#1 - The graphical illustrations mathematics teachers use

[LSAT2018]

Would this be a CANNOT BE TRUE question type? I sometimes get this confused MOST STRONGLY SUPPORTED AND STRENGTHEN questions so I initially thought it to be a STRENGTHEN EXCEPT type.

[Adam Tyson]

Take a look at the direction in which the information is flowing in this question, LSAT2018: the statements ABOVE provide some support for each of the FOLLOWING...

That means the stimulus is supporting the answer choices, not the other way around. That puts this question firmly in the First Family (like Must Be True questions), rather than the Second Family (where Strengthen questions live). I would classify this as a Most Strongly Supported-EXCEPT question, meaning the four wrong answers ARE supported and the correct answer is NOT supported. Pick the answer that gets no support from the facts in the stimulus (or it may be easier, as with many EXCEPT questions, to focus on eliminating the wrong answers - get rid of everything that DOES get support, and whatever is left will be the right answer).

Pay close attention to that flow of information! When the stimulus is doing something to the answers, you are mostly looking at the First Family (the Prove Family), or occasionally at the Disprove Family (those rare Cannot Be True questions). If the answers are having an impact on the stimulus, then you are looking at either the Help Family (Strengthen, Justify the Conclusion, Assumption, or Resolve the Paradox) or else the Hurt Family (Weaken).

[sdb606]

I'm under the impression that while you can't bring in new information to a MBT/MSS, the rules are relaxed if the answer choice is a conditional. If the conditional works with the information, the answer choice is correct.

I read B as a conditional. "If there exist people who are very good at manipulating symbols, they do not necessarily have to have any mathematical understanding." I don't see anything in the stimulus to disprove this.

Is the error here that B is not a conditional? Are there conditionals that don't have to use words like "if" or "when"? This is really important because I don't want to get into the habit making a wrong answer choice compatible with the stimulus by turning it into a conditional.

Would D be correct if it read, "Acquiring the ability to manipulate symbols is part of the process of learning geometry."? This makes it read more like you can't understand geometry if you don't understand manipulating symbols. This would be unsupported and therefore correct.

Learn geometry Learn to manipulate symbols

[evelineliu]

Hi there,

(B) does not have conditional reasoning. If-then is one obvious signal of conditional reasoning, but here are some others.

• To get an A+ you must study.

• Studying is necessary to get an A+.

• Only someone who studies can get an A+.

• Unless you study, you cannot get an A+.

• You will get an A+ only if you study.

(D) is wrong because it's almost a direct paraphrase of what is in the stimulus. Deleting the words "of the process" from the answer choice doesn't change the fact that (D) paraphrases the stimulus and therefore has support from the stimulus.

Hope that helps,
Eveline