Must be true questions

[julie_kang]

Hi,

I'm using the 12 week study schedule along with all the powerscore bibles, workbooks and game type training books.

The must be true drill ,which is contained in the game type training book for LR ,and assigned after the MBT LRB chapter: I got so many of them wrong! Aren't these the easiest of all LR questions? Also, it took me forever to complete these questions in the LRTT. Ugh.

I'm chugging along according to the study schedule but experienced the same thing for the 'weaken' questions in the LRTT. Granted, there are so many questions but these took me forever to answer. I'm so embarrassed and feeling discouraged.

MY QUESTION IS: should I just stick to doing MBT drills until I finally get the right answers before moving onto the next item/topic in the study schedule? I worry that I'll get future questions wrong if I am already experiencing massive difficulty. And btw...on a side note, I am studying diligently daily 4-5 hours and take one day off weekly. What am I doing wrong? I make review notes after every chapter and still have difficulty. Is this a normal part of this process?

Help!

Thank you!
Julie

[Jonathan Evans]

Hi, Julie,

Great post and good questions. I would like to compliment you on your diligence and your dedication.

You are correct that progress and improvement on the LSAT is incremental and builds on concepts reinforced by previous lessons. However, while the concept of making a valid inference, central to Must Be True questions (among many others), is fundamental, it is not true that Must be True questions are "the easiest of all LR questions." In fact, just as with all question types, there are very straightforward Must Be True questions along with extremely challenging Must Be True questions.

I'm going to link to a post I just wrote in reply to another student's question about another Must Be True question:

PrepTest 74 - December 2014 - LSAT Answers and Explanations - LR ‹ Section 4 #7
lsat/viewtopic.php?f=477&t=12963

What I discuss at length in this reply is the concept of developing an accurate prephrase for Must Be True situations. This question is particularly good for this skill because it requires that you come up with an inference that is most strongly supported by the information in the stimulus. You have to assess the information given and come up with likely/possible connections you can make by combining the facts in the stimulus.

You have probably noticed that it is sometimes difficult to recognize the connections between statements in the stimuli for many Must Be True questions. This difficulty stems from the rather dry, noncommittal style of these stimuli. However, you still need to engage with this information. Assess the kind of facts provided (quantity statements, conditional statements, etc.). Assess degrees of likelihood. Identify concepts that appear in multiple statements.

Work on improving your prephrasing on Must Be True questions to improve your speed and accuracy. Get aggressive with process of elimination in the answer choices. Knock out the losers fast. Verify the remaining answer choice that is (likely/we hope) in sync with your prephrase and is supported by the stimulus.

Likewise with weaken questions, work on your prephrasing. Identify the kind of reasoning used in the stimulus to identify probable flaws in the reasoning. Ask yourself why you don't quite buy the conclusion. Ask yourself how it could be possible that even with the information provided in the premises you could still arrive at a different conclusion from that of the author. You may not be able to prephrase exactly what the credited response will say but you should be able to prephrase what the credited response will do: it will contain information that will make the conclusion less likely to be valid.

Repeat the conclusion to yourself after each answer choice. Does the information in this answer choice harm the conclusion? Yes, no, or maybe. Move on and repeat.

Be meticulous and diagnostic in your approach. Where exactly are you having problems? Which kinds of stimuli give you particular difficulty? With which kinds of stimuli are you having more success. Notice your strengths and weaknesses and work on making improvements both in your grasp of the necessary concepts and skills and also in your process.

[julie_kang]

Thanks so much. Appreciate the advice.