LSAT LR Qualifiers

Probability

• Describes the likelihood of something occurring or being the case.

“Must,” “Certainly,” “Definitely”

• Probability qualifier

• High probability.

• Something will 100% occur.

“Likely”

• Probability qualifier

• There is a greater than 50% chance of something occurring.

• Yes is more likely than no.

• 51-100%

“Probably”

• Probability qualifier

• There is a greater than 50% chance of something occurring.

• Yes is more likely than no.

• 51-100%

Are “likely” and “probably” treated the same?

• Yes, both indicate that something has a greater than 50% chance of occurring.

• 51-100%

“possibly”

• Probability qualifier

• A mere possibility

• A weaker degree of certainty relative to “possibly”

• Above 0%.

• Maybe yes, maybe no.

Synonyms of “possibly.”

• May

• Could

“Unlikely”

• Probability qualifier

• Strong probability of something being less likely to occur.

• 0-49%

• No is more likely than yes

“Impossible”

• Probability qualifier

• There is no probability; it will not occur.

• 0%

“All”

• Quantity qualifier.

• 100

• Encompasses everything

“Most”

• Quantity qualifier.

• 51-100

• Suggests a majority of more than half

Some

• Quantity qualifier.

• At least one, possible all

• 1-100

Some are not/not all

• Quantity qualifier.

• At least one is not, possibly all are not

• 0-99

“Most are not”

• Quantity qualifier.

• The majority are not.

• 0-49

“None”

• Quantity qualifier.

• All are not

• 0