Sufficient Assumption, Pseudo Assumption, Necessary Assumption, Justify the Conclusion

[cdbaker97]

Hello,

I see that different test prep companies have different names for these types of questions.

I saw that on Powerscores Podcast episode 12 Sufficient and Justify the conclusion Jon and Dave said they were essentially the same thing from my understanding. That would leave Necessary as a different type of assumption but what is pseudo assumption?

If someone could clarify this for me that would be great. Because I have a hard time with mapping in logical reasoning and justify the conclusion and the assumption questions overall and do not know what subject to study.

[Dave Killoran]

Hi C,

I think I can help here. Sufficient Assumption and Justify the Conclusion are identical. So, not just close, but the exact same thing

Assumption as we use it is sometimes called Necessary Assumption by others, but again, they are identical.

This article defines the terms and history of the above: https://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/unders ... questions/

Pseudo Assumption/Pseudo Sufficient Assumption is not a term we've ever used, but my understanding is that it refers to what PowerScore would call a Strengthen question, when the question stem specifically uses "does most to justify" or "most helps to justify" phrasing in the question stem. For what it is worth, I get the idea being driven at there, but Justification is a 100% task, and as soon as you drop down from 100% (as you would when "most" is used), then you have a plain old Strengthen question. The fact that the test makers recognized it doesn't fully justify the argument means that it is instead they know it is just a strengthener.

Note that all of these are different from Flawed Assumptions or Unwarranted Assumptions. These are assumptions the author made that wasn't actually something that could be assumed. An example would be someone watching Super Bowl 51 between the Patriots and Falcons, turning off the TV when the Falcons lead 28-3 in the 3rd quarter, and then the next day starting off a conversation with your friend and assuming the Falcons had won (they didn't, as it turned out). Starting that convo off believing the Falcons won was an unwarranted assumption.

Please let me know if that helps. Thanks!