Conditional Statements & Contrapositives

[tejinder12]

Hello! I'm completing the homework in the PowerScore Test preparation book (or the lessson book) and I'm having difficulties correctly creating the right Conditional Statements. I often mix up the sufficient and necessary term or I create a Conditional Statement for something that I shouldn't have. An example is question 22 about the universities' moral and intellectual responsbilities and how they would be living up to them if the bestselling books in the university bookstore were not frivolous like TV Today and Gossip Review. I accidently created the Conditional Statements with those two books instead of the term frivolous.


I've finished the 30 questions in the Lesson 2 homework that dealt with these concepts (pg 2-69 to 2-77) after making many mistakes and then coming back to this forum to get the correct techniques and explanations, i tried to learn what im doing wrong.

I'm just wondering where I can practice these types of Conditional Statements & Contrapositives that deal with questions directly, like setting them up properly and etc. I did the simple drills in the lesson 2 homework that came before these 30 questions but feel like they were a bit obvious and was looking for any other resources or as they say "drills" that I can use to improve my Conditional Statement & Contrapositive skills.

BTW I just started studying for the LSAT.

I was also wondering which questions Conditional Statements & Contrapositives work for. I think they work for all 3 sections if im correct? Or do they just work for Logical reasoning and games?

Thanks for your help and sorry if i didn't post it in the right place.

[Dave Killoran]

Hi T,

Thanks for the question! One of the nice things about our Forum is that many questions have come up before, and so we've had a chance to address them here and on our blog—and that makes it easy for you to get a quick start on figuring all of this out!

On this Forum, I've had discussions with a few students you might find useful:

• Avoid Real World Interpretations and Follow the Language: http://forum.powerscore.com/lsat/viewto ... p=216#p216
  
  One More Look on what Sufficient and Necessary Means (this is key so that when indicators aren't present, we know what we're doing): http://forum.powerscore.com/lsat/viewto ... 6166#p6166

On the PowerScore LSAT Blog, we've had the opportunity to write extensively about conditional reasoning, and all of those posts can be found here: http://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/topic/l ... -reasoning. There's also one specifically on the Unless Equation that you might find useful: Diagramming LSAT Conditional Statements 101: Advantages of The Unless Equation


Let's start with those and see if they help. Let us know what you think, and if those help clear things up a bit. If not, we'll go back in and dive down another layer. Thanks!

[tejinder12]

Thanks for the reply! Its an honour to be able to speak with you

I have checked out the links you recommended and will continue going through the blog!
If i have any questions i will definitely post them

[jenna_d]

Hello,

I would also like to make a related comment on this post. I have been studying for a few months now and just finished the Powerscore online class which was extremely helpful. However, I find that by far my largest weakness on practice tests so far is this one - conditional statements and contrapositives - and it is a biggie!

One of my main problems is recognizing when I should be using conditional reasoning to solve a problem and when I shouldn't. I plan to go over the section again in my books and in the bible, but I am wondering if there are any more specific or personal tips one could give for someone struggling with this problem.

Thank you!

[nicholaspavic]

Hi Jenna,

Thanks for the great question. One of the nice things about our Forum is that many questions have come up before, and so we've had a chance to address them here and on our blog—and that makes it easy for you to get a quick start on figuring all of this out! Dave Killoran has written a great blog entry about when to diagram which you might find useful:

http://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/bid/333 ... To-Diagram

On the PowerScore LSAT Blog, we've had the opportunity to write extensively about conditional reasoning, and all of those posts can be found here: http://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/topic/l ... -reasoning. There's also one specifically on the Unless Equation that you might find useful: http://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/bid/281 ... s-Equation

Let's start with those and see if they help. Let us know what you think, and if those help clear things up a bit. If not, we'll go back in and dive down another layer. Thanks!