- Wed Feb 08, 2012 6:55 pm
#3649
Assumption questions almost always have the word "assume" in the stem - "Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends," for example. These stems don't ask you to prove the argument of even to help it, just to identify something that the author must have been thinking in order to make their conclusion.
Justify questions can be written many ways - watch for phrases like "the conclusion follows logically" or "the conclusion is properly drawn." These ask you to find something that strengthens the argument 100%. You can think of it conditionally - if the Justify answer is true, then the conclusion must be true. Beware of modifiers in the stem - "which of the following does the most to justify the conclusion above" is a strengthen stem, not a justify, because it adds that "most" as a modifier.
A strengthen stem will ask you to find an answer that helps make the conclusion more likely. It might help just a little bit (like eliminating just one alternate cause from a long list of possible causes), or it might be an answer that actually justifies the conclusion, or anything in between. These stems will ask you things like "the conclusion above is made more likely if which of the following is true" or "which of the following, if true, does the most to support the argument." A strengthen answer doesn't have to prove the conclusion, and it doesn't have to be something that the author assumed, but it does have to have a positive impact on the conclusion. That is, it has to make the conclusion more likely to be correct, even if just a little bit.
Hope that helps to clarify things some!
Adam M. Tyson
PowerScore LSAT Instructor
Adam M. Tyson
PowerScore LSAT, GRE, ACT and SAT Instructor
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