Sufficient and Necessary Questions

[colinturner06]

Hello,

I wanted to ask a general question regarding the sufficient and necessary questions in the logical reasoning section. I am more of a "list" kind of learner and typically need a list to attack most questions. I was wondering if you could provide me with such a list to follow when attempting to answer these questions. For example, 1. Identify where in the premise the conditionality occurs, 2. Identify the types of reasoning, etc. etc.

I'm sorry if this is pretty broad but when I go through the chapters they seem to bunch all together so having a clear list of the steps to take for sufficient and necessary would be very beneficial to me.

Thank you

[James Finch]

Hi Colin,

I'm not sure if this is exactly what you're looking for, but I'll give it a shot. I'm assuming you're talking about Logical Reasoning questions here.

First, and this is true of all LR questions, identify the premises and conclusion (if present), and type of reasoning.

Second, and also common to all LR questions, if there is a conclusion present, test whether the argument in the stimulus is valid or not. Depending on the question type, there may be a flaw or missing premise. With conditional reasoning questions, diagram out the reasoning presented in the stimulus, including the contrapositive. This should tell you if something is missing, or if you're dealing with a Mistaken Reversal or Negation, and is usually necessary to answer Parallel Flaw questions correctly.

Now look at the question and try to prephrase, depending on question type. For example, Must Be True SN questions will typically involve an A B C chain, with the correct answer being either A C or C A. Similarly, Assumption and Justify questions often deal with missing links in the logical chain.

Only at this point should you go through the answer choices and eliminate Losers and keep your Contenders around. If you've diagrammed the stimulus's logic correctly, the correct answer should jump out to you.

Hope this helps!