Must be True Questions Help

[Oz29xr8]

Hello I’ve been having some trouble with Must Be True and Soft Must Be True questions. I was hoping if someone can clarify some things about these questions. How do I tell if I need to diagram the stimulus to find the answer? Ive been having trouble trying to figure this out because sometimes the premises don’t look like they can be diagrammed but in the explanations I see in the forum there are diagrams for them. I know that not all of the questions need to be diagrammed but if they do then how can I find out? Also when finding the answers does the contrapositive of a diagrammed statement always make it the correct answer? Thank you.

[Dave Killoran]

Hello I’ve been having some trouble with Must Be True and Soft Must Be True questions. I was hoping if someone can clarify some things about these questions. How do I tell if I need to diagram the stimulus to find the answer? Ive been having trouble trying to figure this out because sometimes the premises don’t look like they can be diagrammed but in the explanations I see in the forum there are diagrams for them. I know that not all of the questions need to be diagrammed but if they do then how can I find out?

As you note not all questions need to be diagrammed, and in fact most do not. And really, none of them have to be diagrammed. We just use diagrams when we think they will help us process the info faster. That means some of us diagram more and some of us diagram less. Jon and I have talked about this on the PowerScore podcast a lot--he tends to diagram less than I do, but both of us are very successful in solving problems quickly because we use the approach that is best for us. So, what you want to do is find you level as to what works most comfortably for you. If that means never diagramming, that works for me.

The above aside, it's usually some clear conditional trigger that leads to a diagram, and in my case it's often when I see more than one conditional statement. Then I write them down simply because I'm lazy and don't want to have to juggle that info mentally when the written diagram will instantly show me the relationships. Study the problems with diagrams and ask yourself two things:

1. why was a diagram made?
2. would it help you to understand the problem better if you made the same diagram?

Also when finding the answers does the contrapositive of a diagrammed statement always make it the correct answer? Thank you.

In a Must question, in almost every case, the answer is yes. The exception might be if an author said something like, "the following relationship is known to be false" and then put in a conditional. And I can't think of an example of that in an LSAT question so it would clearly be quite rare for it to happen!

Thanks!