Logical Reasoning: What the _________?
Don't let your imagination run wild while filling in the blank
Fill-in-the-blank-line-at-the-end-of-the-argument questions have been known as Inference questions delivered in a fancy package. “These,” I tell students, “ask you to find a conclusion, but don’t start thinking creatively. Your task is still to find an answer that must be true.” This is easy to grasp, since something you can infer from a premise could also be called a valid conclusion. So that was that.
But there’s a different flavor of fill-in-the-blank questions creeping into the LSAT from time-to-time! For example, on PrepTest 63, Section 1, Question 1 and PrepTest 65, Section 4, Question 15, you’re asked to fill in the blank… with something that will strengthen the argument’s conclusion. “Wait!” you’re thinking, “We don’t strengthen conclusions on Inference questions…” That’s right. In fact, on Inference questions, there is no conclusion in the stimulus–your answer could be considered the conclusion. We can think of PT63, S1, Q1 and it’s comrade on PT65, therefore, as Strengthen questions–you want to make the conclusion inferable.
How do you recognize the difference? Look in two places: (1) at the question stem–see if it references a conclusion above (as opposed to a conclusion in the answer choices), or (2) at the word(s) immediately prior to the blank. Are they “premise trigger” words? If you see a “because” or “since,” that means you’re strengthening a conclusion above.
No longer can you merely assume you’re looking for an inferable conclusion. Those days, like car phones, hotel wake-up calls, and AOL, are over.