusion drawn', 'conclusion of the argument', and 'main point'.

Identify an entailment (implication)

An LSAT question type requiring you to find what must follow logically from the stated information or identify what conflicts with it. Recognition cues include 'properly inferred', 'must also be true', 'follows logically', and 'cannot be true'.

Infer what is most strongly supported

An LSAT question type where the task is to choose the conclusion receiving the greatest support from the passage, even if it is not strictly guaranteed. Cues include 'most strongly supported', 'most reasonably concluded', and 'most logically completes'.

Identify or infer an issue in dispute

An LSAT question type where the task is to find the statement on which two speakers hold opposing positions. Cues include 'disagree over whether', 'disagree about', and 'committed to disagreeing'.

Identify the technique

An LSAT question type requiring you to describe the method or argumentative move used by the author or speaker in abstract terms. Cues include 'argument proceeds by', 'technique of reasoning', and 'responds by doing'.

Identify the role

An LSAT question type where the task is to determine the function of a specified statement within the argument. Cues include 'plays which role', 'is used to', and 'role played by the claim'.

Identify the principle

An LSAT question type requiring you to find the general rule that underlies, describes, or justifies the reasoning. Cues include 'principle justifies', 'reasoning conforms to', and 'generalization'.

Match the structure

A parallel reasoning question type where the task is to find the argument with the exact same logical structure as the stimulus. Cues include 'most similar in reasoning', 'pattern of reasoning', and 'parallel reasoning'.

Match principles

An LSAT question type where the task is to find a situation or argument governed by the same general rule. Cues include 'conforms to the principle', 'principle underlying', and 'similar principle'.

Identify a flaw

An LSAT question type requiring you to describe the specific defect already present in the argument's reasoning. Cues include 'flawed in that', 'error of reasoning', 'vulnerable to criticism', and 'overlooks the possibility'.

Match flaws

A parallel reasoning question type requiring you to find an argument that commits the same logical error in the same structural way. Cues include 'similar flawed reasoning', 'flawed pattern', and 'parallel flaw'.

Necessary assumptions

An LSAT question type requiring you to find a claim that must be true for the argument to work. Cues include 'assumption required', 'requires assuming', 'relies on', and 'depends on'.

Sufficient assumptions

An LSAT question type where the task is to find a new premise that makes the conclusion logically guaranteed by completely closing the gap. Cues include 'conclusion follows if assumed' and 'can be properly drawn if'.

Strengthen

An LSAT question type requiring you to choose new information that makes the conclusion more likely given the premises. Cues include 'most strengthens', 'adds support', and 'supports EXCEPT'.

Weaken

An LSAT question type where the task is to choose new information that attacks the connection between support and conclusion, making the conclusion less likely. Cues include 'most weakens', 'calls into question', and 'undermines'.

Identify what is most or least helpful to know

An LSAT evaluate reasoning question type where you identify the unresolved issue whose answer would best test the argument. Cues include 'most useful to know', 'most helps evaluate', and 'least helps evaluate'.

Explain

An LSAT question type requiring you to choose a fact, cause, or hidden distinction that makes a surprising outcome, behavior, or result understandable. Cues include 'helps explain' and 'explains the failure'.

Resolve a conflict

An LSAT question type requiring you to find information that allows two apparently inconsistent facts to be true together. Cues include 'resolve the apparent conflict', 'resolve the discrepancy', and 'justify a paradoxical belief'.

Negation Test

A fast approach technique for necessary assumption questions in which you negate a candidate answer choice; if the argument collapses, that choice is required/necessary.

Variance Test

A fast approach technique for evaluate reasoning questions where you test a candidate choice with a 'yes' answer and a 'no' answer to verify if it produces opposite effects on the argument.

Necessary vs. Sufficient Assumption Distinctions

Necessary assumption claims are required for the argument to work ('depends on' / 'relies on'), whereas sufficient assumption claims make the conclusion logically guaranteed ('follows logically if assumed').

Flaw vs. Weaken Distinctions

Flaw questions describe an existing defect inside the argument, whereas weaken questions introduce a new external fact (often signaled by 'if true') that reduces support for the conclusion.

Entailment vs. Strongly Supported Distinctions

Entailment requires absolute certainty and must follow logically from the passage ('must be true'), whereas strongly supported inferences choose the safest claim with direct textual support without needing strict certainty.

Strengthen vs. Explain Distinctions

Strengthen questions improve logical support for an argument's conclusion, whereas Explain questions provide a fact or cause to account for a surprising event, behavior, or situation.

Explain vs. Resolve a Conflict Distinctions

Explain questions account for one surprising puzzle or behavior, whereas Resolve a Conflict questions reconcile a two-sided tension between two facts that seem unable to coexist.

Technique vs. Role Distinctions

Technique questions describe how the whole argument reasons or responds, whereas Role questions describe the specific functional job of one highlighted claim inside the argument.

Match Structure vs. Match Flaws Distinctions

Match Structure requires matching the overall logical pattern regardless of validity, whereas Match Flaws requires matching both the reasoning structure and the exact logical defect.