Principle Questions: Conforming to OR Supporting...

[Gracejk]

Hi Team!

I notice that there are two forms of principle questions (I myself am not versed in the LSAT Bible Terminology, so bear with me as I'm using another book's terminology):

• Asked to match the example in the stimuli with the appropriate principle in the answer choices (Conform To)

• Identify a principle in the answers that most justifies the conclusion or argument in the stimulus (Supporting)

Do both forms align with Justify questions in that they ask for a 100% match (as though Must Be True), that would fill in the gap within the arguments or conclusion?

I recently heard you podcast on Justify Questions, and with such principle questions, they appear to be asking for a "fill the gap" expectation in which Justify questions demand. Would that mean that such question types are siblings to each other? If so, would the mechanist approach also apply here?

Lastly, if possible, could Dave & Jon do a podcast episode on this question type (all others have been very helpful).

Cheers,
Grace

[Dave Killoran]

Hi Grace,

There's a chapter in the LRB that covers Principle questions, so the very first thing I'll do is direct you there The gist is that Principle questions aren't a type, but instead an add-on to the main question types, so they can be any type. It simply depends on the rest of the language in the question stem. It's an advanced concept, so it may take some time to put all the pieces together.

As for other company's terminology, we don't track what others do so I can't speak to that.

We've talked about a Principle podcast before, so maybe I'll pull up our notes on that and see what we can do. Thanks very much for the suggestion!

[Gracejk]

Hi Grace,

There's a chapter in the LRB that covers Principle questions, so the very first thing I'll do is direct you there The gist is that Principle questions aren't a type, but instead an add-on to the main question types, so they can be any type. It simply depends on the rest of the language in the question stem. It's an advanced concept, so it may take some time to put all the pieces together.

As for other company's terminology, we don't track what others do so I can't speak to that.

We've talked about a Principle podcast before, so maybe I'll pull up our notes on that and see what we can do. Thanks very much for the suggestion!

Hi Dave!

Thanks so much for responding. I thought I replied back, but I hadn't hit send, haha!

I'll look into that chapter and let you know should I have more questions on it; I got your book recently, and it's really been helping me out.

I would love a podcast on that Q type! I notice that a lot of the answer choices that are attractive tend to play within the thin line between being too general & too narrow. For me, it's learning how to distinguish between both.

Cheers,
Grace